Sweet liberty

Accrual of influence is axiomatically accompanied by corrosion of character. Like an alcoholic who started with just having a good time but ends in desperate need for one more drink, Power hungry men often start with good intentions but end in manic need to gain more and more power. Purported good results could never justify questionable tactics but, when the sought end is power itself really-bad-things become the means.

Consider the life of David, King of Israel, man after God’s own heart, warrior, statesman, poet. By almost any measure a good man. Even this flower of mankind came in time to believe his own press and decided that when the neighboring countries came out to war he was above field commanding and so he stayed home. This is, of course, about the famous story of David and Bathsheba but let’s remember that the first problem was that, having accrued immense influence he succumbed to pride. He believed that the rules were for the people, his subjects. The rules didn’t apply to someone as cool as King David. Other people had a rule that said don’t covet your neighbor’s wife. David had only to send for Bathsheba and he could have anything he wanted. The pregnancy and attempted cover up show the first cracks in the suave façade of Goliath’s Bane. When Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, turned out to be twice the man David was, David had him killed. David killed him but, not with his own hand. No, in the sneaky manner of the powerful he arranged for Uriah to have an unfortunate accident. That this accident took the lives of eighteen other men was unfortunate but at least the job got done. The cover up of adultery took nineteen lives but what are peasants lives compared to a monarch’s reputation? Remember, this was done by one of the best men who ever lived. Power corrupts.

Consider what might not happen when unabashedly selfish powerholics need the resources of a nation to carry forward schemes of unholy alliance between political and commercial interest. The lives of servicemen are no object, the lives of civilians are similarly expendable, as long as the job gets done and others take the blame. We have been far too tolerant, far too pollyanish in dealing with our elected officials. It is time to call a spade a spade. Healthcare reform, cap and trade, bailouts, everything proposed by the current administration is as naked a power grab as the policies enacted by the previous administration. That’s right, no mercy for the R’s. The war on terror, department of homeland security, warrantless wiretaps, immigration policy, Faustian deals with global energy corporations and much more have little or nothing to do with helping the American people and almost everything to do with providing a fix for power hungry weasels who never waste a good catastrophe.

It is past time to wake up. Our country is stolen. Arguing about Dems vs. Repubs is worse than rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. If we are to establish a country of liberty and democracy it must start with us. It must start with skepticism and a refusal to allow public servants to use public weal for lining the pockets of corporations. No more bailouts. Enact Term limits. No voting on legislation until the exact text of a bill is public knowledge. No sneaky last minute changes.

Finally, I personally vote only for third party candidates, Libertarian, Constitution Party, Independent, Green, what-have-you but, no Ds or Rs. I encourage you to consider doing likewise. It is voting for the lesser of two evils that has got us here. We need to become, once again, a voting public that cares more about principles and less about winning. After all, if you sacrifice your principles to win, did you really win?