PRINCIPLED WORDS TO LIVE BY

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”

"Ask not what your country can do for you-- ask what you can do for your country"

President
John F. Kennedy

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.

From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.”

President
Ronald Reagan

 “It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more “manhood” to abide by thought out principles rather than blind reflex.  Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in the muscles and an immature mind.”

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Edmund Burke

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the uneven division of blessings, while the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal division of misery.”

Sir Winston Churchill

”To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.”

Confucius

”A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”

Dwight David Eisenhower

”Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”

Albert Einstein

”I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things.”

Benjamin Franklin

”For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ”

Matthew 16:26

”Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Proverbs 29:18

”As a rule of thumb, Congressional legislation that is bipartisan is usually twice as bad as legislation that is partisan.”

Thomas Sowell

”There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation. ”

Herbert Spencer

”We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles.”

Mark Twain

A SIMPLE GRASSROOTS PLAN TO RESTORE AND REVIVE A BROKEN CONGRESS BY INDIVIDUAL AMERICANS WHO WANT WHAT IS BEST FOR THE FINANCIAL FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY

    As we begin our discussion of the plan; one disclaimer: if you are a politician, lobbyist, unthinking partisan, or one of the nineteen percent of Americans that still think Congress is doing a good job, stop reading now. There is no sense in dragging the horse to water when you already know he won’t drink. If however, you are one of the 74% of Americans who disapprove of the job that Congress is doing read on.
    For the purposes of our discussion of the plan the terms "Congress” and “Washington” are interchangeable and encompass both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Please take the time to read the entire plan and the FAQ's at the end.  The plan, as you will see, is a non-partisan one and as such will probably be viewed skeptically by many of you with strong political world views. That is OK. Be skeptical but also be open-minded. New paradigms often take some time to be analyzed and put into perspective by thoughtful people. If after consideration you become convinced that the plan will work all you need to do is put it into action, YOUR ACTION. There is no organization to join, no dues to be paid, no paperwork to be filled out, and no pledge of allegiance to be recited. Nobody is going to ask you to change or compromise your political affiliations or world view. As the Nike commercial succinctly states, "Just Do It!”

Now on to the plan:

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”

President
Abraham Lincoln

   2008 News Flash: Congress (Washington) is broken! Both 2008 Presidential candidates are on record as saying so along with multitudes of their fellow Congressmen and women on both sides of the political aisle. You cannot solve a problem until you are willing to admit one exists. Most Washington politicians and 74 percent of their constituents now admit Congress is broken. The reasons for the breakdown are many; too much money, special interests, partisan rancor, institutional corruption, and a narcissistic culture of greed, arrogance, condescension, and stupidity to name just a few. In the interest of brevity we will only discuss three of the reasons but the plan will address all the reasons that have caused a broken Congress. 
   One of many reasons that Congress is broken has to do with MONEY. Washington is awash in money and almost all Congressmen and women spend an inordinate amount of time pursuing and accumulating the green for their reelection efforts often to the detriment of their constituents.  MONEY is the mead of national politics. MONEY is power. Power (MONEY) corrupts. Absolute power (unlimited MONEY) corrupts absolutely. 
  Another of many reasons that Congress is broken is SPECIAL INTERESTS.   Thousands of SPECIAL INTEREST (lobbyists) minions swarm the capitol every minute of every day like the zombie cast of "Night of the Living Dead".  All of them have MONEY (power) or represent those who do. All of them are there for one purpose: to drain every bit of Congressional influence members have in exchange for MONEY (power). 
    More insidious than MONEY or SPECIAL INTERESTS is the INSTITUTIONAL and CULTURAL breakdown of Congress. A narcissistic CULTURE of greed, corruption, arrogance, condescension, and stupidity has incubated, spread and infected every aspect of Congressional life. Some half-hearted attempts have been made by those infected to control and regulate the infection but the INSTITUTIONAL rot has metastasized to the life-critical stage.  

   Congress held up a 700 billion dollar mirror to itself with the unprecedented bailouts of Wall Street and the Big Three Auto Companies. What the mirror showed was that when you throw billions of tax payer dollars at institutions with corrupt and bankrupt corporate cultures don’t be surprised when the corporate managers pay themselves outrageous bonuses, take multi-million dollar spa junkets and fly to Washington in their corporate jets to plead poverty. And don’t be surprised when these same corporate managers continue the same corporate cultures that bankrupted their companies in the first place. The reason: their CULTURES are institutionally incapable of changing.  The irony and unmitigated arrogance of Congress is astounding! How is it that the very institution that legislated and promoted the financial environment that precipitated the 2008 US financial meltdown, is now the same entity in charge of fixing it?  How can any thinking voter allow  this to happen and not take some action to punish and replace those responsible?

  So what can be done when the internal CULTURE of any institution, including Congress, becomes corrupted at every level and is incapable of cleaning and restoring itself? Short of blowing it up and starting over here is the solution:  appoint an agent with the absolute power to clean out the dead wood and dictate the restructuring of the institutions’ bankrupt corporate culture. 

  You, as a voter, are the agent of absolute power over Congress. You have the ultimate say in changing what goes on in Washington. How you vote and who you vote for can have tremendous impact on the culture and conduct of those you lend your power to. It might surprise you to learn that 30% of voters in the 2008 Congressional elections had the power to vote a quarter (100+) of House incumbents and almost one-third (30+) of the U.S. Senate incumbents out of office. How is this possible? 131 million voters went to the polls in the 2008 election. If just 39 million of those voters (30%) had committed to a single principle they could have effectively begun cleaning out Congress and paved the way for historic reform and renewal.  The single principle that could have made this possible is that no congressional incumbent, regardless of political affiliation, gets reelected.

Please think about that for a moment…

No congressional incumbent, regardless of political affiliation gets reelected.

   Think about the ramifications of a Congressional culture in which incumbent members didn’t have to worry about MONEY to get reelected because they knew that at the end of their term in office the voters were going to vote them out.

  Think about the impact on the Washington SPECIAL INTEREST political world when the INFLUENCE market starts to dry up because members of Congress no longer need their money to run for reelection.

   Think about what might be accomplished on Capitol Hill when every two, four, or six year election cycle brings fresh faces and new ideas to a Washington unburdened by the institutional corruption of the past.

  Think about how Congress might actually address issues like Health Care, Social Security solvency, Energy Independence, Border Security, and Fiscal Responsibility when they have no fear about how their vote is going to affect their reelection chances.

  If 30% of voters would, as a matter of principle, use the absolute power of their vote to ensure that no incumbent gets reelected, Congress will change. Not only will the membership change but more importantly the institutional culture will change. 

Make a commitment to yourself today to do the following: 

1. Before I cast my vote I will find out who the incumbents for Congress (Senator or Representative) are in my district.

2. Regardless of my political affiliation I will vote for the incumbent’s most viable opponent in every successive Congressional election for the rest of my life.

3. In an open seat election (Congressman died, retired, resigned, was impeached) with no incumbent running I am free to vote for either candidate.

That is plan.

Believe it.

Embrace it.

Do it!

   Let us close this discussion as we began it. If you are one of the 74% of Americans who disapprove of the job that Congress is doing how is it that 90% of Congressional Incumbents were reelected? Why should the 535 members of the Federal Government Corporate Management Team, aka the House of Representatives (435) and Senate (100), be exempt from the same expectations American’s have for corrupt and bankrupt Wall Street managers? How will the INSTITUTIONAL CULTURE of Congress ever be changed if their ultimate bosses, American Main Street Voters, continue to reward them with incumbent reelection? Nothing changes until you decide to change it.

 "It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more “manhood” to abide by thought out principles rather than blind reflex.  Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in the muscles and an immature mind.”

Alex Karras   

 
FAQ’s 

I am a [fill in your political affiliation] and I have never voted for a [fill in the political affiliation you have never voted for]. I would be compromising my principles to vote for someone who does not share my political world view.

The priority of principles:

Each of us has our principles. Each of us also prioritizes those principles. Take the principle that many of us have of donating money to those less fortunate than ourselves.  Now put that principle up against the principle of feeding your kids during tough economic times. Ask any loving Mom and Dad with limited financial resources who are forced to make a choice between feeding their own kids or donating budget money to a charity that feeds others and there really is no question about which principle has priority. While both principles are worthwhile there are times when one takes priority over the other. Another example is professional soldier General Douglas McArthur and his priority of principles in his famous Duty, Honor, and Country speech. The religious person may have a priority of principles such as God, Family, and Friends.  And likewise, the principled voter should have a priority of principles that reflects America first, Political Party second, and Self last.

President John F. Kennedy said it well:

 “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country”. http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm

President Ronald Reagan said it even better for the tough economic times we are now in:

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.

From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.” http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres61.html  (please take the time to visit the web links for these two great inaugural addresses. Both will give you great insight on how to approach life and understand our individual responsibilities in the age in which we live.)

   Congress is in desperate need of reform and renewal and does not have the capacity to fix itself. You and your vote are the answer. By prioritizing your principles you can help Congress fix its problems.

My Congress (man/woman) has been in office since [fill in number of years].  They have done an excellent job of representing me and the other constituents in their district. Why should I vote them out of office just because they are an incumbent?

Please ask yourself the following three questions:

1. Are you one of the 74 percent of Americans who disapprove of the job that Congress is doing?

2. Do you agree, as a matter of principle, that Congress should not be in the business of bailing out bankrupt Wall Street financial institutions or industrial corporations with tax payer money?

3. Do you agree, as a matter of principle, that the corporate management that ran the bankrupt Wall Street financial institutions and industrial corporations into the ground should not be rewarded for their ineptitude but replaced with new management talent and fresh ideas about how to restructure and become competitive?

 If you answered yes to these questions how do you rationalize keeping the same 535 member Congressional corporate team (100 Senators; 435 Representatives) that: a) enabled and promoted the corrupt financial institutional environment that precipitated the mortgage meltdown mess; b) took no action to prevent the mortgage meltdown; c) approved over one trillion dollars of bailout funding with potentially more on the way; d) oblivious to public opinion, unrepentant of any mistakes, seem committed to continuing the mortgaging of your kids’ and grandkids’ financial futures; and, e) have the unmitigated gall and arrogance to even suggest that they should be part of the solution to a financial crisis that they created? 

   Are there good individual Senators and Representatives in Congress? Yes. But until you are willing, on principle, to vote out your own Senator or Representative for the good of Congress as a whole nothing is going to change on Capitol Hill. You must use the power of your vote to send the strongest of signals (a two-by-four alongside Congressional heads!) that you will no longer tolerate the ineptitude, corruption and bankrupt ideas of the entire Congressional management team. Since, by their actions, they have shown themselves to be part of the problem they are not entitled, nor do they deserve, either individually or corporately, to be part of the solution.

What happens if I commit to the plan and it results in my preferred political party being voted out of power?

  If you believe the plan will work against your preferred political party in one election cycle that means it will work for your preferred political party in the next election cycle. Remember you are following the plan, as a matter of principle, because you believe it is in the best long term interest of Congress and the United States.

So, how long will it take to see some results from committing to “the plan”?

Results from committing to the plan will be in direct proportion to the number of voters that can be exposed to it. 131 million voters went to the polls in the 2008 election. If 74% of those voters (97 million) disapprove of the job that Congress is doing how difficult should it be in the internet age to expose them all to the plan?

If only 10% of all 2008 voters (13 million) committed to the plan in the next two years we could have a huge impact in the 2010 mid-term elections. Our goal is to have 30% (39 million) of those 131 million voters committed to the plan in four years, 2012. Fortunately, in the internet age, the potential upside for voters becoming aware of the plan and committing to it in a very short time are high. If you think the plan has value, share it with others. This is a grassroots effort. Millions of dollars are not being spent to publicize and promote the plan because we do not have millions of dollars. It is up to you.

What happens if I commit to the plan and it doesn’t work as advertised?

Fear should never override your principles. You commit to do something out of principle because in your mind and heart it is the right thing to do regardless of what others do or don’t do. It can sometimes be a lonely “less traveled” road as poet Robert Frost opined.  But the potential rewards are most often worth the journey. Many times you have to act on your principles for years before you can look back and appreciate what the fruits of your actions have fashioned for your future.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

By Robert Frost