October 25, 2004

Earlier this month, bug eyed comedic legend Rodney Dangerfield checked out of this existence. Dangerfield was best known for his one liners and, most of all, his signature line, “I get no respect.” As November nears, voters are probably beginning to feel a certain lack of respect from politicians. As they watch candidates on debates evade the issues, political ads that twist and omit the truth, in addition to listening to speeches long on rhetoric yet short on substance, many voters can't help but sense that they’re not being respected in the least, by both incumbents and their "major" challengers. In real life, respect is something that is earned.

Voters get no respect: their president, senators and congressmen think that their lives are so expendable they send them, their children and grandchildren, to fight wars for dubious reasons in the four corners of the globe. In Vietnam over 55,000 US soldiers gave their lives so that today the US Government could have diplomatic and trade relations with that nation's communist government. Why are Americans dying in Iraq? To rid Iraq of so far elusive WMDs? To depose a blood thirsty dictator? To establish democracy in the Middle East? To improve Halliburton’s bottom line?

Voters get no respect: elected officials think that voters are so oblivious as to the importance of education that they forcibly take their money to pay for it and make school attendance compulsory. Politicians and bureaucrats have so little respect for parents that they make decisions on curriculum and educational content with little, if any, parental input. Why should the voters and taxpayers dumb enough to vote away their rights have any say in their own child's education anyway?

Voters get no respect: politicians think voters are so clueless that they will not plan for their own retirement. In 1982 Social Security was in need of some “fixing.” Fortunately, Senators Dole and Byrd used their financial acumen and superior mathematical skills and “fixed” the problem by doubling the Social Security tax rate. Why couldn't the common citizens come up with such a wise and intelligent solution?

Voters get no respect: public officeholders at all levels think voters are so mindless and so easily provoked into violence that they implement thousands of unconstitutional restrictions on the right to own and carry weapons. The second amendment was written strictly with the idea of discouraging tyranny. Maybe there's something our politicians know that the voters don't? Perhaps they've been taking tips from Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe, or Hugo Chavez.

Voters get no respect: politicians abscond with their income, practically at will, for all sorts of questionable expenditures with little if any resistance. The income tax was originally intended for “millionaires” only. The Income Tax has worked out so well, it has ultimately made “millionaires” out of all the wage earners in America.

Why do politicians show little, if any, respect for the voters in America? Simply put, voters have not earned their respect. Over the decades they have allowed pied piping politicians to suck them into a socialist swamp, as predicted by noted French philosopher Frederic Bastiat, who correctly stated that "the state is a fictitious entity were by everyone presumes to live of everyone else." The United States has degenerated into just such a situation.

Politicians have tapped into the desire of many citizens to either live of the labor of others or to impose their moral judgments on the entire populace. The republic that was founded on the blood and sacrifice of the revolutionary generation (1776) has been replaced over time by an almost absolute democracy, which is in reality a mobocracy or a tyranny of the masses.

Today, freedom in America is being choked with two hands. One belongs to modern liberals who, with a zeal similar to that of the famous French revolutionary Maximillien Robspierre, wish to forcibly confiscate the earnings of the most
productive citizens of this nation. The other hand belongs to the conservatives (and their kissing cousins the neo-cons) who, with a tenacity similar to that of the Ayatollah Khomenei, wish to "purify" our nation (and the world) in a manner that is "right, just and godly."

Voters do have other alternatives, but indistinguishable from mindless sheep (or Pavlov's dog) they choose sides amongst the two similar parties, simply because one of them will win. Those who choose to vote for "minor" party candidates are chastised (by the sheep) for "wasting their vote". A vote cast in accord with one's beliefs, and more importantly with respect for the rights of others, is never wasted. While a vote cast mostly based on the candidate's viability, or with the intent of gaining from the labor of others and imposing ones beliefs on strangers, are in essence a betrayal of one's sacred right to suffrage.

Rodney Dangerfield will be sorely missed by many, more so than many of the politicians that have gone before him or who will go eventually (not to the bathroom). Rodney earned his money by making lots of folks laugh and enjoy life (at least for a while), in sharp contrast to professional politicians who forcibly take our money while encouraging hate and creating fear amongst some. RIP Rodney Dangerfield, if you're in a place where there are a lot of politicians it's probably because you still get "no respect."

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