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Less Government is the Best Government




 
 

Drastic Problems Require Drastic Solutions
-by Scott Rohter, February 2012

I realize that drastic problems require drastic solutions. Problems of the type and magnitude that our country is facing require drastically different solutions proposed by drastically different leaders.  The only drastically different candidate left in the Republican Primary with drastically different solutions is Ron Paul.  None of the other candidates in the race are really that much different than the other leaders who preceded them, and from all of those who have been governing our nation for over the last thirty years! And therein lies the problem.  We need to put out a huge fire that is raging inside Washington, D.C. It is threatening to take our country down, and we can’t do it with a little garden hose.  That is the problem with Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and even Rick Santorum.  None of these candidates are really that much different than all of the other politicians that have come and gone before them, who have got our country into the mess we are in.

Gingrich, Romney and Santorum have been in and out of politics before, and none of them has ever made a name for themselves as an outsider, i.e. someone who is drastically different, or someone who is willing to take on the Establishment and change the status quo.  Remember, it is the Establishment that has been in control of our government to one degree or another for most of the last one-hundred years.  And it is the Establishment that has got us into the predicament we are in. Prior to a hundred years ago, the word establishment didn't really have that much significance in politics. It is the Establishment that is responsible for the status quo, and for America’s declining position of influence in the world today.

Of these three candidates, Newt Gingrich is the quintessential Washington insider.  He has been doing the “Washington Shuffle” for over thirty years.  There is no bigger member of the “Washington Political Establishment” then Newt Gingrich is!  And in all of his thirty years in government, he has never exhibited even the slightest inclination to challenge the Establishment.

Newt got his start in Georgia politics in 1974 when he launched the first of two unsuccessful campaigns for Congress.  The second attempt was in 1976. Then in 1979 he was first elected to Congress from Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. Newt had an up and down career as a U.S. Congressman, but all the while he continued to contribute to drastically growing the size and the scope of the Federal government by doing things like helping to create the largest single government expansion in U.S. history, the U.S. Department of Education.  That’s not the type of drastic change that we need right now in our country!  That’s why I find it so funny that Newt is promoting himself now as a fan of small government.  He is parading around as a big fan of reducing the size of the Federal Government. That is the same Federal government that Newt helped to grow while he was a member of Congress for twenty years!  And please keep in mind that Newt was no average member of Congress.  He was the House Minority Whip, and later the Speaker of the House.

Newt also helped to hand over substantial amounts of American national sovereignty to international organizations like the World Court with his support for GATT and NAFTA. Note: It is not necessary to give up autonomy in order to get along with one’s neighbors!  He was elected as the House Minority Whip in 1989 after Dick Cheney resigned that post to become the Secretary of Defense. When the Republicans took over the House of Representatives in 1995 Newt Gingrich became the Speaker of the House, where he was only two short breaths away from the Presidency!  Newt’s Establishment credentials are impeccable!  That’s why I always find it amazing when talk radio hosts like Mark Levin or Sean Hannity just gloss right over the facts, and portray Newt Gingrich as some kind of an “outsider” or a real conservative who will restore limited government in Washington, D.C.  That is actually the farthest thing from the truth!

Four short years after becoming the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich resigned his position as Speaker after admitting to alleged ethics violations. He paid a $300,000 fine and ultimately he resigned from Congress in disgrace in 1999. This is the kind of story that might make for a good Hollywood movie, but not for a good Presidency!  These are not the type of drastic solutions to problems that our country needs right now.  Rather they are part of the overall reason that our country is in the trouble it is in.  America’s problems are primarily caused by self-serving politicians of the type that Newt Gingrich is!

Newt Gingrich is just another one of those self-serving politicians who have been around for years. He is another one of the reasons that our country is in the big trouble it is in.  There is an old adage.  First you create a problem.  Then you invent a solution to fix the problem, and then you sell the public the cure. This is all in an effort to make money of course. And who would know that better than Newt Gingrich, who for most of the past ten years since he resigned from Congress has been doing just that.  He has been cashing in on all of his old political connections from his twenty year career in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Newt Gingrich has been doing the “K- Street Hustle” in addition to the “Washington D.C. Shuffle” while he has been cashing in on all of his Washington political connections.  Please read my articles; Newtworthy or Not and Newt Gingrich Consummate Politician.

As far as Mitt Romney is concerned, I don’t think that even Mitt Romney knows exactly what he believes anymore.  I think he is probably about as confused as the rest of us are by now.  He probably has to look at his wrist watch several times a day just in order to see if it’s time for his next shift in position on some important policy or another.  And please keep in mind that the name Romney is not new to politics either.  His father was George Romney, the Governor of Michigan.  Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts has had Presidential aspirations for a long time. He first ran for the Republican nomination for President in 2008, but he lost to John McCain. Now he is back again in 2012 with John McCain’s endorsement.

The Romney’s have five children.  They are all sons. There is Tag 41, Matt 40, Josh 36, Ben 33, and Craig 30. The oldest three have all received their MBA’s from Harvard, which is the fountainhead of liberal–progressive ideology in America. You are lucky to get out of Harvard with any of your original conservative ideas or traditional values still intact, which is assuming that you even had any to start out with.  It is also one of the most expensive Universities in the country, and the Romney’s sent three of their five children there, if that tells you anything.  Their fourth oldest son and the one who is probably the least likely to venture into politics like his father and his grandfather before him is Ben Romney who is a medical doctor.  If we want to create another political dynasty like the Kennedy’s, then it seems like this is the perfect opportunity to do so.  But I think I'll just pass.

Between Gingrich, Romney, and Santorum, obviously Rick Santorum is by far and away the best choice.  He is first and foremost honest, which is no small accomplishment these days, especially when you consider the opposition.  Integrity and character are even more important today than they have ever been, especially when choosing someone to lead our country.  George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Abraham Lincoln all agreed on the importance of character.  And John Quincy Adams wrote, “I would rather be found guilty of making a serious mistake in judgment than to be accused of being even a little bit insincere.” –Reprisal.    Benjamin Harrison wrote, “Vacillating and inconsistency are as incompatible with personal success as they are with self-respect and human dignity.”  And finally George Washington wrote that “the greatest title of all is just to be called an honest man.”  Please read my article The Greatest Title of All.

So without a doubt, Rick Santorum is the most trustworthy of the three candidates.  But beyond that, is he really that much different than anybody else in Washington?  Is he that much different than the typical Washington political insider?  Does he have the conviction and the courage to propose the drastically different solutions that are necessary to solve our nation’s problems. Does he have the courage to resist the powerful influences of the real policy makers who exercise their power from behind the scenes, as US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter said? On the top of that short list is the Council on Foreign Relations.  I know Rick Santorum is honest, and he is a principled man of character, but will he stand up to the demands of the globalists inside our government and over there at the Council on Foreign Relations?  Will Rick Santorum stand up to those internationalists who are using the Environmental Movement and the phony global warming agenda to facilitate their worldwide goals?  Among the most important of those worldwide goals is the consolidation of national governments into some form of regional governing alliance like The European Union, The African Union and The North American Union. 

I have my questions regarding Rick Santorum, but just to be fair I also have some serious concerns about Ron Paul too.  At the top of that list are some of Ron Paul’s rather naïve foreign policy positions.  We cannot just withdraw every last American soldier from every foreign country and re-deploy them back home to defend our own borders.  We need to be able to detect and stop threats to our country before they get here.  Ballistic missiles can’t be stopped at our borders, neither can dirty bombs smuggled into one of our ports on a foreign container ship.  We cannot wait to intercept all terrorist threats until they show up at our doorstep!  We need to be smarter than that.  We need to intercept these real and potential threats to our country at their point of origin if possible.

Besides that if we withdrew all of our overseas military personnel from vulnerable countries in Asia and Eastern Europe, then Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran would move in and impose their own brand of hegemony.  America has to exercise more discretion than that.  We have to use some kind of common sense about where we project our military might, and where we withdraw our forces.  A total withdrawal back to our own territorial boundaries is more than naïve.  It’s just plain stupid!  I understand the attraction of that idea, but to do so would create more problems than it would solve.

Secondly, Ron Paul’s intention to legalize the use of recreational drugs is just about as naïve as his position on troop withdrawals.  Sure it would cut down on the amount of inner city crime if we made all drugs cheap, legal, and readily available, but what would the other shortsighted consequences of that rather ill-conceived policy be?...  We would have hundreds of thousands of zombies and addicts just running around the streets of our country, unable to effectively contribute to society in any meaningful way.  I know that some libertarians either don’t care, or don’t believe that would happen, but all you have to do is consider what the widespread availability of recreational drugs did to China in the 19th century.  It set China back at least one-hundred years!

Then there are the legitimate concerns about Ron Paul’s age and stamina.  The office of the Presidency is a very difficult and demanding job that makes even young men age rapidly. What would happen to Ron Paul’s health in three years?  Would he even be up to doing the job in three years? These are real concerns.

And finally, what is going on with this unlikely alliance between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney in order to push back against Rick Santorum's recent surge in the polls?  Am I just supposed to accept that an honest man like Ron Paul who has always held consistent views over the years, has anything at all in common with an ambitious politician like Mitt Romney who has changed his positions over the years more often than the weather changes in Oregon?  After all Mitt Romney is not called Mr. Flipflop for nothing. Please visit my website mittromneysflipflops.com.  Am I just supposed to trust Ron Paul’s better judgment in forming this strategic alliance with Mitt Romney in order to defeat Rick Santorum, when I already question his better judgment both on troop withdrawals, and on the legalization of recreational drugs? To say the least, I am deeply troubled about Ron Paul too! 

I would much rather see a partnership between Santorum and Paul, in order to defeat Romney and Gingrich.  I would much rather see a partnership between the two honest men in the race, in order to defeat the two dishonest men in the race. Romney and Gingrich are two men who don’t hold the truth in very high regard.  But God help us, if as someone suggested on the radio last week, Santorum and Gingrich partner up in any way to defeat the coalition of Romney and Paul.  Then I honestly wouldn’t know who to throw my support to!

"The truth, the political truth, and nothing but the political truth.
A journalist has no better friend than the truth."
- Scott Rohter

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