The Sage Observer

What Are We Going to Do?

          When you read our Declaration of Independence; when you read the Preamble to our Constitution; when you read our Constitution; and then, when you read the amendments, including our bill of rights, to our Constitution; how can you doubt, as President Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg in November of 1863, “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom–and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”. From all that has gone before, how can we doubt that? And yet, despite all we have sacrificed and endured throughout the history of our great nation and all the blood which has been shed by our valiant soldiers on the battlefields here and abroad, we the people have effectively lost control of our government. Our government is no longer “of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Rather, our government is of the power elite (essentially, the top one percent of us), by the power elite, and for the power elite. Extending their tentacles, acting through the media and those whom we term lobbyists, they have brainwashed us with misinformation and propaganda and bought out our elected representatives to such an extent that we the people no longer have control of our government. Our great nation has become their playground and we are slowly but surely becoming their serfs.

Probably the final nail in our coffin was in the form of Citizens United v. FEC, when the U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-4 margin ruled that corporations have the right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcome of elections. Effectively, the Court ruled that corporations have the right of free speech, the same as people. Corporations are people. How many people outside of those belonging to the one percent do you know who can stand up to that kind of political power? The net result is that our elected representatives pay little or no attention to us. We the people are no longer in charge. As I said before, our government is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

What are we going to do? How can our people take back our government? Just for starters, we need new amendments to the Constitution:

We need corporations to remain legal entities. However, we must amend the Constitution to the effect that corporations are not people; and, therefore, do not enjoy the benefit of our bill of rights. They do not have the right of free speech.

We must amend the Constitution to the effect that all elections will be publicly funded from the public treasury, Federal, State, and Local, with caps per campaign to be set for all expenditures; no candidate will be allowed to use his or her personal assets nor those of family to finance campaigns; no candidate will be allowed to solicit or accept outside contributions other than those provided from the public treasury; and all campaigns will be limited to six (6) months duration. Separate “standalone” funds will be established for each elections entity to account for all campaign transactions and financed by single fully identifiable tax assessments “earmarked” for each entry, i.e. strict accounting control.

In the conduct of all elections within our nation (Federal, State, and Local), through another amendment to the Constitution, we need to establish fair and consistent voting laws throughout, wherein all candidates and parties are treated equal and have equal opportunity under the law. Multiple political parties should be allowed with equal opportunity upon which to be voted.

We should reorganize our government into four branches, adding a “Branch of the Controller”, with the complete responsibility for accounting, control, reporting, budgeting and planning, internal auditing, and investigative reporting over all operations, including subcontractors and the capital police, throughout government. To those opposed to bigger government, I must emphasize that this change should not and must not increase the size of government one twit. Every function indicated in this recommendation is being performed currently throughout our government. This recommendation will put all these functions under one head, thereby eliminating duplication of functions and costs as well as (currently a problem), the fox guarding the henhouse. I further recommend that the head of this new branch of government be appointed by the President, approved by the Senate, and serve an indefinite term, renewable every eight years. If he would be willing to accept the offer, I recommend we begin with General David Walker who is intimately familiar with the inter-working of our government and of excellent character. He should be given all authority and power necessary to successfully implement and execute the responsibility of this position.

Let us take back our government folks. Let’s get business and government back to serving the people rather than the people serving them. It’s up to you. Only if we work together can we achieve this end. What do you think?

Ronald Miller

mtss86@bellsouth.net