Pedro's Podium: Power and Privilege

One of my early memories was going to a political rally with my parents. I remember hearing two adults talking about the candidate. In this conversation one person was questioning the candidate’s character. The answer to this question was basically: Hey the best thing we can do is send him to Washington where he can’t do as much harm. This statement shows some of the political naivety of the person and the times. The mid 60s was a time when few people were touched by the Federal government. It was a time when local politics outweighed those of the national government.

Today it is over 40 years later and few are as naive and believe that those in the US Congress can do little harm. With the National debt passing the $15,000,000,000,000.00 ($15 trillion) fueled even faster by the Federal Government’s takeover of the healthcare system the increasing amount of regulations that are suffocating the economy it is hard to not see that Washington is not the place to send people who are not trustworthy. As more and more power is transferred away from the state and local governments those in the new national government have set up a system of power and privilege that is unlike anything ever seen in the nation’s history.

There is a major problem with the actions of those who say they are in Washington to serve the nation. With the release of information that shows that those in Congress have abused the power given to them and now believe that they are above the code of ethics that once guided the nation. This sense of privilege to wealth and power has enriched those in power and harmed the nation. I was not surprised to see evidence that members of Congress have engaged in insider trading, been bribed with options for IPO stock, and used their power to gather wealth through means that would be illegal for anyone else. In these cases they have exempted themselves from the laws they pass. They also write their own ethics rules. Such power and privilege undermines the foundation of our republic. It is no wonder that their approval ratings are so low. Few people would ever agree that our so-called “public servants” were elected for the purpose of self enrichment.

No one is sure how deep the corruption in Washington goes. Over the years there have been too many things done the only speak to corruption so deep that it is the rule, not the exception. Over the years, more and more of the actions taken have been in direct opposition to the will of the people. It goes deeper than the passage of ObamaCare, but it is the most glaring example of imperialistic rule. It is an example of our government grabbing power with the stated idea that: Once the American people began to get the benefits it would be impossible to repeal it. They hope to corrupt the entire nation in the same way that they have been corrupted. When a national leader states openly that: “That we must pass the bill to find out what is in the bill” they no longer care about serving the public.

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The only defense to this corrupt behavior that I’ve heard was: that nothing that has been done was illegal or violated the ethics rules of Congress. Just because they exempt themselves from the same laws that the rest of America are subject to does not mean that it is moral. Just because they determine that insider trading does not violate their ethics, doesn’t mean it is not unethical. This whole affair calls back to the behavior of monarchies, dictators, and tyrants throughout history. When those who rule lookdown upon those who they are supposed to be protecting, they have lost the humanity required to govern. They seem to believe, and with some good reasons, that they can do anything. They have been able to bribe us with our own money and many of us happy with it. This is not the form of government that many of us expect. Those of us who believe that the nation was built on freedom and honest hard work want those who we send to serve to be ethical, honest, and believe in protecting our Constitutional freedoms. This is not done through insider trading, dishonest self-enrichment, and unethical behavior.

In their places of power the leadership has seemed to sell out the country to the lobbyist and the narrow special interests of those who are willing to buy the privilege. The Dodd/Franks Law was supposed to be an answer to the problems that caused the banking crisis of 2008. One of many issues with this law is the timing. Why was this bill passed before the actual issues that caused the problem were identified and understood? How did the debit card fees charged to retailer cause the near collapse of the economy? Why did it do nothing about the real problems in the banking system? Could it have something to do with the corruption of the authors of the bill? Barney Frank defended Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up to the crisis. Chris Dodd as head of the Senate Banking Committee was way to close to the problem and temptations that his position allowed. What do we not know about his involvement with the insider trading scandal? I trust neither and believe that the rush to pass this bill into law had more to do with covering tracks and less with solving problems. It only appears to be another “feel good” law that shows that they had done something. Whether it did any good or not, it made people think that the problem was solved.

Would it not have been a better solution to once again outlaw interstate banking and separate the brokers from the bankers? With the system created by the repeal of Glass/Steagall Act of 1933 in 1999 allowed banks to grow into what is now known as “too big to fail.” Instead of making a more stable banking system it has created a situation where a failure in one major market endangers the entire economy. It opened the door to the Federal government now is able to meddle in the operations of these large nation banking institutions. Leaving state regulators in less control of what should be a state’s responsibility. It also lead to the crisis of 2008 since banks were open to the bulling by groups such as ACORN as they sought approval for the mergers needed to build the nationwide banking powerhouses.

Another thing not fixed by Dodd/Franks was that they did not separate the commercial banks from the investment banks. You would think that the failure of Lehman Brothers in 2008 would have caused an honest, ethical, and sane person to reconsider the danger of combining the two types of banks. The failure of the system in 1929 and once again in 2008 should prove that the risk involved in such large organizations should be limited by limiting the scope of such failures. But since 2008 to today there are fewer banks. These banks now hold more money and are a greater danger to the security of the national banking system. By once again moving away from the too big to fail model and to smaller state based banking the Federal Government will have less say in the day to day operations of banks.

It is impossible to end all corruption, but the question remains on how we can limit the corruption in Washington and our state houses. The power and privilege of such offices presents too many temptations and a total lack of virtues, ethics, and morals seems to be the norm with many of the elder politicians. With the riches that many have amassed through various means it makes it difficult to remove many of the life time members. There is also the fact that many of those who are suspected of being corrupt have large monetary supporters outside of their districts and home states. There is also the problem of uninformed and corrupt individuals that support them. Another issue is that our elections have become the cloud of suspicion, due to the lack of voter verification imposed by the Democrat party. As long as our electoral system is suspect, then there is always the possibility that the American people no longer are in control of the nation. This truly means that the republic is dead.

I pray that it is not too late to save our nation. I see the TEA Party as a major movement that could reignite the understanding of our country and what makes it so special. My biggest fear is with the number of people who ignore and or ignorant of the dangers that face our nation. Those who are living off the corruption don’t want the people to understand or know the troubles the nation face as we go forward. They don’t want us to understand the dangers of the national debt to this generation and all of those who come after it. They tell us that they are going to fix the debt while continue to increase spending. They cut Medicare payments to shift it to a takeover of the healthcare system, and tell us that it is not a problem.

The system may be beyond salvaging but not the Constitution. We must look at our system and determine how to fix it. There have been changes to it that must be repaired. There must be an educational process to undo the lies told and the truth restored. Our founding fathers created the greatest nation on the planet. No system is perfect, but I do believe that ours is recoverable. We as a people must take back control from those who have set up a system designed to reward the powerful and privileged. As long as we have a government that places itself above the population we are no longer a nation of laws. By continuing down this road we are doomed to servitude to a tyrannical and imperial government.