On Astroturf, Intimidation, and Encouragement... Keep your Eyes on the Prize

by Jeff Abler - Aug. 8, 2009

I don't want you to get me wrong. I do think Nationalized Healthcare and Cap and Trade are extremely important issues, and that when voted in, they will monumentally diminish our freedom, way of life, and economy. But, I want to encourage you to not let all of the commotion about these issues, the lies, the intimidation, and the violence, directed towards us by the political leadership currently in the majority, distract us from the even bigger picture (our real purpose – the prize we seek). It would be easy to allow the heightened anger to drive us to retaliation in similarly dishonorable and violent means. It would also be easy to allow ourselves to feel discouraged when they force through passage of both of these bills against unprecedented public opposition (they have the votes and they will pass them regardless of the will of the people or the cost – they have already stated this frankly and demonstrated it with the house vote on Cap and Trade). As big as these battles are, we are after something much bigger. As easy as it would be to be discouraged by these apparent set backs, we should be invigorated by the insight and knowledge that these same extreme actions (which they will tout as victories) will in the end be the tipping point of their own undoing. It is these extreme and desperate actions on their part that provide us the path to our prize.

We understand the prize. We understand the barrier they have constructed between us and the prize. We understand what our achievement of the prize means to them. Thus, we understand and are not surprised by the lies, intimidation, and desperation. One year ago, many of us (myself included) did not understand the prize. It is a prize that many of us thought we already held. Six months ago, while many of us (myself included) were just starting to understand the prize, conventional wisdom had us skeptical that the prize was possible to achieve. Our prize is something that almost every politician currently considers absurd. Our prize is something that the majority of the country considers noble and desirable, but a fantasy impossible to achieve. While our understanding of the prize and vision of what it will take to obtain it has been growing rapidly over recent months, we were still very far away from what it will take to obtain the prize. But alas, the reigning administration's reckless pursuits and arrogant desperation is accelerating the portion of our efforts that have lagged our will.

In accord with its arrogance, this administration promotes the misconception that they are our target. Meanwhile, their long-established adversary sits quietly by, extremely frightened, hesitantly relieved that their proclaimed foe has engaged and attacked us, hoping that we will forgo our greater ambitions and become consumed by the battle with the arrogant, wishing that the recent accusations of their foe towards us were true, that we were part of a cunning plan on their part, and that our focus was simply the demise of their foe. But, that is why the minority leadership is so frightened and silent with the turn of events. They know they did not produce us (except by their selfishness, intoxication with power, and lack of defense of our constitution), they know that they do not direct us, and they recognize that they are also a barrier between us and the prize we seek.

That brings us to the heart of the travesty that has us so motivated. Through a century of manipulation and progression, our two major political parties have been infiltrated and distorted into warped ideology that has enabled and fostered the evolution into a system of legalized blatant corruption. Within the bounds of this system, those who hold what were once our most esteemed posts of honor, now audaciously sell off our individual liberties for the maintenance and extension of their own personal wealth and power and that of the lobbyists and special interest groups with whom they are allied. Interwoven with this insidious allegiance, a parallel evolution occurred in our fiscal policy, monetary system, and tax system that now places us on a brink of extreme economic crisis. The manipulation and complication of these systems has served the perpetrators well in that they provided them the means to exchange with each other the wealth and assets they extract from the productive portion of society, while masking the extent of this looting through inflationary monetary policy and deficit spending. While doing so, they have somehow managed to permeate conventional thought with absurd fiscal reasoning and practice, promoting the notion that debt is good, saving is bad, and fiscal recklessness will now be rewarded at the expense of those who have been fiscally responsible. While these two transformed and corrupt parties have been complicit in this deviation from our nation's charter, they have disguised this evil which they share under the notion that they are opposing forces. By instilling a bipolar political mindset where they pretend to be far different from one another and squabble over issues that are far less important than the basic and fundamental workings of government which they have corrupted, they not only keep the most important issues from ever being discussed, but also deceive the majority of the electorate into believing that they are opposing forces that span the spectrum of political thought (when nothing could be further from the truth).

Recognition of this now leads us to state the prize. The prize is the restoration of government in the form of a republic that represents the people, representatives that honor and follow our constitution, and the return of the liberty and prosperity that follows from the proper exercise of this proven course.

Ah, but how can we dare to think that this prize can be achieved? It would require having a majority of elected officials that are willing to vote away some of their control, power, means of wealth siphoning, and re-election advantage. I am continually reminded by skeptics that we could never make this happen. A small part of me used to think that maybe they were probably right. But now, I have seen the reaction to our efforts thus far. I have seen the fear and lies masked in arrogance and anger. I have seen the reckless desperation that is obvious to all but those unwilling to let go of the arrogance. I have seen the shameless attack by the mighty against the common man. I have viewed it together with the entire nation, and I understand he will only arrogantly escalate his attack because he has no alternative and he knows no other way. This abuse will become so blatant that it will become obvious to all, and it will provide to us that which we otherwise were slow in producing.

I see it as three things we must continue to do to achieve our prize.

1. The first of these we have done well to this point and will continue. It is to educate ourselves, talk with one another, share our ideas and insights, and provide one another with the recognition that we are not alone. We must continue to study and discuss our Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers, their insights, intents, methods, and values. We must continue to study and discuss the history of what has gone on in the centuries since our nation's founding. Everything I have written here is a product of this process. One year ago, I had little to no knowledge of any of the issues about which I am writing today. I had no interest in becoming involved or active in any open political discourse. I have now lost count of the number of books I have read in the last six months and the number of conversations I have had with like-minded concerned citizens. I now realize that issues that used to strike me as being too complex and unmanageable are unnecessarily so with their complexity intentionally imposed to hide true intentions and justify a need for legislative manipulation. Our study and discourse leads us to recognize that while the issues have been made complicated, the solutions are simple. It is an educated electorate that the leaders of our political parties fear the most. It is us they now fear the most.
2. The second of these is one where we have made some notable progress, but is the area where we have not been able to generate it at a fast enough rate. It is to grow our numbers to a point where the majority of the electorate recognizes the absurdity, corruption, and lack of regard for the will of the people, and is in passionate agreement with us. It is in this area where the recent flurry of legislative intimidation is providing a catalyst that is allowing us to gain ground at a rate we were not able to achieve without this assistance. We recognize that the attacks will intensify. Just for writing this, my family and I are likely to be targeted for attacks and intimidation. While we don't relish this, we become strengthened by the understanding that the more intense and blatant their attack on us becomes, the more they will be unmasked , and the more quickly people will disassociate themselves from the tyrannical orchestrator of the attack and will recognize the merits of our plight. So, what must we do to insure success on this item? We must continue to peacefully and intelligently speak our mind. We must continue to call and write our representatives and senators. We must continue to insist that they hold town hall meetings to discuss our concerns with the proposed legislation. We must attend those town hall meetings, or find other ways to publicly voice our concerns. We do these things not because we think we will change enough minds of legislators to keep the bills from passing. We do these things because we know that the angry and violent attacks against peaceful concerned citizens will further expose the lies and deceit and will continue to wake up otherwise indifferent people.
3. The third of these is one where our progress thus far has been respectably modest, but it is one that will build from the acceleration of the second item. We must find candidates who agree with us to run in the primaries of both parties for every seat that is up for re-election. One of the most interesting things to come from our meetings and gatherings is the realization of how much we all agree on these basic fundamental ideas despite the diversity in past and present political affiliations. Amazingly, we have found that the issues where opinions diverge are issues of secondary importance that we naturally do not even bother to discuss. These lesser issues are the issues which have been used by political leadership and the media to present the illusion that there is significant distinction between the Republican and Democratic parties. We recognize that the choices they give us on the issues that do matter most are choices that miss the mark altogether. Should it be the financial industry or the auto industry that receives more bailout money? Which approach to “stimulus” should we take – the one where we print money and mail checks, or the one where we print money and spend it on mandated minimal value projects? Should our children's money be spent on pork projects and programs that benefit the contributors to the campaigns of the Republicans or the Democrats? The resolution of these non-choices gets determined not by what is healthy for our country, but by who contributed the most campaign dollars and what will create the greatest political advantage. Even worse, they completely ignore the real fundamental problems and do not acknowledge their existence. Those of us who bring the fundamental issues forward are discredited by both sides as being ignorant. This is not the way these parties have always been, and this is not the way that they should be. We must find candidates who don't want this to be the way. We must find candidates who seek our prize.
   

After discussing these very things at one of our meet-ups, one of my neighbors sharing these values and desires, but tempered by years of involvement in state politics, cautioned me that while this vision is noble and right, it is unrealistic given the political power structure within our state. He counseled that in one of the parties, no candidate could ever win a primary without the blessing of a certain party leader who holds the reigns to all funding and support structures. We have seen that even an incumbent within the party can be forced out of running for re-election if he doesn't march step for step with the bidding of this leader, and will be replaced by someone who will. He counseled that in the other party, a representative's last name will far outweigh his lack of integrity, and the dishonor he does to the principles of his father. The twisting of his party's values since the time of his father will be ignored because the name and power he wields is too great to be contested. He counseled that without millions in financial backing and the support structure that comes with the preordained candidacy, no other candidate will have a chance in the primary. While it is important to recognize this reality, it is this reality that is the very reason we must take on this challenge. Once again, it is the nature of this travesty that will be the perpetrator's undoing. It will provide our strength, and will allow the perceived impossibility to come to fruition.

The prize we seek is built upon fundamental truth, and the barriers to it are built on a network of deception. That is why we will succeed. Things without substance and truth supporting them will not stand the test of time. Their constructors will have to keep adding to the complexity and absurdity in order to mask the reality and ineffectiveness in what they are doing. The absurdity will become more and more apparent. Eventually, the structure must topple. While the achievement of the prize is an ambitious goal, and one which will require significant effort and hardship, this hardship is tiny in comparison to that which faced our founding fathers centuries ago as they were seeking the same prize. They did so with no precedent. They had to create and define a prize never before experienced in history, and never before tested. They did so under risk of life, while facing the most powerful empire of the day. They provided our prize as the foundation of this nation. Our task is not to generate a new prize, it is simply to reclaim the one that they provided to us.

Jeff Abler (Aug. 8, 2009) -
common citizen, husband, father, engineer by profession, amateur patriot by necessity