June 28, 2021
Dear Fellow Patriots,
Corruption and greed are the biggest problems facing stable sustainable government. In the past four decades I’ve nearly always found myself voting for whoever was least bad. How is it that the strongest and longest lasting republic in human history does not consistently offer strong inspiring leadership to voters?! I’m sick of it.
But now we have a chance to change it all, a watershed moment in time ...
The guard is changing (if we can pull it off), but this must be no mere election. We need a purge and rebuild of D.C. as well as quite a few state governments, with a few Constitutional additions to safeguard our republic in this new "information" age.
I say both the big parties must be abandoned - the words Democrat and Republican are both tainted with long histories of despicable acts which have undermined and taken advantage of We The People, as well as the world at large. No more favoritism for big campaign contributors, and no more fabricated "national security interests" that line war-machine pockets and occupy sovereign nations without their people's consent! We have allowed our politicians to create enemies ... this is not what we stand for! Instead of hordes of others wanting to (a) come here, or (b) destroy us, we should be helping them recreate our model of success in their countries (if they request ... and yeah, maybe after we clean up our own a bit more).
Let us all become "independent" voters. The controlling elites have been using the two-party system to divide us and keep us worried about "those others", thus deflecting attention away from the real problem: themselves.
Interestingly, our 50 state governments seem to be fairing pretty well in the midst of the greatest coup ever attempted. Apparently decentralized government can be a pretty good defense against corruption. This makes sense actually - centralized systems are easy targets for a coup (name a third world country with a single controlling government ... that's right, all of them), a number of independent systems are far harder to take over. Clearly our Founding Fathers had a clue 250 years ago. And notice that it is also the decentralized crypto currencies that are proving to be the most trustworthy. Have we actually discovered a solution to inherent human greed?!
The age-old U.S. fight between federal and state governments appears to have been well worth the trouble - and we need to double down on state rights. Let us codify decentralized government, banking, finance, resource management, and control - essentially more antitrust actions leading to smaller businesses, and again re-avow limited government by decentralizing anything infested with corruption.
But we have another big problem. Our 21st century lives have become complicated. A single vote every 2-4 years for only one of two or three people is not working. There is no way we can communicate all the changes we need through such a small window.
Part of what has been lost is wisdom. Small tribes of humans seem more stable ... and that may be because tribal elders have seen more of life and understand what was best for the tribe. But General Flynn is right, large groups of people are wiser than any one person. We need to improve on this too.
I propose we vote twice in an election year - once in November like usual, where we can choose who leads us, but also a few months earlier, where we can choose the solutions we want for all the many issues we face. We would create a "people’s" platform, and then the elected politicians would be held accountable to our platform instead of theirs. No more "oh my bad, that campaign promise won't actually work haha ..."
Solutions to our issues must be well thought out. I propose we tap the resources of our still excellent educational institutions. Many of these people have spent their lives studying, often with passion, their chosen topics of interest. Let us request from them an occasional social service. Of course we must continue to guard against bribes as well as ideological subversion - perhaps with random selections of participants, and maybe even sequestering those chosen prior to finalizing solutions? Selectees should perhaps also have previously published analysis of multiple sides to an issue to prove they can be objective. I admit this area needs more work; it is still possible to corrupt a majority - just like what we have seen recently. But the result needs to be a set of multiple-choice solutions that are all reasonable (specifically NOT the referendum system in California), and free of influence by corporations, high paid lobbyists, and subversive influence.
Yes we also need broad educational reform - our institutions have become corrupt with their own thirst for money, literally inviting the subversive interests to train our most vulnerable for their own financial gain! We must further constitutionalize and update safeguards that protect the 1st Amendment, the foundation of our republic, including open communication, balanced objective thinking, and constructive political discourse throughout our society, all taught properly of course within our educational institutions from grade school on up, and with external objective critical review including reprimands for the most egregious deliberate failures to enforce this.
It has become absolutely clear that huge social media platforms must adhere to these foundations as well - or else they cannot be allowed to operate in our society. No more conflict of interests, where foreign money or capitalistic greed buys the rules or sways the algorithms. Our Constitution sets the minimum rules for their operation in our country!
Regardless of how wise we are, citizens in a democracy must have accurate and reliable information as well. Is it not clear that the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine began the demise of our news agencies?! Here once again, profits be damned! We must ignore their "whaa whaa we can't compete, regulations must be relaxed" pleas. No, if you call yourself a news agency in our land, you WILL give an honest, equitable, and balanced account of all sides of each issue, or your charter WILL be revoked! Any "entertainment" news must clearly be labeled as such. [1]
OK so let's do free speech. Ready?
Is it OK to yell “fire” in a crowded theater?
I say, in a free democracy, emphatically, YES!
Why?! Because every citizen hearing the warning ... (and someone else’s opinion is only a suggestion) must look around, check for smoke, see if there is a reaction from others in some corner of the room, ask for confirmation from others with better vantage points, and then choose a wise course of action that either helps as many people as possible exit safely, or escorts our comedian out the door!
This is not controversial! Keeping a cool head amidst danger is a skill that must be taught and learned! Skepticism of all comments must be our first reaction. All voting citizens must have critical thinking skills AND the ability to spot all forms of deception, bias, and group-think (ie. echo chambers). Once we get further past the many forms of prejudice with which we still struggle, and we can measure ourselves with confidence, then I think a "sobriety" test at the entrance to polling booths (and prior to mail-in too) is perfectly reasonable. (Yeah, we’re not there yet ... but we can get there!)
In a free democracy, the defense against subversive elements is through education, not control. Yes protection is required for minds still too young to understand and recognize subversion - but ultimately, participants in an open society must have a working understanding of all the ways societies can fail. We are the guardians of our society so let us let God guide us to a stronger, more resilient republic!