Thursday, September 30, 2010
Date Created:Sunday,
September 05, 2010
These words and thoughts are the sole
property of Augustus Fitch III.
If you are reading them then Augustus Fitch
III sent them to you personally. If you
received them any other way, they are NOT for publication or dissemination
without the express written consent of Augustus Fitch III.
My Politics
What follows are thoughts that were stimulated, for the most
part, by newspaper articles I read in the Manchester Guardian, The New York
Times, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. The thoughts were penned during the very
early hours of the morning and are replete with grammatical, spelling and
syntax errors for which I am unapologetic.
They serve as a repository of ideas and musings to which I refer when
thinking about some political subject.
There is no questions that many, if not all, of my thoughts
are not of the mainstream. In the past,
I would have been afraid to say some of what
I really believed because of the atmosphere of political
correctness. My retired status and
advancing years have removed many of my self imposed restraints of self
expression.
SO…IF YOU ARE EMOTIONALLY CONNECTED TO CURRENT DAY POLITICAL
ISSUES AND ARE EASILY OFFENDED… READ NO FURTHER.
An Abbreviated Manifesto for America
Many will see
this as naive and/or the musings of someone out of touch with reality. Perhaps, but read and see if you don't
believe that much of what I have to offer is desirable but more than likely
impossible to pull off in our current political climate. It is hard, but not impossible.
Perhaps a phase
of isolationism for the US is in store. Not trade isolation like the ill
advised tariff issue relative to the importation of cheap tires from China.
Not what I had in
mind.
Let’s get
isolated by withdrawing all American troops from all countries to include NATO
and the UN. It is way past time that we realize we are not the planets
police force. This mission of global cop along with nation building
should be struck from our mantra. No matter how much we think our intercession
may be morally correct, the cost of such good will is now beyond our ability to
pay. Besides, when we intercede, there
is always some group that will hate us for our actions. Maintain naval
forces as necessary to keep trade routes open. If you like the way Iraq and
Afghanistan are working out, you will not like this idea.
Not just
troops... withdraw all of our contributions to foreign aid of all kinds, this
includes Israel. Stop all funding to the World Bank, NATO and the UN.
Immediately terminate all aid funding to include humanitarian aid to any
country for any reason. Use the savings to defend our southern border with
deadly force.
Foreign aid will
have only one function, to further the interest of the US. Emotionally responding to images designed to
elicit sympathy but not further the interest of the US are prohibited. If a country needs aid, let them formally and
publicly ask. Provide aid with strings attached. Any aid provided
by the US must pass both houses of Congress and be signed by the President.
This approval must be renewed EVERY year. If the world does not like
this, let them go to the EU, especially France, OPEC, the Red Crescent or
ASEAN, for their "needs". All requests for aid from Islamic
organizations must be referred to the members of OPEC whose governments are
Islamic states. Let Islamic charity begin at home. You might as well admit it,
we give out aid by the boat load and we are roundly hated for it. So if
the world wants to hate us, let's not fund that hate. Use these savings
to: create CCC/WPA type jobs if needed; fund interstate energy and
transportation infrastructure projects only.
Disband the USPS. Government bureaucracy and the postal labor
unions have created one of the most inefficient and singular business failures
in the history of this country. (Perhaps
AMTRAK could compete for that honor.) Allow UPS and FedEx to compete to
deliver all our mail. Yes it will cost more but you get what you pay for.
US efforts to
educate its young is a joke. A sad joke,
but a joke non-the-less. We spend more
on our educational systems than most western nations and do the poorest job. Unless you can convince me that the US
Department of Education and the relevant teachers unions have done anything but
protect their own jobs vice motivating and stimulating students to perform,
then this Department should be a candidate for dissolution.
Disband Fannie
May and Freddie Mac. If you put yourself underwater in a mortgage, suck
it up and go rent. Allow those institutions who purchased these loans in
bundles for the purpose of making a profit to do what happens when you do not
make a profit. You break even or you take a loss. If you did not properly capitalize your risk,
then you suck it up and file for chapter 7 or 11. That's how capitalism
works. There are winners and there are losers. No entity should be able to be classified as
too big to fail. If they are too big,
break them up as a condition of doing business in the US.
Require the US
government to approve or deny any request to build a nuclear facility within
the US within 12 months of receipt of request. If no response is received
in 12 months, the request is approved by default and can not be rescinded with out
cause. Open Yucca Mountain tomorrow. The Gulf Oil Spill
notwithstanding, open all of our potential energy sources to exploration and
exploitation while at the same time funding a dedicated project much like NASA
to discover and produce yet to be discovered or invented energy sources. In fact, can you think of a better
organization than NASA to guide and direct the efforts of thousands of
engineers to tackle such a technological feat?
Think Manhattan Project. These
sources must be able to replace, economically, all fossil fuels that we
currently use for transportation, heating, cooling, lighting and the running of
all things electric. The sooner we can
drop the mid east oil countries from our list of energy suppliers, the better.
Terminate all
nuclear treaties. Publicly announce that
the US now includes preemptive nuclear strikes as a viable diplomatic option
when threatened by another nation.
Modernize our stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
Strike from all obelisk
and tablets and modify any written document that refers to the US as anything
other than a Republic. The good guys in
1775 knew that a Democracy is doomed to ultimate failure. They correctly feared the tyranny of the
majority over the inalienable rights of the minority. In 1789 Madison stated: "The tyranny of the legislatures is the most formidable
dread at present, and will be for long years. That of the executive will come
it’s turn, but it will be at a remote period." They viewed our inalienable rights as
documented and protected through a charter which is our Bill of Rights and our
Constitution.
The Congress may only pass a balanced budget. Work off the deficit in 50 years max. Start with Social Security Benefits, MediCare
and MediCaid as the place where the most savings can be derived. Restore the Social Security Fund to its pre
1965 status and never allow taxes designated specifically for singular purposes
to be placed into the general treasury.
The next budget year the government should cut spending in every
government agency by 8%. There are NO
exceptions to this rule. Spending is
spending and there shall be no differentiation between discretionary and
non-discretionary spending.
It seems obvious to me that the planet, in regards to standards of
living and job creation, is a zero sum game. If the citizens of India, China or
any other third world or developing nation is taking business away from the US,
its because they do it better and cheaper than we do. Yes, there are unfair trade practices by many
of our trading partners, but that notwithstanding, if Mr. Lin of China makes
widgets at a price that the US can not match, his standard of living is going
to go up. When Mr. Lin has a better
life, he does so at the expense of Mr. Smith, a union member in good
standing. Mr. Smith is or will be
feeling the impact of a better off Mr. Lin as a result of the global
economy. If Mr. Smith and/or the US is
going to compete in this global economy, Mr. Smith is going to have to take a
cut in pay and benefits or go without a job and live off his fellow tax paying
citizens. It will not take his fellow
citizens long to tire of this unfair redistribution of wealth.
No executive branch department, czar, or any other entity of the
President's administration may, without specific Congressional approval, compel
any citizen or business entity to pay a fee or tax to further the ideology or
policies of the administration.
Example: The EPA, at the
direction of the President, levies a "tax" on the carbon foot print
of a business like a fossil fuel burning power plant.
No rider, codicil, or proposed legislation may be attached to any
authorization bill for any reason. No
exceptions. Ear marks are prohibited.
The list is
endless and can only be achieved by executing the following:
Replace every
senator and house representative with part time politicians who can serve only
ONE term as a senator or representative. Do this by holding a shackled
constitutional convention to consider amending the constitution to change term
limits for our representatives as well as limit the spending by and the growth
of our government. See http://www.10amendments.org/ for
details.
If I were king for a day, my term
limits ideas would be as follows:
The Supremes may serve for 20
years or the age of 70 which ever comes first.
At the end of their term, they get the standard GS retirement and
healthcare packages. They can not work
for a firm that directly or indirectly does business with the US Government for
five years after their term is up.
The term limit for the
President stays the same except he will not get a pension or medical benefit at
the end of his term. He will continue to
get SS protection.
The terms for a Senator or a
Congressman/woman would be one six year term for each. No benefits on completion of their terms
other than that of any other GS employee who worked for the government for six
years. They have the same employment
restrictions as do the Supremes. It
would be my hope that we would have amateur politicians. If they all had the same heart and concern
for the US as Jimmy Stewart did in "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington",
that's all right by me. “The country
bumpkin come to Washington” would have a hard time making more of a mess of the
nation than the current crop of "Best and Brightest" have done to
date. Skeptics will ask…”What kind of
person of quality would run for office under these conditions?” The answer is…a person who wants to serve his
country and then go back home to his former life. If the last 200 plus years have not taught us
anything, they have proved the saying of Lord Acton in 1883 "Power tends to
corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always
bad men."
Just think, Smith comes to
Washington and the first concern he will have is where is the toilet. He will
not need to ask how I am going to raise/steal $10,000 a week for my next
election. There is nothing he needs from
a pundit or lobby person other than to help to write legislation that he is
interested in. With the exception of a
criminal bribe, the incredible corruption associated with political financing
would be substantially reduced if not eliminated. Best of all, there would be no demagogues
filling the President of the Senate and the Chairperson of the House, or any
other party hack who got to where they are by seniority and guile. Finally, if Mr. Smith is confronted with a
moral question that puts his state in competition with the nation, he can vote
his heart and not worry about his action impacting his next term.
English is the language of
the United States of America. If you
conduct business of any kind, deal with a city, county, state or federal
agency, you will do so in English only.
If you find this too burdensome, then return to the land that speaks
your language. See if you can find a
phone recording in France that says, “Press 1 for French or 2 for Spanish/English/German/Russian/Farsi/Arabic”. Additionally, English is the language of
aviation world wide, English is the language of diplomacy regardless of what
the French may say, English is the primary language of Science and
Mathematics. Our Bill of Rights,
Declaration of Independence and Constitution were all written in English. The English language is as much a partner for
this nation's culture and the preservation of natural wonders as to be
expected. There is no politically
correct method to wash Babcock, my brother out of my hair.
There will be no references
made to hyphenated Americans. If you are
a citizen of this Union, you will be called an American regardless of race,
color, creed, religion, gender, national origin, culture or sexual preference.
If you are here illegally, then
neither you nor any member of your family may receive benefits of any kind from
any organization that is funded directly or indirectly by the taxes of legal
American citizens. Your children born in
the country while you are here illegally will not automatically become US citizens. You may not work in this country if you are
here illegally. Farmers are going to
have to figure out how to harvest their crops without criminals doing the
work. If you are apprehended by law
enforcement, you will be deported to your home country regardless of your
family status at the time and regardless of how long you have lived in this
country. These are the standards of most
of the world’s nations. Think the US is
tough, try France or more improbable, Mexico.
WOW! Who is
this red neck boob. What an insensitive,
and uninformed view of US and world conditions. Perhaps, but how do you
like the job the Best and Brightest are doing? With tongue in cheek, only
mildly, how about prohibiting graduates of Yale, Harvard, Columbia University,
Stanford and Chicago business schools from holding jobs on Wall Street and in
banks dealing in derivatives. Fat chance, but is it totally crazy? If that rule was in place from 2004 to 2008
would we still have had the economic turndown we experienced? Stay tuned.
If you find the
time, I would welcome your efforts to rationally pick apart my ideas. The position that any or all of these ideas
is not politically doable is a non starter.
When I share these thoughts with my peers, I am inundated with reasons
why none of this will work. Mostly I
hear...the guys/gals in the Congress will never go for any of this. They may be right! But we will never know unless we try. ANYTHING is possible with a new Congress and
term limits. It would also be refreshing
if, during your retort, you avoid any use of the words, Democrat, Republican,
Tea Party, Clinton, Bush, Biden, Reid, Pelosi, Rove or Gore. Name calling is a no-no.
Respectfully,
Gus Fitch
186 Long Shadow
Dr.
Aiken, SC 29803
803-649-6466
