Same Song, Different Verse

I am surprised at my lack of enthusiasm over the Democrats' coup d'etat this week. Having been a life long Democrat and having basically fled the nation because it was being taken down the shitter by Shrub, the Bush family cronies (i.e., Dick Cheney, Jim Baker, and now Robert Gates), the Republicans, the Un-Christian, Christian Conservatives, and all that blindly support them without taking the time to rub two neurons together, I guess I thought there would be some sense of satisfaction.

But alas, I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. I have come to realize that the Republicans and the Democrats are so closely aligned that they are basically reading from the same script. It only seems that they are fighting over opposing positions, because that is what they want us to think. If we (the public) believe that the major parties are radically different and span the range of democratic political theory, then we are caught in an either-or position. So whereas, there will be victories and defeats for the parties, the same power structure will remain in place and the same political thinking will dominate no matter the party in charge -- that includes a big, active, expensive centralized government.

It is like two sides of the same coin. We are kept flipping the coin without asking whether the coin has any value.

My friend Andy pointed out to me one time that neither party is doing right by the US Constitution, which is absolutely true. Read our country's founding document(s). You will soon realize that what is happening is anything but what was intended. I have become a HUGE fan of the US Constitution, while living in this socialist monarchy they call New Zealand.

New Zealand has no Constitution. The claim the Treaty of Waitangi as their founding document, which I (mis)understand to be an agreement between the natives and the British invaders. While New Zealand seems committed to keeping its "deal" with the natives (and spends a damn lot of money doing so), the Treaty is not much of founding document for a democratic nation. That is one of the reasons that the Government and public opinion swings wildly here. There is no elected head of state (the Prime Minister is nominated and selected within parliament by the members of parliament), the parties are not particularly cohesive, the currency is unstable, and decisions are seemingly made on whim. Don't get me wrong, I think NZ has some things to teach the world, but democratic government theory and practice is not one of them.

All this is to say that I can see clearly now from down here how radical and miraculous our Founding Fathers and founding documents are. Now, back to the point. Why aren't we governing our country from those documents? And, why have we been sold the idea that we have to chose A or B, neither of which jibes with those documents? Well, I don't have the answer, but I imagine that money and power are at the bottom of it.

Thanks to my friend Andy, I have been looking at the Constitution Party. While there are some ideas that are just damn hard for this professed liberal Democrat to swallow, I think that they at least have a basis for some of their principles. I think the principles of the Constitution (as embodied in the people) have made this country great. Perhaps a "back to the basics" style of federal government is needed to bring to restore us to greatness. [Note: I am not one of those that think the US was better in the '50's when there were white fences, apple pies, etc. I just think that the Lady has lost some luster -- especially since I am constantly being told that it would be better if I claimed to be Canadian.]

Check out the Constitution Party with an open mind. Consider how radical their ideas seem from what we are used to. Ask why that is and whether it should be so. While I agree that the Constitution is a living and breathing document, I can tell you from my Constitutional Law studies that many of the "penumbras" that have been read into the Constitution since Griswold v. Connecticut have not been related by any detectable degree of consanguinity or affinity to the Document itself. Something to ponder?