The last few years have turned the USA upside-down, wrong-side out and ass-backwards. We’ve seen the crazies on both the left and right coming out of the woodwork. Every wacky conspiracy theory imaginable has been tossed out to be batted about on social media and reported on by the news. The People are bleeding money. The government is sucking up our money like a monstrous vacuum cleaner and doling it out to all the wrong people. Where / when / how does it stop?

Please allow me to remind the fringe loonies of a few basic tenets of what makes America the great nation she is (or was), and what in my humble opinion needs to change:

• America is a representative republic. We hire, via voting, people to represent our interests. They are beholden to us as our employees. America was never meant to have a ruling class (Pelosi, Schumer, the Obamas, the Kennedys etc).
• Our lives are our own. Both the far left and far right would give power over us to an overreaching federal government. The left’s version of said government would be a Marxist nightmare. The right’s version would be an equally nightmarish Christian theocracy.
• It is not the business of government to know how much money I earn, keep or spend. It is not the business of government to know the worth of my home and / or property. Where and how I live is my solely my concern.
• Government should not be taking a chunk of my paycheck before I ever see it. It’s not the government’s money – it’s mine. I worked for it. All income taxes should be abolished and replaced with a consumption tax.
• It is not the business of government to know how many, if any, guns I own. They don’t need to know how much ammo I have or if I own a suppressor, scope, a full-auto weapon or night vision equipment. The Right To Keep and Bear Arms shall not be infringed.
• The government does not own the rainwater that falls on my property. It is not their concern how (if at all) I manage said water. If I wish to catch and store run-off in barrels, that’s my business, not theirs.
• The government should have no say in whom we can marry as long as both parties are of age and willing participants. Gender, race, age difference etc are irrelevant.
• It is the responsibility of government to protect us from bigotry, rather than sanctioning bigotry by a select group (you know who you are).
• Government is required by the Constitution to remain neutral on all religious beliefs and to protect and enforce the principles of Freedom Of and From Religion for all citizens.
• It is the job of government to build and maintain a system of roads. It’s their job to maintain a strong military for our defense. It’s their job to create and maintain a system of laws for the protection of the citizens and to enforce the limitations upon government provided in our Constitution.

But wait a minute. That last one presents a problem that the Founding Fathers apparently did not anticipate. Government must be self-limiting. When legislators of average means become millionaires while in office, we should all be smelling a rat. Our government, especially Congress and the Judiciary, have become the best that money can buy. They’ve turned Lady Justice into a crack whore.

Wealth and power, or rather the love of it and desire for it lie at the core of America’s troubles.

America is for sale to the highest bidder. Rank and file Americans have little hope of stemming the tide. Our public sector is bought and sold by lobbying groups that often represent powerful corporate interests. And those corporate interests are quite often controlled by foreign entities that are not concerned with America’s best interests. The far left and far right each point fingers of blame at each other strictly to deflect blame from themselves. Both are guilty. Neither gives a shit about you or me.

What can we do? I have no idea, except that we need new blood in Washington. We need people who have not been bought by corporate or foreign interests. And we need term limits to kick’em out of office before they become some CEO’s personal puppet. But will that ever happen? How do we get politicians to vote themselves out of a job?

I have no idea.

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PS: Don’t start with me about whether America was ever “great.” I never said we were perfect. Yes, slavery once existed in America. But we changed that. Yes, women and minorities once had fewer rights than white guys like me. We fixed that, too. Is there a better place to call home than the USA? That’s entirely subjective and depends upon what you want. If you don’t like it here you can always move to China or Iran. Or maybe Sentinel Island.