Do We Really Need More Uninvolved Voters?

Many people on both sides of the political spectrum are having misgivings over the recent Supreme Court decision concerning the Affordable Health Care for America Act (Obama Care). Those on the Left end of the spectrum were less than enamored with the Supremes ruling that the States could not be penalized for refusing to expand their Medicaid and Medicare spending in order to cover all provisions included within Obama Care by having their Federal subsidies revoked. This will allow any or all of the States to option not to extend additional funding and coverage thus placing the onus to cover these expenditures with the Federal Government. This may very well prove to be the stumbling block to implementing Obama Care universally throughout the country. That may lead to some states being an active member under Obama Care while other states would not be included in the stipulations in Obama Care unless the Federal Government agreed to provide all the funding. Should this lead to the condition where not all States would have to apply the full mandates in Obama Care then those who optioned to be included might become havens for those seeking such coverage for some personal reasons.

On the right side of the spectrum there were numerous camps with many people having more than one problem with the Supreme Court rulings. The most obvious dispute was that many felt assured Obama Care was completely and utterly against the Constitution. They, for a large part, felt that since Obama Care was presented not as a tax but as a mandate under the Commerce Clause, that under that definition would not allow the government to force people to purchase anything, let alone healthcare insurance. Others were simply in shock when they realized that even Justice Anthony Kennedy was vehemently opposed to deeming Obama Care as Constitutional and even wrote a scathing minority opinion for the Court strongly stating what had been defined as the strict constructionist, conservative opinion. Others were more specific in their objections and simply had difficulty with the personal mandate which placed them in a similar camp as many of those surprised by the Constitutional ruling for the majority of the stipulations challenged in the Court. Then there were those who were most upset with the reasoning by Chief Justice Roberts that it is not the purview of the Supreme Court to protect the people from the decisions of their duly elected representatives. Those in this group argue that it is exactly within the powers of the Supreme Court to decide that the actions or legislations produced by the other two branches of the Government whether done individually or jointly are Constitutional or not. They took umbrage that the Chief Justice opined that the Supreme Court was not so empowered as to dissolve or negate actions by the rest of the government as it was basically a complete disemboweling of the powers of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Roberts by his opinion has neutered the Supreme Court by negating the power of the Court to overturn legislation under the grounds of its being against the restrictions on the Federal Government contained in the Constitution, a power which was originally established by Marbury v. Madison when he declared parts of the Judiciary act of 1789 unconstitutional in 1803. Instead, this decision removes this power and responsibility from the Supreme Court Justices and lays it at the feet of the people and their elected representatives. Chief Justice Roberts has now placed the power of determining Constitutionality with the other two branches of government in all matters concerning duly passed legislation, probably the most drastic and important affect this decision will have going forward.

The United States will now be forced to answer Chief Justice Robert’s challenge. The hue and cry resultant from this challenge set forth by this decision has mostly rung around a call to action in the upcoming November elections. This may very well result in making the November elections more of a potential recall petition over Obama Care than simply a normal Presidential and Congressional election cycle. The demand has been strongest by conservatives who have made the call for every person who cares about the future of the United States and to its Constitution to make sure they are registered to vote and exercise their right to vote. Whether or not you agree with their seemingly panic mode overreaching excitement makes little difference, this has become their rallying call. Those who support the opinion expressed by Justice Roberts or simply are supportive of the decision on the Constitutionality of Obama Care will need to either answer this call with one of their own which will simply guarantee the election being a referendum over Obama Care. This is where everything gets interesting. It would be one thing if only those who are actually animated by these events were the ones who went to the poles and voted, but with the heightened emotional aspects of this vote will result in likely interesting consequences. One will obviously be the higher likelihood for voter fraud and other shenanigans. This can be fought by both sides being vigilant and having more than usual observers at polling locations making sure all laws and requirements are enforced and everything is performed by the book and aboveboard. The other side effect will be increased occurrence of both sides placing far more emphasis on recruiting and registering people who may not normally bother with voting and persuade them to support their particular views. This might result in many people voting in one way or the other with little or no knowledge as to the why and wherefores of the votes they cast. This is likely to be even worse than usual and may not be the healthiest of efforts as there are sufficient people already simply voting as some influence instructs them to vote without having any honest preference or knowledge on the candidates and choices. There are those who will simply say this is one of the drawbacks of having a democracy. Others will answer back that we are a republic, not a democracy. Neither side will actually address the issue of what can politely be called ignorant voting. I guess that is something that actually is a result of our overriding desire to increase ballot access by any means possible, as long as it gets more people who support what our side wants. We don’t really need more voters as much as we need more informed voters.

Beyond the Cusp

Submission is the Demand of the Absolutist

Peel back the layers of any absolutist philosophy and at the core you will find the same requirement, submission of all followers. There will also be the inevitability of the superiority of the absolutist philosophy with the complete subjugation of the world as an inevitability. The path to this absolute control of all the Earth may differ from one absolutist philosophy to the next, but they all claim the inevitability of their superiority. The two most familiar of these philosophies from the present or recent past are Communism and Nazism. Both philosophies called for their inevitable conquering of the entire world yet the means were actually as opposite as you can find. The Nazis saw their superiority would allow them to conquer the world through military might while the Communists believed that all they need do was wait as all other systems would eventually fail and come to recognize that the only workable solution was Communism. The Communists also believed in aiding the furtherance of their cause through military conquest or through infiltration and subversion of non-Communist countries.

Submission has actually been the rule of governance through the annals of history. The most common absolutist government is a monarchy with a king sitting as the infallible leader who demanded complete and total submission to their rules and edicts. The monarch might decorate their demands of submission by having a court consisting of landowners and select intellectuals but these people only held the power of agreement. Had any of the members of court opposed the absolute power and correctness of the King they would soon find out that non-submission was not only disallowed, but punished by forfeiture of one’s life. This form of absolute rule had varying names for the king which include Czar, Emperor, Pharaoh, Khan, or Caliph among others. The names may change but the intolerance of individualism remained as an absolute. All of these absolutist systems not only demand submission to their authority but also submission of the individual to forfeit their individuality and fit a defined mold for whatever position in the society or community one is assigned. In each instance there are those who having gained complete trust of the hierarchy and rulers who get assigned to the positions of enforcers of compliance, of submission by all the subjects. These were the Gestapo under the Nazis and the KGB in Soviet Russia.

Most of the people in the West do not understand the dehumanizing and irresistible force which is able to force the complete submission of entire populations. This is due to the revolutionary change which came with the Enlightenment which posited the idea that the individual was to be self-aware and thus had rights which even a sovereign had to recognize. When the revolutionary philosophies of the Enlightenment were reinforced with the ideals from Judeo-Christian ethics, the individual became the equivalent of a sovereign over the self. This concept slowly but steadily altered and changed the governance by placing limits upon the sovereigns while empowering even the most common of the citizenry to have a voice in their government. The most crucial of the events during this period of transformation was the founding of the United States of America with its unique Constitution and its defining document, the Declaration of Independence. These two documents went further than their influencing documents and political philosophies such as the Magna Carta and the writings of John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Thomas Hobbes in defining the nobility of the individual who was to be served by government which was to be designed to protect the individual from government oppression and from criminal intent. These documents plainly stated the only entity which was above the individual was to be the Creator and never the government. That was the theory.

Despite this lack of familiarity and seeming inability of many in the West to recognize absolutist influences and their requirement of submission of the individual, these situations remain the rule for the vast majority of the people living on Earth today. Even in the Western nations the governments have been steadily absorbing more and more powers and control over the individual which will inevitably lead to the demanded submission once they have stolen sufficient control that they feel they have attained irreversible and absolute power. This might be part of the explanation behind why numerous of those in politics who support an all-powerful central government ally themselves with other groups who have a history of absolutism and appear to call for submission of the people to the dictates from the government. This is an alliance that will be the bane of those who believe in the freedoms and rights of individualism. When the inevitable conflict ignites between those who follow the beliefs of freedom, individuality, and limited governance and the powers of absolutist power of governance, no matter what the basis for the rule, those who will be fighting for individual rights and freedoms will likely be at distinct disadvantage as they are likely to resist the conflict until it is overbearingly obvious that there exist no other alternative to prevent forced submission. It very well may be the love of peace and the seeming natural abhorrence to violence which may doom the powers of freedom, liberty and individualism to fall before the powers of absolutism and the consequential force into submission. This is the possibilities which fills too many of my nights of dreaming with nightmares.

Beyond the Cusp

Turkey, Israel, Gaza, and Supply Ship

The biggest story in the Middle East happened this past week and almost nobody covered the story. Twenty months after the Gaza Flotilla fiasco where the Turkish IHH terrorists viciously attacked and attempted to kill or kidnap the IDF soldiers enforcing the legal embargo on Hamas in Gaza we are treated to the complete opposite sending real honest aid into Gaza under a self-imposed press blackout. This happened on a ship named the Mavi Marmara and instantaneously the entire world heard that name, Mavi Marmara, and it became synonymous with Israeli brutality. The whole world lauded the terrorists and condemned the Israeli IDF soldiers for weeks afterwards. The fact that the entire flotilla carried absolutely no useable aid did not matter. The fact that Israel still delivered the outdated and useless medical supplies and foodstuffs and Hamas never even bothered to pick them up allowing them instead to sit in the Middle East sun until they were finally hauled away as the trash they had been from the start never was mentioned. The fact that the entire Mavi Marmara Flotilla was a rouse cooked up to make a spectacle for the world to condemn Israel did not matter, the world jumped at the opportunity to make Israel the evil menace completing the plan just as it was meant to go down. But the new story today, twenty months later, will be ignored and virtually nobody in the world will hear of this story, this almost non-story.

 

Here we are, twenty months after the ship named the Mavi Marmara made headlines around the world and yet, when an honest to goodness aid ship from Turkey delivers aid for Gaza, according to protocols, and using the Israeli port of Ashod; was designed to be so completely ignored that the actual name of the ship was left unmentioned. The Turkish ship was reported to have carried aid worth $1.5 million worth of aid consisting of medical supplies, food and other basics. This part of the report was confirmed by Turkish Deputy Premier Bekir Bozdag as was the fact that Turkey had arranged with the Israeli Defense Ministry all details for the delivery of the aid last October. There was absolutely no attempt or even mention of the blockade of Gaza and every detail and effort was expended to assure this real aid was delivered in a timely and peaceable manner.

 

There were no heroic proclamations of defiance in the face of untold cruelty perpetrated by Israel by imposing the blockade. The only statement came from the Turkish Deputy Premier Bekir Bozdag who stated that, “innocent civilians not only die by shelling but can be killed by the strict siege they are being held under, which prevents the entry of food, medicine and other basic needs,” after confirming the safe passage arranged for delivery of every ounce of this aid from Turkey to the people of Gaza. The rest of this non-story occurs each and every day week in and week out. Rarely mentioned and often denied is that Israel transports literally tons of food, clothing, medical supplies and sundry other necessities into Gaza daily. There have been times that Hamas has refused to receive these supplies usually just before arranged visitations by international inspectors in order to convey the idea that they are living deprived of basic necessities, a story happily covered at regular intervals. But the fact that supplies are transferred into Gaza daily and that any country or organization wishing to send nonmilitary relief shipments into Gaza may do so through approved channels and all aid is inspected and transferred will receive no coverage. The fact that Israel actually sees to the well-being of a territory from which they have withdrawn every Jew within its borders and only has insisted to inspect the inflow of aid due to the endless barrage of rockets and mortars fired into Israeli towns and cities every week from an independent, Jew-free Gaza run by the Hamas terrorists is also seldom mentioned. Yet, you can rely on regular mention of any reprisals when Israel uses their military in measured attacks to destroy rocket, mortar and other weaponry warehouses and machine shops in an attempt to curtail their use against Israeli civilians. That makes the front page news as did the Mavi Marmara fake aid flotilla. Meanwhile, the fact that Israel allows aid in and Turkey is able to send a real aid shipment to Gaza through Israel without incident remains relatively unreported. That, my friends is the truth but I will most likely receive e-mails calling me a tool of the Jewish world lobby and I will be accused of being used and of lying. Sometime the most reviled thing in the world is the truth.

 

Beyond the Cusp