A Little Rebellion Now and Then - A Conservative's Perspective

There’s an old saying that seems to hold more truth in it the more time that passes. Don’t ask where it came from, probably a humorist of the caliber of Will Rogers or P.J. O’Rourke, but definitely not Jon Stewart, because it’s actually witty and a bit insightful. At any rate, it says that “Politicians, much like diapers, need to be changed often and for the same reasons.”

Looking around, it’s not that hard to see why somebody would say that. Once upon a time a person lived two different lives. The first would be life before politics, a life dedicated to whatever career or profession they had set their sights on. Often times they would be successful, rising above the others in the same field, other times they would be Harry Truman, but regardless they would have life experience under their belt, knowledge of something besides the Capital Beltway. They ‘d have wealth of successes and failures to claim as their own that would perhaps give them a wisdom and a degree of foresight that would help them in the tasks that were there in front of them.

Then they would have their political lives.

The truth is that the Founders, they perhaps never saw a profession rising out of politics. The Constitution, it would carefully crafted for that exact reason. Two years in Congress, six in the Senate, four in the Presidency, perhaps someone would return for another term or perhaps they would seek a higher office, but the entire framework would be devised that no one man might find himself elevated above others, spending their life in public office to the exclusion. Having seen and felt the effects of those who ruled believing they had a divine right to sit in the seat of the mighty, they wanted to spare the people from the inevitable corruption that it would seem to breed.

There, even by the first President precedent would be set for generations to come. Without a doubt George Washington could have found himself as the President of the Republic for the remainder of his years, and yet it would be a temptation that he would not yield to. Even as France began brief republican experience across the ocean, it had to be seen as truly remarkable, that which Washington did in that singular act of refusing to serve a third and possible a fourth term, fading off into the sunset. Lesser men would find the same too difficult to refuse.

In the over 150 years before the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was passed, limiting a president to two terms in office, only one man Franklin Delano Roosevelt, would break that tradition handed down since Washington.

Looking around, it’s obvious that the Founders, they were on to something there…

Let’s face it, we have, in recent years, come to see the rise of perhaps some of the most corrupt and immoral leaders to rise from the ranks of this Republic to assume the roles of leader, leaving many to wonder where the system has gone wrong.

In recent years we have watched as one Governor would resign amidst a sex scandal with high priced prostitutes, another arrested while trying to sell a Senate Seat and impeached for a host of other crimes, now standing trial in Illinois, yet another still finds himself under investigation for a host of pay to play scandals in his own state, a mayor sentenced to time in prison for obstruction of justice, two men elevated to Cabinet posts despite a history of tax evasion, only one who would withdraw his name, congressmen hiding FBI money in their freezers, another congressman now tied to a lobby firm raided by the FBI, this on top of his other questionable dealings, and a host of other scandals and dirty deals that have either gone unnoticed or forgotten about because they just cease to shock us anymore. The list, it just seems to go on and on and on with no signs of letting up any time in the near future. There are good and decent legislators in Washington and around the nation, those who view their service for the sacred trust that it is, and yet they are largely forgotten, as the host of others seem to take this perpetual perp walk to the podium to give their election or re-election speeches or to say, whoops I messed up or it really wasn’t me, I didn’t do anything wrong.

There we are left to wonder, are there any more Mr. Smith’s left in Washington?

Yet as frustrating as it may be, or as difficult as it may seem the responsibility is squarely placed on our shoulders as the electors. As much as the founders perhaps tried to protect the people from the abuses that we have now seemed to grow accustomed to amidst our current political climate with the rise of the career politicians, it won’t do it all of the time. There, these politicians, these so called leaders, they flourish and remain in positions of power and esteem because we allow them to remain there, despite having the instruments at our disposal to remove them from the place of honor that they now find themselves in.

There it must be the role of the enlightened citizen to hold their leader to account and to refuse to allow for them to degrade and sully the office that they hold, it is the role of the enlightened citizen to show the courage and the fortitude to struggle to remove them from their office when they have been so inclined to denigrate it for personal gain or wealth, seeking to do their business, with little regard for the people’s business.

There, perhaps it’s been now over 200 years since that revolution that would give birth to this Republic, yet, as children of it, it our role to be ever determined, ever vigilant to make that stand against abuses of power, as did our forbearers.

After all, a little rebellion, even if solely political in nature, is a healthy venture.

But then just a few thoughts I suppose…

A Cautionary Tale: The Need for the Libertarian Party - A Conservatives Perspective

There’s an adage, an old wisdom that is as old as the Republic itself and that must be remembered if freedom and liberty is to be valued; it simply tells to us that where people fear the government there shall always be tyranny, but where government fears the people there will be democracy.

A constitutional Republic unlike anything the world had ever seen before, even from the time of the ancients, the fundamental basis would find itself rooted in the best principles of the democratic ideal. Keenly aware that though the hearts of men might be filled with the best of intentions, the founders also knew their deeds could be done with the worst of malice. In that they would derive the foundations of their vision of government on the inalienable, indivisible, incorruptible rights of the people, the justly derived liberties found within the actual equality of all humanity, both as individuals and as a collective society bound together.

For over 200 years, this has been America, that “Republic, if we can keep it”, in the immortal words of Benjamin Franklin, and it has always found itself within the tenants of that revolutionary wisdom handed down from one generation to the next.

And there… well there, as the people’s Representatives within government, the same basic truth has to find itself as a cautionary warning to the Political Parties that compromise the American landscape.

This isn’t to say that these Parties, they somehow constitute a inherent American foundation or a constitutional requirement within the nation. Rather, tying together, binding together elected and appointed officials within government, they have become what must be a body that is of the people, for the people and by the people, and there within they, as the government, must be fearful of the people.

The truth is that a long time ago, with the passage of time and history, as the nation has grown older, we have lost a significant portion of our revolutionary spirit. When outrages occur, when it is felt that the government isn’t representing us, we have lost that part of our national experience that tells us to take to the streets demanding something more of it. Perhaps with the technological revolution and the onset of the communications age a portion of that has been reclaimed by some as they take the time to mobilize or to voice their unhappiness with the system, but even there it has become largely institutionalized.

In that there comes a realization… that within the scope and the framework of this current political climate and this current chapter of political history, there is an absolute necessity for credible third parties that are willing to take up the banner of a fight, even if it is an uphill battle the entire way, all for the task of ensuring a voice for the people.

Without a doubt many out there who are a member of the Big Two Political Parties have felt as if their Party has left them. It has been a reality since the beginning of party politics in the United States. The Republicans would abandon their Whig and Free Soil roots in order to form this new Northern Abolitionist Party. Al Smith, the former Democratic Governor of New York and two time Presidential Candidate for his Party would walk away from it in 1936, outraged at the direction it had gone in, and would form his own movement to battle his one time colleague and successor as Governor and Party nominee, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt, the machine busting Governor turned Vice President then President, would find himself disgusted by the direction his onetime Vice President, William Taft, had taken the Republicans in after he exited the political scene. Once more returning to the stage he would form his own party. Though failing to win the election, he would take enough votes from Taft to withhold his re-election from him.

And round and round, so it has gone as one generation passed to another, and political re-alignment changed the landscape of the nation.

There, we are taught a valuable lesson and one that cannot simple be ignored, Political Parties in America must fear their members or pay the price for it. Then, as the old saying goes, a little revolution now and then is a healthy thing.

That is what makes a Party like the Libertarian Party vital. Though young and new, still within the pangs of its own adolescence, it serves as a potential warning to those who understand their history that there is a third way there. Though aimed at created for itself political success based on its platform and policies, the truth is that it serves as a watchdog against the larger party that might forget its base or forget its roots and seek a path that runs contrary to it in the arrogance of its leadership. What they offer is a home to those who feel not as if they were abandoning their party, but those who have come to believe their party has left them.

Though they are yet to break the three percent margin on the national political scene in a presidential race, they do remain a cautionary tale. Considering the fact that they had not, during the last election, ran a traditional neo-libertarian, as they had in the previous elections, but rather a conservative who had not long ago sat with Republicans in the same party, and the success they had in forcing a runoff ballot in Georgia when victory should have easily been assured to Senator Saxby Chambliss, it reminds the Republican Party and the elected officials that bear that R behind their name that they are taking aim directly at them. They have candidates that will appeal to conservatives and they will find a home their if the party forgets their base.

There, though they may not win, those Republican leaders should perhaps learn a lesson caused north of the border. In Canada, 12 years of continuous Liberal rule was assured because of the simple fact that the Conservatives had split, some feeling abandoned by their traditional alignment and forming a third party, handing election after election to their opponents.

But then just a few thoughts I suppose…

Wyatt McIntyre is a conservative political vlogger, blogger, commentator and co-host of Patriot Action Live. His writing and thoughts on a variety of topics, from history to politics can be found at www.wyattmcintyre.com