politics and politicians
See other politics and politicians Articles
Title: Americans’ Loss of Citizenship
Source:
Lew Rockwell
URL Source: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/04 ... sale/answer-american-troubles/
Published: Apr 26, 2017
Author: Kirkpatrick Sale
Post Date: 2017-04-26 05:36:00 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 793
Comments: 8
Now that we see that Donald Trump is going to abandon the platform on which he won his election, and return the Republican Party to its establishmentarian—globalist, neo-conservative—ways, we are once again given proof of the fundamental loss of citizenship in this nation. The people, the supposed citizens—even those who vote—have no real influence over the candidates they put in office. It is for certain that they elected Trump with the idea that he would keep us out of foreign wars, maybe even out of NATO and Japan, that he would get rid of Obamacare (and no one said he had to fix it), that he would abolish the Ex-Im Bank, that he would in short undo the longstanding establishmentarian power that was so hated in the land. But now it seems he is dropping these sorts of things that Steve Bannon was directing him to—and maybe Bannon himself—and instead following the conventional dictates of the 3M’s—McMaster, Mattis, and Mnuchin—and his Democrat son-in-law Jared Kushner. Take that, voters! And they always do. Obama was going to usher in a post-racial America and instead provided us with more racial confrontation and tension than any time since the 1960s. And he took countless actions for which he had no mandate, acting on his own whim and egged on by the left-liberal crowd he assembled around him. He continued our futile, and expensive, involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan that the vast majority of people wanted done with, and he got us into catastrophic wars in Libya, Yemen, and Somalia all on his own without the required Congressional acts of war. He even took to sending drone strikes around the world, without any authorization, even murdering by drone an American citizen never accused or convicted of a crime–without seeking any authorization by us or our representatives. Robert Paul Wolff, a political philosopher most recently at the University of Massachusetts, analyzed it this way a few years ago: Since World War II, governments have increasingly divorced themselves from anything which could be called the will of the people. The complexity of the issues, the necessity of technical knowledge, and most important, the secrecy of everything having to do with national security, have conspired to attenuate the representative function of elected officials until a point has been reached which might be called political stewardship, or, after Plato, “elective guardianship.” . . . Men cannot meaningfully be called free if their representatives vote independently of their wishes, or when laws are passed concerning issues which they are not able to understand. Nor can men be called free who are subject to secret decisions, based on secret data, having unannounced consequences for their well-being and their very lives. The simple fact is that in a system as large as ours it is essential that the individual not have a regular voice in political affairs. To allow each of 325 million people, or even the 235 million over 18, to participate in politics in a serious way would simply be too unwieldy, too chaotic; not even the wildest of technofix schemes of telephone voting and computer tallying could solve the sheer logistical problems if every person were to behave as, for example the Greek citizen of Periclean Athens, demanding to know the issues of the day, judging them, debating them, determining which were capable of being effected and when and how and by whom. But not being able to participate has its terrible price. No wonder we feel so apathetic about voting: we cannot much change the affairs of the nation, so the meager act of voting hardly carries much weight. The percentage of voters in the U.S. is the smallest in the industrial world, only rarely above 50 per cent of eligible citizens and then only in presidential elections. Since 1972 turnout has never been above 57 per cent in presidential elections and averages about 53 per cent, and in off-year elections never above 37 per cent and averages about 35. The fact is we do not understand ourselves publicly, as public beings, as real citizens, nor could we be permitted to; we do not have public duties and public rights and public responsibilities of any meaning; there is nothing in our extended system that binds us as individuals to the public weal as there is in truly democratic societies. We have sacrificed our citizenship to bigness, slowly over the decades—more rapidly in the last half-century but still slowly enough so that we have hardly been aware that it is gone—so it is not surprising that we do not have the interests, the attitudes, of citizens. Thus we do not pay taxes voluntarily—individuals evade an estimated $500 billion and some $2 trillion income goes unreported (I.R.S. 2008 figures). We do not always support our government in time of war, and in the most recent wars not for very many years. We do not obey its laws by habit but by force, and a great many of the most highly placed people both in government and business, including even our Presidents and our representatives and the executives of the largest firms, are regularly and increasingly seen to be disobeying these laws. It is the loss of citizenship, a malaise that is poisoning our society. I do not think that any nation has long survived under such conditions. There is an alternative, of course. Scrap the nation and devolve power to the states where, in the minds of the founding fathers, it was supposed to be. Then we could be citizens again
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Deckard (#0)
What is needed is a conservative political party with a board of directors exercising quality control.
That's the Constitution Party which is excluded from the debates, the news, and the ballot. They're almost a secret. The system is rigged to preserve the D&R party monopoly. What's with the Crocodile Tears? Are you suddenly going to claim that you supported Trump,when the truth is this is a wet dream come true for you? I prefer an honest idiot to a hypocritical poser. Man UP! Admit it gives you wood to even think what you are claiming is coming true. In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.
You mean like a Politburo? No thanks,I prefer my freedom to be more free. In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.
You mean like a Politburo? No thanks,I prefer my freedom to be more free. With people such as McCain and Lindsey running as Republicans? Expel them from the Republican party and make them run as subversive Democraps.
Or even require them to register as agents of foreign governments. In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.
Nope - and I didn't support Clinton either . This is "I told you so". Nope - and I didn't support Clinton either . This is "I told you so". Ahhhh,nothing quite as hypocritical as a man without convictions criticizing the decisions of those who do man up and make choices. In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.
#2. To: rlk, *Constitution Party* (#1)
What is needed is a conservative political party with a board of directors exercising quality control.
The D&R terrorists hate us because we're free, to vote second party
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#3. To: Deckard (#0)
Now that we see that Donald Trump is going to abandon the platform on which he won his election, and return the Republican Party to its establishmentarian—globalist, neo-conservative—ways
#4. To: rlk (#1)
(Edited)
What is needed is a conservative political party with a board of directors exercising quality control.
#5. To: sneakypete (#4)
What is needed is a conservative political party with a board of directors exercising quality control.
#6. To: rlk (#5)
With people such as McCain and Lindsey running as Republicans? Expel them from the Republican party and make them run as subversive Democraps.
#7. To: sneakypete (#3)
Are you suddenly going to claim that you supported Trump...
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Those who most loudly denounce Fake News are typically those most aggressively disseminating it.
#8. To: Deckard (#7)
Are you suddenly going to claim that you supported Trump...
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]