STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

First Resolutions for 2013: Get Rid of Arcane Political System and Rewrite the Archaic Constitution—Source of Our Political Dysfunction!!

Let’s get real!! Our Political System is BROKEN!!

No argument here! Congress has been the least productive body since 1947 and POTUS has bequeathed these indolent, prevaricators an increase in salary.

So incompetence is rewarded in our completely dysfunctional political system.

And what of the self-designated ELITE SENATE—useless, think tank. Lazy, incompetent—Believe me!

I have treated some of our illustrious SENATORS and even I was shocked by how little they accomplish and how inured they are to our daily existence.

Only these parasites who feed in the trough of insolence, incompetence and SOCIOPATHY [how else can you become a professional life long liar?] can justify their existence.

Translated that means only society's PARASITES —Washington Think Tanks, Lobbyists, Military Industrial Wastrels, The “Coco-Pops” Media and those sinecures called bureaucrats believe in the inevitability of our political system. To those who live outside the beltway there is a real, increasing sense that the Washington Experiment of Government has long ago expired, many times over.

Lest you think me a nihilist, then think again. I am a true son of liberty and entrepreneurship.

In that vein, I believe in the deepest part of my soul and intellect that the political system has to be abolished in the same way that the arcane document called the CONSTITUTION has become the very source of our collective discomfort.

In fact, a recent article in the NY TIMES [ Not exactly a Libertarian Paper!] by Louis Seidman, a professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University, has reinforced what I have believed for eons.

He articulates in a far more brilliant way than I that the Constitution as we, the people, know it is completely outdated and ‘down right evil..’.

Let me expand on my beliefs about this arcane piece of paper.

The Constitution was written over 225 years ago by a group of white, progressive, land rich male patricians who did not even follow their own edicts within the very agreement they had made.

In fact, we must remember, that collectively we were born out of terrorism and our founding fathers were so called terrorists.

What that means is that our own founding fathers could not agree on a piece of paper that did not suite their respective needs.
John Adams enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts which violated the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech. Thomas Jefferson [my favorite] insisted that every constitution should expire after a single generation. In fact, he admitted shamelessly that his most famous act as POTUS (the Purchase of the Louisiana Territories from Napoleon Bonaparte) far exceeded his constitutional powers.

Senators were given disproportionate powers because of the disparity in state sizes. Right now, the least populated states of Idaho, Nevada and Montana have more power than California, Texas and New York combined due to seniority rules/appointments.

And congress has become populated according to rules and dictats that have no relevance to national governance other than to the fact that congress multiplies like cockroaches for no other reason than they can. Re-districting and gerrymandering have become the shibboleths of the day without any meaning or gravitas. Just simply a mantra to which we became beholden.

Lincoln [my least favorite POTUS or film of the year] issued the Emancipation Proclamation 150 years ago as a justification for military action that allowed our country to slaughter close to one million of it’s own people. He justified the elimination of Habeas corpus, the elimination of freedom of the press and dissent by the proclamation that he had the inherent powers as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Services. But everyone, including himself, knew and conceded that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT LACKED THE CONSTITUTIONAL POWER to dissolve slavery where it already existed.

Moreover, when the reality caught up with the illegal usurpation of power, the 13^th Amendment ratification was achieved in a manner that was totally antithetical to the provisions of the constitution.

So was John Wilkes Booth wrong when he uttered the words, “Sic Semper tyrannis!” Thus always with tyrants!

Furthermore, to complicate the constitutional quagmire even further, the reconstructed legislatures of the defeated Southern States provided the crucial votes to ratify the 13 amendment!

So what was the Civil War all about?

The industrial north devouring and reconfiguring the agrarian south with their most important access to waterways like the Mississippi River, the Port of New Orleans, and let’s not forget the transcontinental railroad—east to west and north to south.

Again economics dictated the demands of an imperial nation.

I have no qualms with that explanation. And I am not for slavery but that was an issue that Lincoln never really cared about, only as it proved useful for his military rationalizations and historical destiny. Remember, he was basically a lawyer for the major railroad companies.

Then in 1937, FDR expounded extensively on his devotion to the political constraints of the constitution while threatening the Supreme Court as it stood in it’s way of expanding his New Deal and expanding Federal power.

Again in 1954 , when Justice Robert H. Jackson decided on Brown vs Board of Education, he conceded that his decision had nothing to do with the constitution but with moral and political necessity.

But back to the basic point that our constitution is no longer viable and has become the source of the political impasse and not the solution , so what do we do now?

Riot? No!

Start another Civil War? No!

It’s time for WE, The People Of The United States, to convene together another conference –virtual or not—to consider rewriting the constitution so that we no longer have disproportionate power in the senate and log jams in the house.

We live in a 21^st century world which our founding fathers could never imagined with all the amazing changes that have transpired in the past 225 years.

So an antiquated document which is really no longer relevant can be interpreted, reactivated and rationalized as a ‘living, growing document’ when in fact it is moribund and contributing to the serious malfeasance that we call the American Political System.

In fact , as I had said previously , we were born of revolution so let it be that through revolutionary ideas and attitudes can we maintain a vibrant Republic that one day-- given that formidable outreach and penetration of the internet-- that we might become truly A DEMOCRACY where no President or legislators is around to tell us one more lie that will cost us in time, money and most dearly in human bodies.

America is not a static concept. It is a vibrant experiment in which we must start again and tear up old documents and rethink our governance just like our founding fathers had done.

And maybe one day, decades from now, we can thank our Rejuvenating (republican) Mothers for having reconstructed our ossified, petrified politics and it’s moribund associates –the politicians.

Ours is a time of meritocracy and technology. Let’s combine them and see what happens. Let's get rid of the self serving politicians and elect true representatives of their constituents. Contribute to and encourage honest leaders to run for office.

To a new free experimental NEW YEAR!!!

Let me recall the words of the great Roman Statesman Seneca: "Exigua pars est vitae quam now vivimus!"

The Part of Life We Really Live Is Short!! But we must live a decent country to our children and grandchildren.
So enjoy it, my fellow, American patriots!!! Question and Challenge corrupt authority in the best way you know how.

Let’s experiment constructively in this new time and new year!!!

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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

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