Friday, March 26, 2010

The End

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." - John Adams
This is the end of "Politics and Pigskins". I may start another blog in the future, but I am done discussing the subject of politics on a regular basis.

It seems to me the political battle I have been fighting was a losing battle from the start. John Adams was right.

Ironically, I think the battle was over even before I began it. The 17th Amendment of the Constitution (passed in 1913) sealed our fate, by turning the U.S. Senate into a directly elected legislative body. What seemed like an innocuous thing actually set in process the motion by which the United States will inevitably be destroyed. It changed the United States from a republic into a democracy.

The health care bill which was recently passed brought the subject home to me:

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it." - Frederic Bastiat


Bastiat was right, and the health care bill is only the latest example of it. Where in the Constitution does it give the federal government the right to determine medical treatments? Where does the federal government get the right to determine how an insurance contract should be written?

Going back to previous examples of Medicare and Medicaid, where does the federal government get the right to determine how much a doctor can charge for his/her services?

The answer to these questions is simple: He who pays the piper calls the tune.

Once "We the People" decided money wasn't important, money was evil, that opened the floodgates to allowing the government to take what it wanted (as Bastiat said, "a moral code that justifies it"). After that, it was a short distance to creating a legal framework to plunder the people.

The next step? Enslaving the people. You think, how can that happen? I tell you, it has already begun. How much time did you spend on your income taxes this year? That is YOUR time, spent working for the government. For free.

With the passage of health care, whose ultimate result will be the death of the health insurance industry, that will leave the government with no choice but to assume the role of third party payer for all health care costs (God forbid we should take on this responsibility ourselves!). Then the government will decide what to pay for and how much to pay. That may sound innocent enough, but do you consider WHO gets paid? All the medical care providers in the country.

What if the government refuses to pay for what the medical provider deems the best treatment? Too bad.

What if the medical provider cannot make a living from what the government will pay? Too bad.

In a free market, if an employer wasn't willing to pay you enough to make a living from your labor, you have options. You can either go work for someone else, or take up another profession. That is not so easy when you have dedicated your life to the medical profession. That is not so easy when you have student loans to pay off for your medical education.

If you don't see it yet, we are in the process of enslaving the medical providers of this country. This is because the moral code of the Left does not recognize the rights of medical providers. It only recognizes the rights of the sick.

But I am not here to argue about the health care bill. That is just a symptom, not the disease. The disease is democracy.

Mind you, I am not recommending a dictatorship or an authoritarian state. No, a simple republic would suffice. Sadly, Ben Franklin was correctly reluctant about our ability to maintain the United States as a republic.

Why am I done blogging about politics? Simply put, political blogging is generally one of two things: I can either preach to the choir, or confront an opponent who will never be satisfied with anything less than my submission to their views. Only rarely does political blogging end in a reasonable discussion of the finer points of what public policy should be.

Preaching to the choir brings no pleasure. Arguing with an automaton who is well-versed in talking points but completely unacquainted with reason also brings no joy. So why bother?

My final message to you: Feel free to read through my past writings, and comment on them. I may even respond to your comments. But I am done with posting.

I leave you with the following thought:
"ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
" - George Orwell, Animal Farm

This is not something to be desired, but it is what we have.

10 comments:

William R. Barker said...

Ed. The Founders' America has been losing ground since 1860.

Yes... agreed... 1913 was a key year in the history of the decline and fall of the American Republic, but when the federal government took it upon itself to declare (without even the camouflage of a Supreme Court ruling) that there was no "escape clause" in the Constitution and that the Union was ultimately a Union based upon force...

(*SIGH*)

So... now that you've given up are you prepared to follow the logic of your conclusion and urge your children to leave the U.S. and start new lives in a foreign land where freedom is not being extinguished?

Hey... Ed... no one's more cynical about the eventual fate of our once great nation than I... but you might wanna consider what your next move is other than "tuning out."

Well, Ed... final piece of advice:

Stop by my blog often. While chances are you'll be familiar with many of my newsbites (posted on a daily basis), no doubt a significant minority of my newbite comment postings will be news you can use which you might not otherwise happen upon.

Good luck, Ed.

BILL

EdMcGon said...

Bill,
Believe me, you'll get no argument from me about the importance of the Civil War in the decline of America.

I didn't say I was "tuning out". I will still continue to follow politics. I just don't plan on arguing about it any more, at least not online. The level of intelligent political discourse has dropped to an all-time low.

As for moving, where to? There are no free countries left. Heck, even New Zealand has socialized medicine. I've already told my kids, if they ever get a chance to move out into space, take it.

Don't worry. I'll still read your blog. ;)

William R. Barker said...

Hey...

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH...

Perhaps you might want to ditch the "politics" but keep the "pigskins."

Just a thought!

Either transform this blog or create another which is primarily focused on sports.

(*SHRUG*)

Though I myself am not a sports "fanatic," I've always (way back to the RAG days) admired and appreciated your knowledgeable and thoughtful commentary on football, baseball, etc.

As you know, I revere knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Reading your sports commentary adds to my knowledge base.

(*WINK*)

BILL

P.S. - Don't know if you've been "lurking," but Rob and I have been having a spirited discussion over at Usually Right regarding certain constitutional issues.

The Great and Powerful Moose even dropped in!

I wonder... do you think RAG ever visits my blog?

Mad used to come by once in awhile, but he's far more likely to "visit" with Rob.

I enjoy Rob's site. It's not always my cup of tea... but I'm glad he's kept it up and glad he's re-instituted comments.

Ed. Whatever you decide... you take care of yourself, buddy.

EdMcGon said...

Bill,
I thought about going "all football", but I decided against it. Frankly, I don't have enough to say on the subject to maintain a year-round blog. If I change my mind, I might do that.

As for Rob, he is EXACTLY the kind of person who has led me to end my blog. He knows just enough to sound intelligent, even when his ideas are totally moronic. I've had enough of crusaders without a clue, like him.

Gondis said...

Ed,

I was prompted by your “final” blog to cite this quote:

• All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke ~1770
But then I researched the quote and found:
o This is probably the most quoted statement attributed to Burke, and an extraordinary number of variants of it exist, but all without any definite original source. These very extensively used "quotations" may be based on a paraphrase of some of Burke's ideas, but he is not known to have ever declared them in such a manner in any of his writings. It may have been adapted from these lines of Burke's in his Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents (1770): "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

Actually, I like the original(?) quote better. This life is about choices. If we choose to not engage, then the Evil (bad) men will prevail.
Gondis

EdMcGon said...

Gondis,
While I agree with you, I have my own paraphrase of an old cliche:

"You can lead a liberal to knowledge, but you can't make him think."

Confronting them is a pointless exercise, because they will NOT think. Their entire philosophy is based on how things FEEL. Unfortunately, I have never mastered the art of making common sense feel good.

Justine Valinotti said...

Ed,I came back today with the hope you'd changed your mind. Alas!

EdMcGon said...

Sorry Justine. :(

Rodak said...

"As for Rob, he is EXACTLY the kind of person who has led me to end my blog. He knows just enough to sound intelligent, even when his ideas are totally moronic. I've had enough of crusaders without a clue, like him."

I knew just enough to shut you up, didn't I?

EdMcGon said...

Who's shut up? I'm just not talking to you.