Conservative Dilemma With an Honorable Solution
Often, people's decision on which party to support comes early in life. For others the decision does not come until well into adulthood. Sadly, I know people today who are still uncertain of their political affiliation; just "going with the flow" from election to election hoping for the best and longing for their candidate to be the one to accomplish as many of their "wish list" items as possible.
When President Bush leaves office, our nation will have experienced almost a decade of the conservative approach to government: A decade arguably of turmoil, disingenuous promises, and some failed programs. If anything, we as citizens and voters have become further removed, ignored, if you will, from having any voice or influence on government priorities and subsequent activities.
The days of taking a hard line conservative position on defending the administration's major policies and actions against criticism are fading. In addition, the rationale for doing so is becoming baseless and futile from the voter's point of view. As much as we want and feel driven to preserve conservative reins over government, we appear to be fighting a losing battle. What disturbs me the most about this is that our government is not addressing what so many of us conservatives want: to restore balance, stability, and accountability, and reinstating government that is OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people.
There is a spectrum of conservative thought and affiliation, which ranges widely from what some term RINO, (Republican in name only) to the opposite extreme. I find, as a Conservative somewhere in the middle, that I am unable to find valid and meaningful arguments to support either the influence of huge individual, special interest, and corporate campaign donations or, the concessions that those contributions appear to "buy".
Introduction and passage of legislative bills that are overweight with pork projects and spending have become the norm. Promises of reduced Health Care costs are a "smoke and mirror" ploy as evidenced by ever their continual inflation. Some eighteen million Illegal Immigrants are in this country. Homeland Security
is a major concern to most citizens even still despite pledges to make us safe. Only a sharp government pencil shows a slight rise in Employment although, other relevant factors are not included in the calculation in order to improve on the statistics. We are falling further behind with Educational results in some areas. Tax Reform is sorely needed, yet no viable plan with wide acceptance has been presented. And Poverty is at an intolerable level.
Government has become complacent. Senior politicians have become so pre-occupied with procuring campaign donations that they have forsaken the very voting constituents who elected them. It is time for the voters to reclaim the government they deserve. The first step in that process is to begin voting out the incumbents who have already shown that they are not acting on our behalf. This will not produce overnight results. But, over the course of a few election cycles, there is great promise. Success relies upon newly elected politicians realizing the sincerity and resolve of the voter. When politicians realize that the voting "Big Brother is watching", their agenda will assume the shape of the voter's agenda.
VOID - Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy is organized for the purpose of promoting and supporting government reform. Reinstating voters as an integral component of politics and government is among our highest priorities. I was asked recently by a Conservative associate "Do I have to give up being a Conservative to join the VOID movement"? Absolutely not!
VOID is not a political party nor do we support one. We are dedicated voters from many parties intent on changing government toward addressing the people's interests instead of the incumbent's career and donor's interests. If voters cut incumbent's careers short, their replacements will put the people's interests first. Almost all politicians dream of reelection. If reelection depends upon solving this nation's problems and representing the people's big issues, the American people will once again enjoy a government of, by, and for them.
Comments
Great article !
How true. I was a good, loyal, steadfast, brainwashed Republican. That's because my family was. They now understand why I am no longer, and are being won over to the idea of VOIDnow.org .
Ain't that the truth !
If there's one thing Congress should put on their ToDo list, it should be a new law/amendment that imposes ONLY ONE PURPOSE PER BILL. There can be multiple items, but they should be related. That would cut down on the 10,000 page bills, laden with pork-barrel and graft, that obscure and hide the reasons why anyone voted for or against the BILL. It's a simple thing to do, immediately, that would create much needed transparency.
Yes, it does have great promise, and it's the right, simple, responsible thing to do.
We can not afford to resign to futility, complacency, and apathy any longer.
We can not afford to repeat history.
We do not have to keep doing it the hard way.
We have to hope that it is possible for The People to overcome their apathy, complacency, and the petty partisan warfare fueled by irresponsible incumbents that use it do distract The People from the fact that incumbents are failing us, and we, The People, need to do the responsible thing too, to make the incumbents responsible and accountable too.
Posted by: d.a.n | November 11, 2005 11:19 AM
You should post this on watchblog.
Posted by: Ron Brown | November 11, 2005 4:32 PM
Ron, we have a VOID article coming onto WB in the next week or so. That base will be covered. We are about to launch our first small internet publicity blitz. More details shortly.
Posted by: David R. Remer | November 11, 2005 5:30 PM
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I agree. But, perhaps there's a better way. I'm not sure I want government meddling in Health Care.
Perhaps there's a third way. Perhaps
insurance companies and the government are two middle-men in the system that should be eliminated?
And, if government had any participation, it would be to only ensure transparency.
Have you ever thought about the millions of people that work in the medical insurance business ?
Do you think they’re really providing you a necessary service?
Think again. Why pay all of these people unnecessarily?
Why not pay medical providers directly?
PROBLEM:
Government and insurance companies set up a system with themselves as middlemen, resulting in:
[X] skyrocketing costs;
[X] increasing medical insurance premiums;
[X] increasing malpractice insurance for health providers;
[X] increased taxes;
[X] institutionalized medical fraud;
[X] proliferation of fraud, and ridiculously high, multi-million dollar judgements (making the ambulence chasing lawyers rich mostly);
[X] an over-complicated system, confused by too many parties with conflicts of interest;
[X] insurance companies making medical decisions instead of your doctors;
[X] medical care quality becoming increasingly unreliable and expensive;
[X] complicated billing
[X] ALL attempts to control costs have failed, since government or insurance companies are the guarantors of final payment.
SOLUTION:
Direct pay medcial FUND PLAN:
(1) administered by the healthcare providers themselves,
(2) that eliminates all reliance on either the government or insurance companies (middlemen) between health providers and patients,
(3) and eliminates insurance company bean-counters from making medical decisions;
(4) will help control costs, since government and insurance companies are not the guarantors of final payment,
(5) simplified billing
(6) will reduce fraud because there will no longer be an ignorant and indifferent middleman that doesn’t care about fraud, and merely raise insurance premiums or raise taxes;
CONCLUSION:
(1) Get rid of the middlemen (government and insurance companies). They only screw up almost everything they touch.
(2) People pay directly into a medical fund that must be managed by the medical providers themselves, by people with medical knowledge and backgrounds (instead of being hired away by an insurance company to validate services and costs).
(3) It won’t solve everything, but it would be a big step in the right direction. What we’re doing now isn’t working, is it ?
What do you think ?
Posted by: d.a.n | November 12, 2005 9:58 AM
Steve,
Great article! It might be difficult convincing our fellow conservatives that, while "our side" has been winning lately, the true losers are We the People. I know it was a hard lesson for me to learn. There was so much hope, so much promise that we'd finally get the results we were looking for with the current government make-up, but sadly that has not been the case. We're thrown meaningless and some times destructive tokens, while the real power still rests in the hands of special interest groups who don't really seem to care about the good of our country.
It's time conservatives stood up for those values that really matter! Conserve our nation first, OR ELSE..!
Posted by: Stephanie | November 13, 2005 10:02 AM
Yes,
And, I think Steve really agrees, ... it is high time conservatives, liberals, etc. all take off their partisan blinders, and do the smart responsible thing to make government responsible too, or we can all take another trip down memory lane, and learn the painful way (again). It's not a matter of IF. It's just a matter of WHEN.
The People have the choice. Our job, should we agree to accept this mission, is to persuade The People that they must do what is in their best interest, and in the best interest of the nation.
And, if we don't, the nation will self destruct in 30 seconds (OK...a bit of Mission Impossible humor). : )
But, the ramifications are truly more serious than some think. We really can choose to learn the hard way (again), or we can do what we were supposed to be doing all along, vote out irresponsible, bought-and-paid-for incumbents that don't care about The People, can continue to ignore these mounting problems that grow worse in severity and number as government continues to grow to nightmare proportions.
What do you thing ?
Where is this headed ?
Can you afford to gamble that it's going to all work itself out ?
Posted by: d.a.n | November 13, 2005 8:37 PM
There is one consolation about the democracy we have at the moment. Every election, we get to choose who will use and abuse us.
: )
Think about all the different parties, different platforms, different philosophies.
Why is it that they can not even join to solve the problems which the majority agrees upon?
What's standing in the way of that?
The country is more divided over a few disagreements, than united on the many things they agree upon.
And who fuels that divisiveness?
Could divisiveness be a clever tactic used to keep a majority from ever existing to oust the incumbents?
Is what we've been doing working? And, why is it no third parties or independents can get a foot hold in government? Could it be, in some cases, that they are being blocked by the incumbents? How many hoops do they have to jump through to just get on a ballot? Participate in a debate with the two main party candidates? There's something very undemocratic about that. Why shouldn't the voters have more choices? Why is it they feel like it is futile to vote except for incumbents? That's what gives rise to corruption, abuse, graft, and lazy government. If they spend all their time raising campaign money, and answering only to the big money donors that bought-and-paid for them, what good are they?
Likewise, I'll be disappointed if all 3rd parties and independents miss this opportunity (and the and by virtue of the growing anti-incumbent sentiment) to all share the same message.
How many third parties and independents have incumbents in the federal House or Senate or Executive Branch ?
There are millions in America that are tired of the status quo, and they're also tired of the Americans that won't take off their partisan blinders long enough to see that the incumbents are failing us, and threatening our future.
Posted by: d.a.n | November 14, 2005 3:44 PM
The incumbents have done a very good job in securing their positions, but they forgot one key factor. No matter how much gerrymandering they do, their seats are dependent on the votes of the people. To displace the incumbents who, as a whole, abuse their power, all we have to do is vote them out. It's that simple.
Now, the difficulty lies in assisting the American people to realize they have this power. The incumbents can't take that away, not and retain even the pretext of democracy. All we have to do is use the power that's been ours all along.
VOTE THEM OUT!!!
Posted by: Stephanie | November 15, 2005 12:32 AM
It is one of the best kept secrets of all time.
This is the last thing incumbents want The People to discover.
That's why incumbents cleverly seduce voters into petty partisan warfare...get them to take sides, distract them from substantive issues, and keep a majority from even existing to hold them responsible and accountable.
The irony of it all, it what we're recommending is merely what The People can and should do. It is what we're supposed to do, when government fails us. It's not merely because The People are consistently always bad judges of character. It's not The People's fault that it doesn't seem to matter who we vote for.
Unfortunately, we somehow forgot a very simple thing, and allowed ourselves to be became divided by two main parties that are blocking access to more choices. Third parties and independents should be angry about this.
Why are they not allowed to participate in national debates? Who makes up these rules? Why weren't Nader and Badnarik allowed to participate in the debates?
But, I understand the difficulty of overcoming deeply ingrained mind-sets.
Perhaps if The People knew of all the many ways incumbents are rigging and manipulating the system and the voters, then maybe they would be more likely to remove their partisan blinders long enough to hear the many benefits and reasons
Posted by: d.a.n | November 15, 2005 1:00 PM