Hard choices to save America

Dear America: My Country, my inspiration and my heartbreak, how did we get here? What are we teaching our children by the mess we find ourselves in? What hopeless ruts have we created for them? Will they ever be able to climb out? Have we not grossly betrayed their trust and the generations before us that left us an America worth fighting for? Are there measures we can take to right the ship? Is it possible that we could still lay down a path that they can follow with safety and hope, and with pride in their Country? Are we worthy stewards of this grand legacy, or will we turn a cold shoulder to their futures? Millions of our grandchildren will be coming down the pipeline… to what? Will we prepare to meet them and carry them or will we leave them up a tree?

Our American forefathers founded a Country almost devoid of meddlesome laws, prohibitions and social programs. Their emphasis was on establishing a land of opportunity, not a land of handouts. They abhorred foreign entanglements, debt, taxes or tyranny. And most of them would have refused charity. Whatever we call this thing we have now created, it is not the America they conceived. No wonder it is not working, and it can never work.

Brave men established our republic, and scoundrels have bastardized it into an unrecognizable, untenable, indefensible pit of self-pleasing ideologues, who think that money is something the government prints more of, whenever we need more. The more powerful this government becomes, the more weak the dollar. Every man, woman and child in this country has a far superior standard of living than those forefathers of old, who sacrificed all for Country, and opportunity, and would never have asked for anything. We are one of the most wealthy countries in the world, yet many of our people reap considerable government benefits and almost half pay little or no income tax. And still they want more. They cry “take it from the rich,” as if they are entitled to another’s property just because they want it. Enough is enough!

Let’s not waste any time. Let’s fix it now. It’s not too late to repair whatever we can so that we can still face the historians that will be grading us in the future. Shame and desperation has driven me to this, but movements have been inspired by much worse. So here is my plan:

A COLLECTIVE GAME OF SURVIVOR! Based on Patriotism instead of greed. America, we must take a deep breath, clear our heads, and like survivors of a tsunami, scavenge what is left and usable and let go of what is past. The America of our yesterday is gone, washed out to sea. No Tea Party is going to bring back what we have lost, or make the present system work. We must chunk the long held, well-intentioned absolutes that did not work and replace them with better solutions based on our present knowledge and our immediate situation. We must work together. We must act like those survivors of a natural disaster, who no longer care what political label the next man may have championed, as long as he is a living, active partner in our survival. Each patriot is valuable and cooperation is our hope for success. “United we stand… Divided we fall.” So we will share. We will have to help and teach each other. We must be practical, cunning, and efficient. For our Country!

WE ARE EQUALS! We must reacquaint ourselves with the concepts of respect and civility, and once again see every man as a fellow countryman, a member of the team. We must stop trying to control, subsidize or tax (rob) our fellow Americans. I must see my neighbor as a co-laborer, regardless of his status or financial portfolio. He is my partner, not my responsibility, and not my benefactor. We must hold on to liberty as our means and our end, and to mutual respect as the essential ingredient for its possibility. Live and let live. Our only national obligation is to enforce a fair and inclusive playing field. Then liberty and respect balance each other. One cannot overrun the other. Those that would actually hinder liberty, or blatantly show disrespect would be tried in the courts and when judged, be convicted as unpatriotic and required to pay a punitive rudeness tax. In the beginning, this will be a great source of revenue for the government. All of you angry Liberals and Conservatives cussing me right now would be the first to be arrested!

A NEW (but old)STANDARD! We must make drastic changes in our legal and social models, based on one simple requirement, a key assumption in any business plan; feasibility. No more perfect-world paradigms that depend on borrowing what we could never pay for, or taking by taxation one man’s resources to “redistribute” the wealth. No more punishing the successful, just to purchase bigger or better cars or televisions or lottery tickets, or to prolong another man’s bad habits. No more expectation of government to be the answer for social wrongs or injustice. The relative wrongs suffered by those in this generation would be considered laughable to those who built this country. It is way past time that every American show some self-respect, and demonstrate half of the self-reliance and gratitude of the first Americans. Every man and woman must take ownership of their own lives, and accept responsibility for their choices and actions, or lack of them. Life will never be fair, and after all the money spent in the past fifty years to make it so, the “entitled” only demand more, in exchange for votes. So from now on, Government will be only for those essentials which we all agree on; Protection from our enemies and criminals; Infrastructure for our towns and commerce; the establishment of laws and courts to argue them. And prisons. But we will need fewer of them in the future. Keep reading!

MASSIVE GOVERNMENT DOWNSIZING! No more meddling in industry, no more loans to failures, no more burden on bureaucrats for creation of jobs, or subsidies for farms or even education. More importantly, No more prohibitions of harmful substances, or the prosecution, or incarceration of abusers, or even the costs of humanitarianism such as rehabilitation after addiction.

No more wars against despots, imperialists, WMD’s, drug cartels or corrupt industries. Let other countries fight their own battles, legalize drugs and let nature take its course, let the free market of ideas punish the captains of industry that conspire to hurt or cheat us. From now on we will depend on the many avenues of communication we have to solve the world’s ills through personal involvement, citizen boycotts, and other forms of economic pressure. These things are more efficient than government.


A BETTER, DRUG FREE AMERICA! Use the money saved from the end of our various chronic, unwinnable wars to nurture benevolent organizations committed to education, healing and good health. Use our resources, however we choose to gather them, to reward the good and the excellent. Erase most laws, and use the free market, social pressure, even insurance rates to hold the foolish citizens in check. We already do this to smokers. From now on, if you smoke, use drugs, drive recklessly, or any other destructive behavior, you just have to pay more for your insurance. Much more. And if you do not have insurance, and are not responsible for the damage you do to yourself or society, then you must be put into a work camp the first time you fail to be responsible for your actions. If you want to be prosperous and free, then stop doing those things which make your insurance so expensive.

In other words, a citizen would have to pay for the “right” to abuse drugs. Drug testing by insurance companies would decide who must purchase it. Failure to pay for this admittedly costly insurance coverage would result in assignment to military style work camps, where drug-free labor teams will solve public needs. If you are addicted and dying from drugs, for your and our protection, the government will provide a quiet, safe place where you can have all the drugs you need until you expire. This will be a system with few repeat offenders.

No longer will our hard earned money be spent to frustrate or punish citizens who are determined to cripple or destroy their lives with dangerous drugs. We tried to protect them from themselves and failed. So now we will let it go, with clear consciences. There are much better ways to use our energy and resources. We will fight your addiction until you are eighteen, and then, we will leave you to your choices. We cannot bankrupt our Country because of foolish people.

After legalization, drugs will be cheap and available, at the local market. The profit and incentive to produce and market them illegally will be gone, thus disabling large, evil forces within our society and around the globe. Trillions will be saved and redirected to higher uses; Curing disease, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked. Meanwhile the Government will assist those who choose addiction and death, and accommodate them to get what they want. But anyone caught giving these drugs to the under-aged will be executed, (humanely) on sight. In a few years the drug war will be reduced to something like the Jerry Lewis Telethon. This same policy would apply for alcohol abuse, prostitution or any other moral issue legislated in the past. Do what you will, just be accountable, and leave our children alone! The money we don’t spend on law enforcement, prisons and rehab can be invested instead in our most important resource: our children. There is always hope for them.

FREE ENTERPRISE! Americans and their farms and companies will be freed to search, invent and produce again. There will be no interference with those producing food, energy or jobs, as long as they obey the law. American energy independence will trump ecological handwringing. And every business is on its own, no loans or long-standing support from the Federal Government. There will be no dependence on other countries, outside our influence and control, to provide the essential things for our progress and lifestyle. Land, precious metals, petroleum products or businesses within the United States will not be sold to aliens. American businesses that move more than 20% of their assets or operations outside of the country will make up for the loss to the country by paying double taxes on the remainder of their State-side revenues. It will be “get in and commit, or get out.” If operating in a beautiful, prosperous, free society is not enough for entrepreneurs, then let them find the place which better suits them. But no more cutting our throats at the job level and still reaping the profits from our economy.

SIMPLE, ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNMANT! Representatives elected will be short–lived and held to a new, more accountable level of performance. Balanced budgets and fiscal solvency will be a given, built on equitable taxation policies, and will be second only to the protection of our land and its people. It will always be a no-frills government, requiring half the present taxes, wrangling with a simple argument, Solvency and/or National Security. One or the other could only be temporarily neglected or sacrificed when the other is in dire jeopardy. The people will decide every election whether or not the elected representatives got it right.

A VOLUNTEER, LIBERAL SOCIETY! The savings to the taxpayer will be immense as these ideas are implemented and our government shrinks to a third of its size. More money will be available to create jobs in the private sector, donate to charity, and to stimulate the economy. Individuals will be encouraged through every means possible to be as liberal with their own resources as they can afford, to help their fellow man, and make the world a better place. Every year, instead of the counter-cultural Academy Awards, where we edify vice and anarchy, America will host awards honoring our most generous. Philanthropists will be honored on billboards and stamps, in comparison to sports thugs.

NO PAIN, NO GAIN: Tragically, but unavoidably, there will be a natural die-off of those terminally addicted to hard sex and drugs, but immediately freeing up their resources, jobs and wasted opportunities to other, more capable individuals. This combined Darwinian wave of consequences and general prosperity will discourage future drug abuse and die-offs, and prompt wasteful, indulgent people to find better pastimes. Without so much money being spent on drugs, its effects and the hopeless, extravagant war against it, America will again be the most prosperous and progressive country on Earth, as those funds are redirected to many other higher, more healthy purposes. We will once again have a country worth fighting for! And one worthy of our children.

A BETTER AMERICA! Perhaps the freed money, redirected through independent foundations, could be turned towards education, job training, or health and family counseling, thus attacking some of the causes of drug abuse, family deterioration and criminal behavior.

So, in case you have been overwhelmed, the new social paradigm would be guided by these principles:

1. Let Nature takes its course. (with businesses, natural disasters, self-destructive behavior)

2. Free market of ideas and enterprise. America First in loyalty, investment, and economic survival.

3. Minimal government and taxation, mostly for national safety and security.

4. Behavior modification accomplished through sin-tax styled insurance rates, for self-destructive behavior, with stiff enforcement; The subsequent requirement for personal financial responsibility/accountability through personal savings or insurance.

5. Unemployable citizens and orphans will be exempt and covered by the government. The majority of responsible citizens will carry the minority that has no wherewithal. Replace the war on drugs with a war on unaccountability!

6. Liberty: Complete freedom of the individual, except where his actions may harm others.

7. Civility: Mandatory tolerance and respect between citizens; for their ideas, religion or cultural affinity.

8. Laws will be made only to maintain order, not to legislate morals according to any religious or political philosophy.

9. Limited income and terms for elected officials. Fiscal irresponsibility treated as treason. All government bills will be focused on one law at a time. Votes will be straight up or down. All pork and political intrigues of the past will be considered out of order. A limited number of lobbyists, consultants, influence peddlers and other non-elected, non-appointed shapers of laws and policy will be permitted, who must apply and be approved, and live in government housing and receive a government salary, and will be disqualified from service if their total family assets reach one half of one million dollars. Those convicted of serving themselves, or corporate interests, or alien interests, at the expense of, or at the risk of harm to the American people, will be sent to prison for twenty years.

10. Severe, consistent punishment for human predators; rapists, robbers, violent offenders, wife or child beaters, or drugs given to minors. Mandatory Death Penalty for second offenders.

Now let’s get to work!