Sunday - December 01, 2002
Irresponsible Zeus and Campaign Finance
Read Homer. That is simple enough advice for
everyone. Homer is one of the greatest writers of all time. He isn't great
because he has lasted so long, he has lasted so long because he is great. He was
studied by the Greeks of the classical era with the same devotion, or more, that
we give to Shakespeare. Students and all educated people were expected to know
his works and quote him freely. You could almost say that his writings were
treated like many people today treat the
bible.
Homer certainly included
religion in his writing. I don't pretend to understand all the nuances of
ancient Greek religions, but in Homer there is one thing that stands out to me
as being perfectly clear: The gods, being immortal and immune from any serious
personal consequences from their actions, behave arbitrarily, at times
childishly, and almost always with vanity. Men, being mortal and susceptible to
disease and injury can survive and thrive only if they use their minds to act
with intelligence and reason. Men can't know the future, therefore they must use
experience and reason to predict it.
Thus, according to Homer, men in many ways are
superior to the gods because although both have brains, the gods don't need to
use them and thus rarely do. It is long suffering men that always end up paying
the price for the whimsy of the
gods.
Likewise, congress has no
consequences for their actions and thus can behave arbitrarily. They can write
any law that they care to write, so long as the President signs off or they can
override his veto if enough of them
agree.
They can even write a law
restricting free speech. Such a law is clearly unconstitutional and will be
struck down either by the courts or more bloodily by the people, but in the
meantime the victims of this law must expend great sums of money and effort to
overcome it.
And once the courts strike
it down, congress is free to do it again. Why shouldn't they? They've struck an
expensive blow against their political rivals, they've protected their
incumbency at no cost to themselves. They can continue to drain the funds from
any people that threaten their political
power.
The checks and balances of our form of
government have worked well for a long time but are now working against the
people to inflict on us a government that no longer needs to be either
responsive to the citizens, or respectful of the
constitution.
We need a new check in
place to curb the lust for power in our political class. Our legislators need a
consequence for their unconstitutional actions. This consequence must be
personal. Legislators who vote for unconstitutional laws should be brought to
trial and made to suffer criminal penalties for their unlawful acts. Those
voting to restrict free speech, gun ownership, or other rights should be fined
and locked in a prison.
Unlike Zeus and
the other denizens of Olympus, our "masters" can be held responsible for their
whimsical and irresponsible actions. We can use our votes to bring them to heel
and throw them in jail. Then, unlike the Olympians they will be more like men
and behave with responsibility or suffer consequences.
Go Back to the Start, Do Not Collect $200 Send me your two cents
|
