What about the GOP? What about Odds? Don’t you want to WIN?

Through the upcoming campaign I’ll frequently be asked such questions.  My inclination will be to throw rotten eggs at whoever asks.  But since I do not wish to carry rotten eggs wherever I go, and since I really do understand how we have collectively fallen into a game-show/Las Vegas political stupor and helplessness, I must swallow my disgust, and answer:

 

1. Loyalty to entrenched, powerful political parties is not admirable.  It is destructive.  Be loyal to principles instead; particularly the ones proven to work (Rule of Law, Free Market economics, property ownership).
2. Elections are about voters’ choices, not about the candidates or their parties.  Let’s talk about what the choices are, not just about the candidates’ strategies, money pots and yard signs.
3. We’re facing dark, dangerous times.  Let’s be serious in the voting booth, OK?

 

And then let’s focus on just the GOP for a moment.  The party never was what most people think it was.  It is, of course, the original “tree hugging liberal” party. 

The National Park system was started by Teddy Roosevelt, and the EPA was created by Nixon.  TR also gave us anti-corporate “trust busting” and income tax while setting us up for the Federal Reserve Bank, while Nixon gave us wage/price controls.  Much of the New Deal was actually started by Hoover, who FDR called a socialist; and Eisenhower spent more money after WWII than during its peak.  And let’s not even talk about George Bush.

The GOP never was as conservative as the “solid south” or “men in sheets” Democratic Party.  “Real Republicans” like Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater and of course Ron Paul have always been marginalized by the “Mainstream Republicans” like Gerald Ford and George Bush Sr.  

 

In Indiana we have a smart, relatively conservative and well-intended Republican Governor who has given us more taxation and spending (expanding entitlements to even new healthcare and college subsidies) than did any preceding Democrats.  And I think he’s one of the best Republican politicians!

 

Ambassador, candidate and pundit Alan Keyes recently said that the “Republican Party has come to a dark and confused place.”  So he quit the GOP and joined the Constitution Party (which is not on the ballot in Indiana).  Former Georgia congressman Bob Barr left the Republican Party for the Libertarian Party (which does have ballot access all across the country).  Many celebrities, even major media journalists, have left their former fancy party allegiances behind for a new dedication to principle…and what actually works.

 

This is good news.  And not a minute too soon. 

The bad news is that, I fear, most Republicans, even as disgusted as they are with their own party, will nevertheless remain loyal to it and thus do harm to us all.

 

Oh, don’t blather on about fixing what’s broken in that party.  I tried the “change from within” thing, and found it to be a baseless, mad illusion.  No change ever happens from within.  Especially from within such a corrupt deceit as the GOP.

 

Don’t misunderstand.  I know and love many Republicans.  I greatly admire what Ron Paul is attempting to do within the GOP.  I sent him money (I almost never do that) and I will of course vote for him in the primary. 

 

That is, after all, the only primary election vote that could accomplish anything useful. 

 

Dr. Paul’s delegates and supporters can at least attempt to reshape the GOP into something better.  I do support that cause.  But I do not fool myself about the likelihood of success.

 

People may think I’m a dreamer to run as a Libertarian.  But who’s really the dreamer? 

 

I know that all change comes from the Davids who fight Goliath (see my article here; requires a free signup); not from some change of heart in Goliath himself.  And history demonstrates well that those who vote for the entrenched powers hurt themselves.  …Fatally.

 

My dear Republican/Democrat friends, you have been betrayed over and over again.  At what point will you quit dreaming and do what needs to be done?

 

I no longer need to explain why I’m running outside the corrupt, entrenched powers.  The real question is: how can you excuse voting for those corrupt, entrenched powers again?  The question isn’t, “Horning, what are you doing?”  The question is, just what are you doing to set things right?

 

There is reason to hope.  I’ve seen it in the Paul campaign, and I’ve seen it in the faces of those disgusted and enraged into action.  I’ve seen it in last summer’s tax protests, and, ironically, I see it in the trouble that’s about to be heaped upon taxpayers this coming summer.

 

My fellow Hoosiers, Americans and human beings, we have been bestowed with many wonderful advantages.  Chief among these in this nation must be the laws that protect us from our politicians.  It’s time we dust them off and insist, without equivocation, that it’s time they are obeyed, as written.

 

Don’t apply party labels to this.  Don’t attach any flag motifs.  Don’t make this an abstraction. 

Make it a demand and make it now.

Saving Mormons from themselves…

We’ve all heard the Big Story from Texas.  From headlines like, “400 children saved from Mormon sect amid allegations of abuse” (Times Online April 9), you might have gotten the idea that our politicians have prevented an American Holocaust by taking these “people from 1870” into “protective custody.”

Yet amidst all the denials of religious persecution, we’ve not asked an important question: “what happens to these kids now?” 

History suggests that the real horrors are about to begin for these kids.  Odds are high that they will be abused by their foster parents to a degree that makes their previous troubles look like joy. 

I know that statistics are often used by Satan, and I confess that I’ve not yet researched the primary sources for these figures allegedly from The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN).  Even so, and pending further investigation, here’s a breakdown of cases per 100,000 kids:

 

	Physical Abuse	Sexual Abuse	Neglect	Medical Neglect	Fatalities
CPS-related	160	112	410	14	6.4
Parents	59	13	241	12	1.5

 

If these statistics do indeed mean anything, we should’ve left those Texas kids alone rather than let them fall into the clutches of the positively Orwellian Child Protective Services!

Regardless of the exact figures, however, it’s ancient history that politicians are continually whipping up trouble to validate their powers over us. 

We’re bad, we’re told, and need to be punished.

OK, so perhaps we’re bad.  No denying it. 

But don’t ever forget who has always been worse.