Things are about to get real

[kevin kiernan]

Donald Trump is licking his chops. He has a good chance to win the Republican nomination. He knows he can beat Hillary as I do also. .Donald is in the know of people that can take Hillary And Bill out of the picture for good. The Career politicians are not privy to the same knowledge that Mr. Trump is. This is a little sample of what I mean.

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

M, fair enough.

[kevin kiernan]

The cliche "God helps those who help themselves " Is an cliche with no direction ,unless you surround it with supporting text. It can be used by evil as well as good. I do think many thieves have used it to bolster their own greed.

[M]

I really regret to have to say this, but after Super Tuesday it's time to ignore the presidential race until the main election and re-Focus our interest on the Congressional Elections as fully as is possible. It's the Congress who will determine which direction the Nation will take over the next Administration. Granted it will be easier if there is a true Conservative in the White House but the real power will be distilled in Congress.

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Congress will become the instrument to either Rubber Stamp Obama's agendas that are in place or it will be the instrument that rejects and repeals all of the crap Obama and his Congressional crony's have heaped on our heads.

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Look to the Constitution, Congress being placed in the uppermost/first position shows how the Founders thought about who should have the true power. That power has been diluted by the progressives/Elitists from the beginning. Remember when that faction wanted to make George Washington a King and themselves the House of Lords. Well they have never given up and that is self evident in the mess we find ourselves in today

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We will have to go to the mat this election, and somehow invigorate the apathetic conservative voters to get to the polls and vote. If they don't we will lose most of what is left of our Freedom and Liberty.

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Many can't see it for themselves but it's true. Think Stockholm Syndrome, or better analogy yet, a quote from Harriet Tubman "I have freed a 100 slaves. I could have freed a 1000 more if only they knew they were slaves."

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That cuts to the heart of the problem in America today. Like the prince of lies convincing people that he does not exist, so did the progressives convince Americans that the Democratic Government they created to supplant the Constitutional Republic with their ideology of a Socialist/Democracy, was a benign government that always acted on the behalf of the people.It most definitely does not!

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

M, a respectful demurral and a contrarian thought.

The Congress is comprised of politicians, none of whom are leaders, and this has largely been so since our early days.They are a feckless and spineless gaggle of clowns who embarrass themselves daily. Just tune into any hearing they stage over this and that. Most members can't even read the question on the piece of paper in front of them; written earlier by some staffer. As such, for me, having Congress determine the direction of our nation is truly frightening.

I would go in the opposite direction and concentrate more power in the Executive but w/a twist.Our Founders rejected the British Crown and their Parliamentary system but was it all bad??? If we had the mechanism of the 'vote of no confidence' in place, both Bush and Obama would have been out on their sorry asses years earlier.

Anyway, my idea is to draw power from the Executive Agencies and Department.How??? By not appointing Secretaries, which means they will be run by Civil Servants, who are not subject to the whims of Congress. Where does the oversight come from??? The trusted presidential advisers who consult daily w/these Civil Servants. In effect, control becomes direct, from POTUS. This is the case in the European Parliaments where the PM is always held accountable for the functioning/non-functioning of any government agency, as Andrea Merkel in Germany is about to sadly find out.

[M]

Thomas,

Contrariwise, A vote of no confidence comes every two years for Congress and every four years for President with six year terms for Senators. Originally the Senators were charged with representing their States and State Legislatures, not the people directly and the State Legislatures could replace them for non performance.

However, the 14th,16th and 17th amendments have removed most of the checks and balances the founders built into the Constitution. When you add in the almost complete dominance of Congress over the amendment process whereby they have engineered into existence ever more powers without checks for themselves you can see why we are at the current crossroads between Charybdis and Scylla so to speak. Unless we as a nation decide to come together with the purpose to restore the Constitutional Republic, it will be lost to us, and may never see the light of day again.

It is my considered belief that we must support and push for a States petitioned for Amendment Proposal Convention as specified in Article V or if you prefer the term COS.At the very least we must repeal the 14th,16th,and 17th amendments to restore the basic checks and balances the Founders put into the constitution which have been removed through an almost total dominance of the amendment process by Congress for Congress and the Federal Government's sole benefit. 

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

M, while I have no disagreement w/the points you raise, your 2, 4, 6 year cycle for political turnover is completely ineffective as history demonstrates. What I'm suggesting is dramatic and immediate, whereby the opposition can call for a vote of confidence in the Congress on the President, for cause.

As an example, within weeks,several German States will hold elections which the Christian Democrats are expected to lose badly. If so, a vote of confidence, already scheduled in the Bundestag, will be held within days. If the CD loses this vote, also as expected, they must resign, the government falls, Merkel is out and new national election commence in 4 weeks. Such a scenario concentrates the mind of politicians in a way that our cycle never will.

Furthermore, w/voter participation rates in Europe approaching 90%, their voters are engaged to a degree we can only fantasize about. This is because they can effect dramatic change having immediate impact while we are stuck in a time warp of political constipation.

[M]

I still prefer our system to theirs and we need to restore it to it's former condition. The foreign systems would not suit us. Correcting our system would suit us. consider this; With the modern penchant for immediate gratification among our populace in general, the system you describe would lead helter skelter to anarchy in a trice.

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

Prefer whatever you wish but that is hardly an argument favoring the status quo, which will change absolutely nothing!!!

The implication that we have the most enlightened system of governance the world has ever witnessed is embarrassing malarkey. Collectively, Greece and Rome, who gave birth to the concept of democracy and defined a republican form of governance, endured for more that 1500 years while we are a tad past 200 years.

We would do well to reflect on the ageless wisdom of the past.

[M]

Funny you should mention Greece and Rome.

The Greek Democracy broke down as all DEMOCRACY'S do when the plebes find out they can just vote themselves bread and circuses or anything for 'FREE', kinda like our welfare fiasco. The Roman democracy broke down under Caesar who like someone today decided to have his Legions cross the Rubicon and crowned himself Emperor.

Our Nation has not been a Constitutional republic since the 14th amendment was ratified at gun point through the South and twisted the Constitution into reversing the power flow from what the Founders created "The people to the states to the federal govt." into the federal govt to the states to the people. This was further enhanced by the 16th which funded the continuing growth of the federal govt. and the 17th which switched the senators allegiance from their state and state legislatures to their respective political parties and special interest groups. These are the first basics we must change, and I stress ONLY THE FIRST as there are many more to contend with. Changing these three first will give us the Moral and Legal footing to tackle the rest and just about eliminate getting any laws short of constitutional amendments reversed by SCOTUS. 

This will not happen over night and most probably will take a generation or more to accomplish. However we must start now while we still have the means and the people in general ready to start the long haul fight.

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

M, for the record, Greece's republican form of governance in its city/states faded as a result of military necessity; as Athens, Corinth, Thebes, among others, were not strong enough to withstand the rising power of an expansionist Persia. But Kingdoms such as Macedon which produced Philip and his son Alexander were. Bread and circuses, a Roman institution, had nothing to do w/it.

As for Rome, its transition from republican to oligarchic governance was driven by chronic war firstly w/Carthage and later w/the Tribes of Britannia, Dacia, Gaul,

Germania, Hispania, among others.Yet the Roman Senate endured and prospered in the Forum till the end of the Empire in 476 and always played a crucial role in Roman governance.The inference that the Roman Emperors ruled as if they were Oriental despots is complete and utter malarkey.

Our current pass has been coming since the end of the Civil War and the notion that adherence to new rules and regulations is the bromide to change our condition is, let's just say, naive. The catalyst for change emanates from attitude and behavior and w/o them, nothing changes. Additionally transformational leadership is required, which is audacious and fearless. Perhaps this is the appeal of Trump, even w/all his warts. We shall see.

My core point remains, namely, while we are being introspective we should seriously examine and evaluate other systems of governance which have been on this earth a far longer than we have. To insist otherwise is rash conceit.

[M]

Thomas,

You're making my points. Democracy can't stand for long without failing and Republics will fall to a plethora of idiotic wars. where is that divergent from what the Progressive faction has been doing with the US over the last 60 years?

[Hankelvis]

Our system is being deliberately pushed on and questioned by the propagandists in order to create opportunity for their own fiefdoms. I submit the current "failed democracy" is failure by design. While governments inevitably fail, our system, like capitalism thrives only where the majority of people and politicians are honest and the number of sanctimonious and meddling billionaires is low.