Not since Valley Forge...

Not since Valley Forge has our Republic teetered on the brink of destruction as it does today. People seemed to like my history lessons that accompanied my travelogue, so today I will give a civics lesson.


The word republic comes from the Latin words Res Publica. It means literally "the thing of the people." Even though many people refer to the United States as a democracy, it more fits the definition of a republic. In a true democracy everyone decides what the nation does. In the United States, we elect a President, Senate, and House of Representatives, send them to Washington, and ask them to decide for us. This is a republic. Its based upon the presumptions that a true democracy is impractical and ineffective (see the UN) and the idea that most people are too inept to walk down the street much less decide the direction of a nation. These presumptions are fairly accurate, in my opinion.


Unfortunately, now the people we have put into power are also inept. The American people in their infinite wisdom went to the polls last November and reacted to a perceived inept President. I believe any discussion promoting the President's abilities is a losing one. The American people decided to put the Democrats in power.


For quite sometime now the Democratic Party have been basically known as the bitch (sorry for the language) and tax party. In a brilliant move, they convinced the same American people, who our founders decided were too daft to run the nation, that they would DO something if they were elected to positions of power.


Now I had no problem with that. The Democrats did not do anything really for the last 10 months. I didn't expect them to. Importantly, the American people seem to have realized they were duped by Democrats running for congress. Don't get me wrong. Don't think for one minute that I think the Republicans are the best choice to run the country. I just think the Democrats are the worst choice. That has been validated today.


The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Dave Oby, today suggested a war surtax be imposed on the American people. He claims, correctly, that the Treasury is being drained by the war and rather than continue paying for it from the Treasury, tax everyone to pay for it. He further stated "And if you don't like the cost, then shut down the war."

This whole scenario reminds me of the "circle all the things that are wrong in this picture" section of Highlights Magazine. First of all, where does the treasury come from? Pots of gold at the end of rainbows? The tooth fairy? Admission fees from the Smithsonian? State quarter sales? NO! It comes from taxes already. I am not even going to get into the fact that war is probably the number 1 thing our tax dollars should be spent on (say as opposed to giving away condoms to 2nd graders). But, he wants to charge more taxes for something our taxes already pay for. Hey Democrats have always been the party for tax raises. That is not terribly surprising.

What really riles me is the comment "And if you don't like the cost, then shut down the war." The "you" in that statement is literally you and me and every American. Now, is that not why you elected the Democrats, because you wanted to shut down the war? You put them in power to turn around and BLAME you? How in the world are you supposed to shut down the war? Nicole suggests Oby means elect a new president. That would be fine except its 2007. In case Oby has not noticed, there are about 20 people trying to get elected in 2008. If he thinks we need a new president the Democrats should grow a pair and impeach the President.

So why is our Republic in danger? The people (lovingly referred to as "you") did their thing. They decided they wanted new representatives to make the decisions and those new representatives blame the people ("you" again if you thought "you" were off the hook) for not ending the war. Rather than running the government, the Democrats have made a mockery of the people's ability to do the only thing they can do to make a change... vote. That is why our Republic is in danger.

-J