Shockingly, a Grand Jury has been impaneled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller with the grave intent of orchestrating the unseating of a president duly elected by the people.
Commentary
By Frances Rice
This is a call to action!
As explained in the below article by William Haupt, our
founding documents were crafted to insure no political force or roguish group
could usurp the people’s will.
Our nation is on the brink
of a Constitutional crisis that can be resolved only by the American people at
the ballot box in 2018, keeping Republicans in control of Congress, and 2020,
re-electing President Trump.
Write to your members of Congress now!
Let Congress know that we, the American people, will not
be swayed by a politically-motivated indictment of President Trump on “trumped
up” charges by the political class's Special Counsel, whose appointment should not have been made in
the absence of a crime having been committed and whose refusal now to recuse
himself is in violation of federal law.
Let Congress know that we, the American people, have NO CONFIDENCE IN
THE POLITICAL CLASS!!!
_____________
No confidence in the political class
By William Haupt III
There is no act
of treachery, infidelity, or avarice of which a politician is not capable; for
in politics it’s every man for himself to remain in the graces of the political
party.”
– Marty Blunt
The Articles of Confederation was a noble attempt at
creating a central government in the colonies. But it was both a blessing and a
curse.
It was a blessing that is established order but it was a curse since it
did not provide provisions for the government to govern with authority.
It was
a determent that crippled governing during the Revolutionary War.
Since the
Articles were designed to recognize a division of powers similar to the
British, it was flawed from the beginning.
There was no king in the colonies
nor was there a parliament.
Although it served as a war-time confederation to
help direct the colonies, it lacked central leadership.
As the war moved on it
was obvious this divisive chaos had to end for our nation to survive. And we
needed “change we could believe in” to make it better before it got worse.
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to
change often.”
– Winston Churchill
Once the Convention commenced, it was clear this would
not be a walk in the park. The only thing they agreed on was the necessity to
create a government that was not subject to the vagaries of regional influence
or majority dictatorship.
This opened the doors of republicanism.
Considering
the political mobocracy that took place with each changing of the guard in past
republics, they sought to avoid entrapment by creating buffers between the
government and the people.
With a House elected by the populous, a Senate by
state legislatures, and a president by a convocation of elders, they figured
they had enough detours to insure no political force or roguish group could
usurp the people’s will.
“Sometimes, simple things turn out to be the
most complex of all.”
– Harold Butler
The core idea of the Constitution was to restrain
ambition and force competing powers to make legitimate attempts at compromise
and keep the integrity of the republic in check.
The delegates felt the brand
of federalism they created was bullet proof during those patriotic times.
But
they were to find out during the 1st Congress their failure to make
constitutional provisions to hold politicians accountable to one another or us
was a serious omission.
They were forgivingly naive, putting such amatory faith
in politics.
They never envisioned two antipodal opposing political parties
hijacking the people’s government.
One that would control it and citizen
influence would be subservient to their parties.
A lesson learned the
hard way.
“Hindsight is always 20/20.”
– Billy Wilder
Our founders set fourth to develop a perfect government.
Since most came from across The Pond, they were gun-shy about mimicking the
King’s government in our constitution.
Therefore, there was no provision made
to hold politicians within the legislature accountable if they proved incapable
to govern.
Unlike England, where all government ministers, and the Prime
Minister, are accountable to all branches of the legislature with de facto
power vested in the House of Commons.
Motions of no confidence are key
components in the Westminster government that requires an executive to retain
the impudence of the House of Commons.
It is a fundamental principle that their
government must retain the confidence of the legislature to operate effectively
with majority support of the legislature.
“Reporters who brandish parliament would have
a field day if they covered Congress.”
– Litton Sidle
Since the 1st Congress when Jefferson and Hamilton
reignited the fuse of vexation, politicians have scurried to parties.
Unfortunately, our Constitution makes no provisions for a political structure
of political accountability.
So Congress formed a way to control government
with seniority rewarding through the committee system.
We continued to develop
an awkward self-policing system within the system to make a legitimate effort
to legitimize the party system.
By 1830, the party system had festered like a
bad splinter.
Politics was run by well-oiled machines.
They seemed harmless
since they helped to maintain order between competing factions and greased the
wheels to control in-party turmoil.
They vetted candidates while picking the
pockets of donors to fill their political war chests.
They formed voter groups
to bring others to the party and forged policy to promote party propaganda.
This sustained the illusion that they were doing what was best for the
populous.
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If
it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt
Hierarchical political bosses like Boss Tweed, Huey Long,
Jefferson Randolph, Soapy Smith, E. H. Crump, Richard J. Daley, Frank Hague,
Hinky Dink and Bathhouse John around the nation took control of local and
national politics.
They held the keys to the doors of government.
They
hand-picked political hacks whose feet they held to the fire through
incentives, promotions, financial contributions, pet-project spending and other
perks.
The “outsiders” were banished into the Land of Oz with the Tin Man.
And
this became the DNA of American politics.
“One of the key problems today is that
politics is such a disgrace, good people don’t go into government.”
– Donald Trump
For decades our branches of government have worked
against each other and against us.
It is a fundamental principle in parliament
that government must retain confidence to function or they can be replaced with
a no confidence vote.
Unlike Westminster that requires legislative confidence
to operate effectively, we’ve mastered the art of ineffectiveness.
We have no
authority like parliament to cast a no confidence vote.
The only confidence we
have is tremendous confidence nothing will get done each session in our
congressional houses.
British politicians are always looking over their
shoulder for ways to appease each other to insure public and legislative
confidence.
On this side of the pond, our politicians are looking over their
shoulders to make sure their party bosses are happy.
In America:
‘We hang the petty thieves and appoint the
great ones to public office.”
– Aesop
In America, the only way we can rid ourselves from
non-achieving politicians is by impeachment.
And charges against them must be
substantial.
It’s a complex and complicated process purposely devised to insure
it was not abused.
But what happens when a whole Congress is deadlocked in
incompetence?
By law, the British can put an entire body of government or
individual on notice, shaming them from office with a no confidence vote.
When
Congress continues to demonstrate no power to govern, voters publicly denounce
them and the media chastises them, expressing that they have no confidence in
them.
But this falls on deaf ears except at election time and everyone sings
‘Kumbaya’.
Then they have little or no recourse except to vote for another
hand-picked party hack.
“Politics is the art of choosing between the
disastrous and the unpalatable.”
– John Galbraith
Thomas Sowel wrote, “There are no solutions. There are
only trade-offs” in American politics.
Our political system was an
afterthought, invented as it went along without planning or conviction.
Our
founders had great faith in their fellow Americans and the future generations
to follow.
They were obviously blinded by the greatness of their patriotism and
belief.
Giving us a government of free men controlled by free men, it would be
self-policing with no need to protect us from artless party politics.
Although
we have no law that grants us or other branches of government to issue “a no
confidence vote,” we have that opportunity each Election Day.
If we don’t judge
a candidate by his character instead of his party, we have not used our “no
confidence vote” wisely.
Little confidence is as bad as no confidence.
“No matter what name we give it or how we
judge it, a candidate’s character is central to political reporting because it
is central to a citizen’s decision in voting.”
– Roger Mudd
William Haupt III is a retired
professional journalist, citizen legislator in California for 40 plus years,
and author. He got his start working to approve prop 13.
