Will we ever learn?

As I’m reading news headlines again today I’m becoming increasingly appalled at what’s being reported. It’s starting to get me really P.O.’d (Politically Outraged). Two more appointees to cabinet posts by U.S. President Barak Obama had to withdraw their nominations because they didn’t pay their taxes!?! (Aren’t these the same people who for years have been responsible for implementing our tax policies in Washington D.C.?) What is wrong with them?

I’d be inclined to give the new President credit, as he fully admitted that they shouldn’t have been nominated in the first place and it was his mistake ultimately…but hold on here…NO! These people, who have long been cashing paychecks from the government coffers, voting themselves pay raises, and dispensing monies willy-nilly, actually should have been aware of the elemental responsibility inherent to their positions to pay their taxes in the first place! These are congressional leaders, after all, who quite recently signed off on a “break-the-bank” legislation allowing the use of money, sent in annually by a reluctant citizenry of the United States (under fear of being audited by the Internal Revenue Service – Amendment 16 of the U.S. Constitution), to bail out the series of shady activities that has brought a criminal crisis upon the financial institutions of this country…along with an attached laundry list of unrelated pet spending projects. And they don’t even feel an obligation to pay into the kitty! Are these politicos oblivious to the fact that this type of behavior must be deemed as unacceptable?

Of course as an outraged (tax paying) citizen I’d be quick to call upon our I.R.S. to implement strict policies wherein the first people audited each year are those being paid money by the government. And I’d insist they start with the one’s who hold the elected posts at the highest levels. And yet, somehow I doubt that this would really change anything. You’re probably familiar with the old adage about the rooster guarding the hen house, aren’t you? Despite the best efforts of our “founding fathers” to implement a series of checks and balances into our system of government to prevent just this type of situation – there is an evil in the hearts of mankind that seemingly can’t be eradicated with any amount of rules and regulations. It’s like trying to get a warped piece of plywood straight again. (It may be theoretically plausible, but once bent is always bent.)

I don’t know if these people are just crooks and criminals before they get elected to office, or if the office corrupts them, but from the impeached governor of Illinois to Tom Daschele to Tom DeLay there’s just too much of this to keep ignoring the problem. (We should also toss the Kennedy name into the mix for those who have a longer memory.) Who ultimately is to blame for these people not just getting elected in the first place, but they keep getting reelected?

The formulation of the United States form of government has to be considered one of the greatest efforts devised by human beings to protect its citizens from the poor judgment that often befalls its leaders. That’s why it’s always important to point out that the form of government established over the United States of America is as a republic. WE ARE NOT, NOR HAVE WE EVER BEEN A DEMOCRACY!!! A democracy suggests the majority rules, whereas a republic contends each person has an equal say. (This is why there are two distinctly different parts of Congress and why we must never allow anyone to talk of abolishing the Electoral College. These are crucial aspects that set the U.S. system of government apart from a democracy.)

There is an ages old problem with democracies that our founders were quite cognizant of. The lessons from history, as regards democracies, has always been a misapplied belief as stated by Robert Maynard Hutchins that, “Equality and justice, the two great distinguishing characteristics of democracy, follow inevitably from the conception of men, all men, as rational and spiritual beings.” But the reality of democracies has always followed a path wherein, as Plato observed, “Democracy passes into despotism.”

According to Alexander Tytler, a 17th Century historian who devised Tytler’s Cycle, studied the rise and fall of nations and taught all nations go from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to freedom, from freedom to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, and from dependence back to bondage.

“The critical thing,” said Tytler, “that leads a nation to switch from abundance to selfishness, is when they vote themselves benefits from the national treasury.” Benjamin Franklin obviously understood the same principle when he wrote: “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.”

The U.S. has long been on this sliding down the slope that will inevitably bring about its own demise. We may stick around long enough to see a two hundred and fiftieth year in our run at making this republic thing work…but I fear the end is inevitably looming out there on the horizon. You’ve no doubt heard it said, “The people get the government they deserve.” I contend we’re in a place in time reminiscent of the days quoted from Judges 17:6, “In those days Israel had no king, so the people did what seemed right in their own eyes.”

In our world today the only leaders we seem to respect are the one’s who don’t interfere in our personal desires to pursue our own interests. Admittedly we’d all be content to not have to answer to anyone in authority…ever. But that just isn’t how the world works. Well, you might say, I’d be inclined to follow someone who had my best interests at heart. Is that so? For your whole life you’ve heard, in one fashion or another, about the love God has for you and His great and glorious plan for your life. But…have you taken Him up on this offer or are you still intent on following after your own hearts desire? I’ll close then with this passage from the book of Jeremiah, “Blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or the worried by the long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.

“The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I know! I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their action deserves.”

This section from Jeremiah 17 concludes with this poignant thought, “Like a bird that hatches eggs she has not laid, so are those who get their wealth by unjust means. Sooner or later they will lose their riches and, at the end of their lives, will become poor old fools.” That Jeremiah seems to have been one pretty sharp cookie.

For now I remain ever yours regardlessy,

mike