October 6, 2008
by Paul Kemp

The proposed bailout is a big step in the right direction.  Before you jump to the conclusiopn that I have lost my libertarian/Constitutionalist mind, let me explain.
 
The Bailout is the first necessary step in a long process that will lead to the general realization that our federal government has failed us and must be disempowered.  This would be a big step for the American people: to accept the fact that the large cumbersome structure of conniving self-serving bureaucrats, regulators, contractors, consultants, Congressmen and -women, and administration flunkies hasn't been working for OUR interests, but for theirs and their industry cronies.
 
The Bailout will fail and many people will be hurt, but it is a step toward the conscious realization that most of the people we have been paying very highly to watch out for us are crooks or, at best, incompetent. 
 
This fresh understanding of our real plight will translate into every area that government touches.  It is a new thing and it is necessary for us to move to a dissolution of the all-powerful federal mega-government.
 
Those who read this may already know that the expensive and terrible wars our government has involved us in - largely by trickery and against the popular will - are totally wrong and a waste of money and lives.  Most Americans are only vaguely conscious that ALL these wars - on "Terror", on Drugs, on Poverty - are a scam and a criminal waste of time, lives, and energy.  They need one final slap in the face by our federal protectors to push them to the clear understanding that practically EVERYTHING the feds touch turns to sh*t eventually.  That's what the Bailout and every successive bailout attempt to re-inflate the Housing/Credit Bubble will do for the general population.
 
Since the bailout will fail at reinflating an illusionary bubble economy provided us by the Federal Reserve, why throw good money after bad?  Why should those of us who didn't have stock market investments or overpriced homes be forced to pay to re-inflate the values of those who did (even if this were posible, which it isn't)?
 
Awakening the public to the real cause of their problems won't, however, be quick and easy.  We're dealing with skilled demagogues here, who are fighting for their continued access to our money and the deliciously addictive power that comes with having a say over the spending of trillions of dollars with those whom they favor.  They won't give up easily.
 
There will be fertile ground in the coming depression for a dictator to spring up and rally Americans embittered by this debacle.  As in the dark days of pre-war Germany, the American people will be vulnerable to fall in behind a warlike leader who promises to re-take our rightful place in the world by military force, the only thing we have left.  Can we spread an understanding of the real culprits in this debacle, soon enough to head off that type of leader?
 
There will be more wars (John McCain was right about that!) as our dying federal apparatus flails around trying to maintain its control over the resources we need to keep our society pumped up, but it will become harder to convince the average poor boy that these wars are important or worth the risk of their lives.  Massive unemployment will make a job with Blackwater or the US Army very tempting, though.
 
It would have been cheaper to just BUY the oil we need to run this mega-maniacal society we have grown to depend on.  Instead we have stationed armies and airbases around the world to try to enforce a rigidly undemocratic system of keeping the playing field tilted in our favor (while Congress and the Administration call it "Spreading Democracy."  Very expensive to maintain a huge, inefficient global police force just to make sure our companies and citizens get their gasoline, etc., at the most favorable price.  It would have been simpler and more moral to just buy the oil, as all the peaceable neutral countries like Sweden and Switzerland do.
 
One study totalled the cost of our military expenses in with the cost our petroleum and found Americans are paying about $13 a gallon for "Regular."  On top of that, we have antagonized the people of the world with our imperialistic behavior.  It is an open secret what the criminal regime in Washington is up to, and all that remains is for the Average Joe or Josephine to realize what a mess they have made for us.
 
THAT's what the Bailout and it's inevitable failure will do.  It will be one of a painful series of nails in the coffin of our failed federal government which has lost its way.

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Congress already is held in low repute by the American people.  Our job, as Populists, is to bring the picture into sharp focus: Congress and our oversized federal government is, with few exceptions, populated by bloodsucking leaches who have been on the receiving end of campaign contributions from the financial industry (as it's called in polite circles), the military-industrial complex, the prison industry, the medical/pharmaceutical complex, and even the farm commodities folks.  Then Congress sells us on the programs and wars and subsidies that benefit the guys and gals who take them to lunch and send them to play golf in lovely resorts where the industry reps can have "access" to our elected representatives.  The lobbyists get the access, but we get the bill. 
 
America, your brothers, fathers, sons, and daughters have been blown to bits in wars cooked up by war-industry lobbyists.  What did Vietnam accomplish for us?  What will we have accomplished by our war on Iraq and Afghanistan?  Only higher gas prices and more profits for Blackwater and KBR! 

America, the same fools who sent your children and spouses to die in foreign lands to make money for the "Masters of War" have now begun a process to impoverish your retirement.  Can you see it yet?
 
The same federal government that spent 40 billion dollars for the intelligence agencies which were supposed to protect us from 9/11, is the government which has been "carefully regulating" the banking and financial industry.  How do you like the results?
 
The fact that both the Senators who are running for President are agreeing that we should spend $700 billion of our money to keep our entire financial system from coming unglued should show us something.  The solution is now MORE government - it was our government which allowed and participated in plundering the wealth of our people.  Why should we pay for more of the same incompetent "regulation" of the pirates on Wall Street?  Only a fool or a charlatan would suggest that.  And we have two of them running for the highest office in the land!
 
No, the Bailout is just the medicine the American people need, something to help them wake up to the reality that big government for the most part is just another job program for the shysters, the unprincipled, and power-hungry people in our society.  When Americans wake up to the fact that their precious savings and lifestyle have been embezzled by the very people who were paid to protect them, they may get angry enough to change things for the better.
 
How long and painful do we want this process of education to be?  Will it take more wars, drummed up to distract us from what Congress, the Administration, and their buddies at Shearson Lehman, Bear Stearns, and Goldman-Sachs have done with our wealth?  Or can we spread the real key to this intellectual puzzle to the voter who needs to hear it, that the source of most of our problems emanates from Washington, DC, and it is this: We have let the Fox guard our henhouse.
 
None of this would have happened if we had truly been governed by the Constitution, which all our officials are sworn to defend and protect.  None of the coming catastrophic changes can prevented by hiring more unprincipled people to manage our affairs of state.  The mess we've got will not be cleaned up by those who allowed and even helped it to happen.  If Americans are ready for a real change we need to bring in a principled leader who wasn't part of the posse that created the problem.
 
There is still time before the election to use the only media we, the people, still control: Word of mouth, the printing press, and the Internet.  We need to remind the voters that one Congressman has been right all along on all these issues - Ron Paul.  Are we ready to listen to him now?
 
His recommendation for the coming election is to vote for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party.  While it would be miraculous if he were to win, the one sure thing a solid popular vote for Chuck Baldwin would do would be to send a message to Washington that we're not buying their lies anymore.  We no longer trust these crooks in business suits to make our important decisions for us.  We're tired of being thrown to the wolves of Wall Street, K Street and J Street.
 
Don't vote for the folks who gave us these problems and have more waiting for us.  Don't vote for the media-approved candidates - it only encourages them to think we are still unaware of their chicanery.  Most of all: Don't vote for more Big Government, no matter what goodies it promises us.  It rarely delivers what it promises.  Why should we believe more government involvement in our health care decisions will lower the cost?  How can it?  All those bureaucrats and regulators will want to be paid, you know.
 
On November 4, let's send Washington this message:  "A lot of us out here are hip to your tricks.  We know this Bailout and all subsequent ones will fail, as will all the wars you tell us we must fight to preserve our Way of Life.  We're not buying the Establishment line of talk anymore.  We will bide our time until this empire crumbles and no longer has the strength to prevent the American people from governing ourselves, as the Constitution intended.  As a sign of our discontent of how you in Washington have managed our affairs, we're voting Chuck Baldwin in 2008."

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Paul Kemp awoke to the realities of American politics as a Conscientious Objector and war resister during the Vietnam era.  He is an entrepreneur and writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest. He welcomes feedback through his website, http://defending-your-retirement.blogspot.com/. 

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