It’s up to us (those who can do math and understand morality)

I’ve been saying it for years – and perusing the Internet these days – the calls for the same are multiplying. It’s time to stop being citizens in name only.

For decades, those who I call the normal people have outsourced the running of their country to people who clearly aren’t normal. Let me explain briefly.

Normal people would never run up $16 trillion in debt and a great deal more in unfunded liabilities at the federal level. Normal people would never sanction the creation of a favored class – government employees – whose pay and pensions dwarf those of non government employees. Oh, and guess who pays most of the freight for their luxury? And normal people wouldn’t operate local governments like too many local governments are operated. We all know from reading the daily headlines that excessive debt and foolhardy policies are just as common at the local level as they are at the state and federal level.

It’s not only fiscal matters, of course. Have you been paying attention to what government is doing at all levels? They’ve been paying for abortions, squashing religious liberties, and immorally indoctrinating kids in the taxpayer funded schools.

It’s a nasty business, but like making sure the plumbing and sewer systems work properly, normal people – in larger numbers – must enter the political and governmental fray.

Writer Kerem Oner at AmericanThinker.com asks, “Is It Too Late to Save the Constitutional Republic?”:

The question, is have we really reached that critical tipping point, where welfare mentality is more prevalent than rugged individualism? Maybe, maybe not. One thing is for sure, though: constitutional conservatives have to come to the sobering realization that reversing this destructive trend toward the ever-present state in our lives will take great dedication and patience — the type progressives have shown for over a century now. If not to Franklin and our other founding fathers, we certainly owe it to our children.

Sally Zelikovsky wrote about a “call of duty” at AmericanThinker.com:

At the time of America’s founding, the notion of civic duty was commonplace.  Our entire system was predicated on the idea that citizens would take an active role in the governance of their towns, states, and country.  Little was asked of Americans other than self-governance, jury duty, fighting wars when necessary, protecting the homeland, and living by the rule of law.  In time, Americans were additionally “asked” to forfeit a portion of the fruits of their labor to foot the bills the government would incur.

Over the years, we have handed off most of our self-governing and civic duties to others.  As the Founders anticipated, we elect town council members and state and federal legislators to “represent” us.  But all too often, we leave the voting booth, brush our hands together, and go back to our normal lives thinking we are done…until the next election.  In the meantime, we relinquish considerable power and control over our lives to the very people who are supposed to be working for us.

We have so completely shirked our personal and civic responsibilities that we have inadvertently created a class of professional politicians.  With the economic and personal stakes being so high for these professional politicians, the legislation they enact is often compromised, and their re-election campaigns are motivated more by what’s good for the incumbent than by what’s good for the People.

If the notion of becoming involved in the process wasn’t bad enough, then there’s the work of cleaning up the no longer grand “Grand Old Party.” Longtime activist Richard Viguerie says that conservatives need to “redouble conservative efforts to takeover the Republican Party”:

Time after time during the Republican primary election cycle grassroots conservatives and Tea Partiers saw establishment Republican Party officials put their thumb on the scale to tip the balance in Mitt Romney’s favor.

From the arbitrary abuse of the winner-take-all rules in Florida and Arizona, to the post-election delegate allocation changes in Michigan, to the burdensome ballot access process in Virginia the establishment Republican Party did everything possible to thwart grassroots conservative activists and keep the power to choose the Republican nominee in the hands of Party insiders.

To prevent this from happening again, and to build a Republican Party leadership that truly represents its conservative base, Tea Partiers and grassroots conservative activists must redouble their efforts to takeover the Republican Party.

Viguerie has a lot more to say in detail about what’s needed – you can read it here.

I wish there was another solution, but there isn’t. The people who dominate elective office will not change. They must be tossed out and replaced by normal people.