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Money can't buy you Legacy [1]

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Date: 2023-03-22

Remember, Remember the Vth of November...

Whether we like it or not (and we are being incessantly told that we don’t) Article V is looking more and more like a real possibility as time winds forward. As of this writing, 19 of 34 required states have passed the proposal. We’re being told to be afraid of this process because we can’t trust the lawmakers to act like grownups when that number comes up. While it is true that there has never been one before it is a plain assertion that this is because “there’s just too much at stake.”

It is far more likely that this obscure option has never before seemed necessary to invoke. We have just been through the most massive wave of unrest ever witnessed in the United States outside of the Civil War. There are so many issues facing the nation that seem untouchable after decades of complaint and no action. Congress has been in political deadlock due to the effects of the Two-Party System: a mad world in which it is in the interest of neither party should some dog-whistle issue be resolved.

America simply can’t afford a “system” in which each generation faces new problems; and all the old ones our parents never addressed.

Many of these inherited issues could be the subject of debate were an Article V Convention called. It would take a Constitutional Amendment to deal with some of these issues permanently and effectively. Instead of trying to fight the wave, it is now time for every American to start calling upon legislators to address the right issues and for the right reasons — and to see this thing as the type of summit America needs for the health of the country.

Many of these good people have been hard at work for America for decades or more. They come from every state and almost every conceivable background. I am persuaded that if they come together in the end in a spirit of democracy representative of this great Republic they can and will tackle these very tough, bipartisan issues that continue to drag our political processes into the gutter.

We have one shot at this.

I say to you, America: now is our finest hour and it always has been. There is more to us than street violence and planned political theatre. There is more to us than broken windows and promises. We the People do not pass up opportunity when it knocks so boldly on our doors carrying pamphlets and promises of a smaller government that would interfere less in our general affairs and operate [prepare your smelling salts] in the black.

Once upon a time a lady firebrand stood on a stage and told us a story about a future in which Fossil Fuel Independence was a real possibility. It may have taken an act of God and Congress but I say to you today that we have that chance right now in front of us. It starts with accepting a reality in which all work that can be done from a home computer should be done from a home computer — without a single drop of gasoline spilled.

Mr. Musk may not recall that this was once a goal, for some reason… but we certainly can drive home the point by creating substantial tax incentives for corporations that meet specific targets in these areas — getting millions of cars off the road at up to several hours per day. This also takes the burden down on our infrastructure and creates economic breathing room for states and cities.

I remember also a much younger Mr. Trump — a man dedicated to the truth about the American economy that no one else was willing to speak at the time. I remember a man that spoke about public perception; and how the numbers were not as important as how the talking heads interpreted the numbers in the daily broadcasts. I remember a tough but square businessman that had the best interests of America’s business community in mind with every word that came out of his mouth.

If it is to be Mr. Trump back in the Whitehouse for another round (and would that really be so bad?) then I hope that it is that man we see standing there to be sworn in on that day. I can’t think of a better negotiator under the circumstances given that he is the first true populist candidate to have taken the White House since Andrew Jackson:

“Every good citizen makes his country's honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.”

Like Jackson he’s gotten little enough thanks for it; but isn’t all of this really just the much-needed wake-up call that America has been waiting for? Isn’t it time to put these petty differences aside for the moment and do what is not only sensible but morally right?

Give me no pundits; I demand politicians! I demand a round of clean debates and clear goals and honest intentions. I most certainly do expect that the people we are hiring to run this place will put the needs of America before any other concern, for to do otherwise from a position of any high office would be treason. Let us support our allies abroad for we must do so; but let us first reach up and put on our own masks when the plane is going down or we will be of no use to that passenger sitting next to us.

Article V could be the disaster that you dream or it could be the very remedy it was intended to be when the thing was written. Since there is nothing preventing Congress from proposing and debating amendments by the ordinary means at the same time, perhaps in the end the regular barrage claiming that there are no limits whatever on what could come out of an Article V Convention is indeed the truth; and our expert Mr. Kelly is in error.

The People might indeed finally get the government to do that which we prefer and not only use Article V to act to end overreaches of power at the federal level. While it is true that the Federal Government is unlikely to act to restrict its own power it is also true that we want that same government to take some actions that benefit all Americans collectively versus entities that have become state-like in power.

I stood on the National Mall for the “Rally to Restore Sanity” and I saw the city filled to bursting with the bodies of those average Americans prepared to do whatever it took to put an end to the hyper-polarization that had gripped the nation. Mr. Stewart knew exactly what was going on, and that somewhere in a crowd of that many politically-engaged Americans (200,000? are you kidding me...) there had to be that one wide-eyed kid to whom this quote most certainly applied:

“We know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together,” he said. “And sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the promised land. Sometimes it’s just New Jersey. But we do it anyway, together.”

Let there now be a time of cooler heads and good law-making in answer to the efforts that all of us —whether Kekistani or Misogynist; Bible Owner or [REDACTED] — have made out there on the streets together.

[END]
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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/3/22/2159724/-Money-can-t-buy-you-Legacy

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