Secrets, Lies, and Governance

The trouble with secrets is that you believe that you know something when in fact, you don't. As an example, I give you the Federal government's propensity to hide it's legislative actions from public sight. They create an emergency, get the news media on board with said emergency so that they can frighten the public, inflate the bill to a couple thousand pages with unrelated spending and favors, and finally rush it through the legislative process in order to "handle" the newly invented "emergency." As proof of this dishonest approach to governance I give you the comments of former White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, who said "Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before." Like the story of the boy who cried wolf, the public will become jaded and will no longer respond to an actual crisis. Yet another strata of damage done to the public at large courtesy of the had wringing left. Nancy Pelosi took this tactic to heart and even managed to go further.

The former Speaker of the House presided over the most closed, opaque, and one of the most corrupt Congresses in the history of our nation. When she first took that office Speaker Pelosi told the American people that she would "drain the swamp," make the legislative process more open, deal harshly with corrupt members of the House, and finally she would be the bipartisan hand that reaches across the aisle. What a joke.

Among her first acts as Speaker, she froze the Republicans out of the legislative process. Stop and think about that for a second. By freezing out every Republican in the House of Representatives and preventing them from having a voice in the legislative process she ultimately punished the citizens who elected them to office in order to represent their interests for not voting in a Democrat instead. In essence, those citizens had no voice in their own government courtesy of the Democratic Party. While it is certainly true that a district can punish itself with a poor choice, never before had the government punished the citizenry for a political choice. That marks an extraordinarily dangerous change in the government. Did anyone hear the media complaining about those citizens being denied a voice in their own government by the Democrats? I am sure that there were blacks, Asians, Jews, Muslims, and other minorities in addition to whites who were being screwed over because each congressional district is a mixture of people, but not a single word was breathed by the racially sensitive high and mighty of the news media because they agreed with this reprehensible tactic of the Democratic Party. But it would grow darker.

When the Congressmen began to hide their actions from public sight by holding closed door hearings, changing the locks to committee rooms to keep out Republicans, canceling town halls back home, and ignoring the American Constitution, the silence was deafening. In fact, the utter disregard for the American Constitution should have scared the hell out of you. That lone document is the sole foundation for all of your rights as a citizen of the United States. The freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom from unreasonable searches, right to own firearms, and others, are all guaranteed by that document. So when the Speaker was asked under what Constitutional authority she was acting to bring about socialized medicine, she asked if the reporter was joking with a shocked expression on her face. If leadership determines the culture of the subordinates, her total disregard for the most important document in American jurisprudence speaks volumes about why the Democrats would love to see the Constitution shredded. The last thing that a tyrant wants is limits upon his power, and the American Constitution is just that. What is the purpose of governing in secret if you can't do what you want to do without restrictions? It is a lesson that Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro have taught the American left well.

While governing in secret and hiding your dirty dealings from the idiots who voted in the neo-aristocracy is always fun and allows for all kind of abuses, it doesn't allow you to consolidate your power and to finally lock out your political rivals. But wait, didn't the left complain bitterly about the Patriot Act, Gitmo, and water boarding because the government had too much power? True, but that was when a Republican was in the White House. Now that a Marxist Democrat is President, it's all right. Oh wait, they don't like to be branded as Marxists anymore, they prefer to be called "progressives" now.

Between the impressive access and political power of unions, far left fringe groups, Marxists and Maoists, and the morally corrupt George Soros, where does the influence of the American people fit in with this government? After the last election, the American people spoke with a loud, clear voice and was ignored. Not only by the Democrats mind you, but by the Republicans as well. Back a man against a wall, rob him of his earnings, and then telling him that he is a complete fool for hiring his own criminal to victimize him, now appears to be the national sport inside of the beltway. From Eric Cantor to Barney Frank, nobody really wants to seriously cut the national deficit because money is power and behind it all is the power of taxation, which is of course the power to rob you blind.

For years I have heard the arguments to return to the fundamental principles of the founders. No one has listened. A handful of citizens get it and they created the Tea Parties, one or two politicians get it, but the vast majority of politicians are tyrants, to a varying degree, who will happily relieve you of your personal freedoms and keep you in servitude to the nanny government who finds it necessary to rule your daily life.

If you note the excesses of government, the intrusions into your private life, the meddling with your diet, out of control spending, and the merciless tampering with the minds of our children in the public education system you will witness a disturbing trend. Because it is there that you will find the dangers of hidden legislation and of lies to the American people. This is because of the psychology involved in engaging in such behavior.

A liar disrespects the person to whom he is lying. This is because people lie for two reasons: they either seek to gain an advantage for themselves or they seek to avoid the consequences of their actions. Neither quality is desired in an elected representative. Take Bill Clinton for example. He lied about sexually harassing a woman who was suing him for his lack of self control and about penetrating a young woman at the White House with a cigar, among other things. He lied to the Court, he lied to the special prosecutor, he lied to Congress, and he lied to the American people. The reaction of the Washington elite was disconcerting because they sought to justify his lies and to defend this conduct. In fact, it was Bill Clinton who said that character does not matter in a politician anymore. No surprises there.

If a liar disrespects the person or people to whom he is prevaricating, what does that tell you when politicians are caught in a lie nearly all of the time? From Nancy Pelosi telling lies about not having been informed of water boarding to President Obama stumping for a bill that he has no idea what it contains to Eric Cantor who was for large cuts before he was against them, they all have no regard for the citizen that they proclaim to serve. And if they will lie about those things, what else are they lying about? Between all of the political rhetoric, doublespeak, and blatant falsehoods the truth is nowhere to be found. But there are things that are worse than lies.

By hiding what the legislative branch is doing, the citizen is kept from knowing the full scope and inner workings of the government. We do not know who wrote the bills, who cut deals to gain provisions, who was frozen out of the process for not playing ball, who is in bed with special interests, what their reasoning is for the legislation, and the list goes on and on. These are not State secrets nor military operations that we are speaking of, but pedestrian matters such as TARP and Obamacare. The TARP bill was done rushed through as an "emergency" and hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds were spent. Yet, there are billions involved with this act for which there will never be any accounting. About one eighth of that money has vanished and nobody has any idea where it has gone. In fact, that taxpayer money could have gone to support abortions, ACORN's voter fraud, Union goodies, and God knows what else and there is absolutely no way to know for sure what happened to it because it seemingly disappeared down a black hole. Why? Because of the secrecy in Washington regarding their daily business that they don't want you to know about.

Imagine, if you will, that you have entered a retail store and handed over $800 dollars to the clerk. You are not permitted to enter any farther than the foyer and are not permitted to give orders to the store personnel. They take your money, depart behind a door and then come back in a couple of hours and hand you $700 dollars worth of merchandise you didn't ask for. When you inquire about the missing $100 dollars they tell you that it simply vanished and that there is no way to know where it went. If you were to accept this, you would have no problem with the way the Federal government works today. If not, you are in trouble because this is exactly what happened with TARP. Isn't it strange that the news didn't make a big deal about that?

Since the 1960's, there has been a slow transition into the titanic government that we have today. Each tick of the clock separates the American citizen from his government by another minute fraction, but given the 40+ years that this has been ongoing that separation has widened into an abyss and is continuing to grow. As our government shifts from being a representative republic to one of a progressing tyranny, it is hoped by those in power that you will not notice the transition until it is too late to stop it.

The actions of government have real consequences for the American people. Take the microcosm of local government for instance. Fire departments across the nation were having difficulties explaining to town and city officials why a truck costing nearly one million dollars had to be replaced because the vehicle never left the station. This occurred because modern fire codes greatly reduced the number of calls that a piece of equipment runs. An enterprising fire official thought that by running as a first responder to EMS calls he would provide runs for such equipment and would enhance the budget for the department. The result, after nearly thirty years of such a scheme, has been the virtual death of the volunteer rescue squads. These organizations now function solely as satellites of the fire department that now controls their every action. The fire department never wanted to eliminate or control the rescue squads initially, but between sacrificing their budget or sacrificing the squads they chose to deep six the squads. This also increased the cost to the taxpayer because services and equipment that were once provided by private donations are now maintained by your taxes.

The change of the volunteer system to the paid system illustrates the effect of gradual change. This same change has been in effect with the Federal government for decades causing it to change how the government views the citizen. Where once the citizen was viewed as the master, he is now viewed as the servant. Add in the secrecy and lies and you have the government that we all know today. The salient point is that the rescue squads did not realize their danger until it was too late to do anything about it. When they finally woke up to the magnitude of the change, they were finished.

The government's disregard for the truth, secrecy in important matters of public policy, and denying the citizens of this nation a voice in their own government because of the political party of their elected representatives, combined with the expressed annoyance and hostility of the Constitutional restraints of governmental power, speaks volumes about the intent of the government. If you do the math you cannot help, but to arrive at some chilling and startling conclusions.

A government that lies to you, operates in secret regarding legislation that will directly involve the public, and disregards your most important laws is not your friend. It is not concerned with your life or your personal objectives because it only cares about accumulating as much power over you as it can. It cares not for the constitution or restraints upon its power and disregards such constraints or checks with contempt, and many elected officials have even admitted as much on camera.

We have moved from a basic distrust of large government to a willing acceptance and endorsement of it. We no longer look to ourselves for solutions, but instead turn to an all powerful entity that no longer even hears our criticisms nor cares for our concerns. That was made painfully obvious during the torturous legislation of Obamacare. The American people screamed "no," but the government told the public to shut up. That single action was the American Congress crossing the Rubicon. Once done, there would be no going back because they knew that the occurrence doomed our Republic. This is because a dangerous precedent has now been set.

A line was crossed that should never should have been violated. Why do you think that there were people on the left who advocated a suspension of freedom so that President Obama could rule as a dictator in order to accomplish his far left agenda? You heard people like Bill Maher, Woody Allen, Sean Penn, Michael Moore, and Rosie O'Donnell cheering on the loss of freedom and the rise of tyranny. Their cheers were echoed in the academic community at the campuses of Universities and in the main stream media who sold the leftist agenda. Although they have achieved limited success with their aims, they want more. They will always want more because that is the way of those who seek political power. We once knew that truth as a people, but no longer.

The American people can feel the change in the political landscape. They sense that America has lost her shine and can feel that she is now descending from the virtuous heights of freedom to the dismal swamp of oppression. For when the government has at last acquired its goal of supreme power, where do you think they will take us? Do you honestly believe that they truly have our best interests at heart or their own?

I believe that the lies and secrecy of government answers that question rather well. It would behoove you to pay attention before it is too late, for rights and privileges lost through unscrupulous legislation and habit can never be regained without the shedding of blood.