First let me make it clear that it is a Tactic, not a Goal.
“Throw The Bums Out” is [my name for] a strategy developed by a New England 9-12 Project. The idea is a simple one: Organize a WHOLE LOT of people to vote against the incumbent in every election.
It's the epitome of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid):
You don’t have to know all the arguments for and against every candidate. You don’t have to keep up with the details of all the issues. On election day, you just vote against the incumbent.
And the result—the cashiering out of a lot of the Resident Evil in Washington—will put the fear of God into all of them, including the victorious challengers who will have seen, by the very fact of their election, that the voters are in no mood to put up with any more nonsense: That the voters, once again, are in charge.
And then…we tell them what to do…and they’ll know that there are real consequences for not doing it.
It's a good thing.
In itself, as a stand-alone "goal", there is nothing to be gained merely by removing incumbents - particularly if their replacements are worse. But that's not what we're proposing—
"Throw The Bums Out" is a means to the goals of:
1) the Destruction of the Imperial State;
2) the Draining of the Washington Swamp,
3) the Restoration of our Republic & its Constitution
4) the Reclamation our Heritage and Liberty,
5) the Return our of Government to “We The People”.
Washington has become a pile of money, a gold-plated lifestyle, an insider’s dream-world of privilege, money, power, extravagance, influence, prerogatives, deference and entitlements. And it breeds arrogance, elitism, narcissism, corruption, greed, vanity, pride, paranoia, thuggery and outright evil.
The Golden Honey of Washington has become an irresistible lure for exactly the wrong sort of creature. This problem didn’t start with Obama, and it won’t end with his defeat. It did not start with the Democratic Congress, and it won’t end with a Republican majority. This president and this Congress are merely the logical result of our corrupted and broken political system.
And if we don’t change it—if we don’t Drain the Swamp—Marxist, Progressive, Big Government scum like them will continue to rise to the surface again and again.
Our Founders created our form of government on the idea of “citizen legislators” who would return to their homes, farms and businesses after a term in office, and have to live under the laws they passed. They did this intentionally to keep government from becoming exactly what it’s become: A bloated, fat, rich, out-of-touch, out-of control, aristocracy that seeks to rule rather than govern, and exempts itself from the onerous avalanche of taxes, regulations, restrictions and encroachments of liberty it forces on the rest of us.
And this scabrous aristocracy does not respect us. Nor does it fear us. Indeed, with every passing decade, it becomes bigger, stronger, more powerful, more intrusive, more coercive, more corrupt, more haughty, more exclusive, more intimidating, more arbitrary, more dangerous and more directly threatening.
Our Founders created our form of government on the idea of “citizen legislators” who would return to their homes, farms and businesses after a term in office, and have to live under the laws they passed. They did this intentionally to keep government from becoming exactly what it’s become: A bloated, fat, rich, out-of-touch, out-of control, aristocracy that seeks to rule rather than govern, and exempts itself from the onerous avalanche of taxes, regulations, restrictions and encroachments of liberty it forces on the rest of us.
And this scabrous aristocracy does not respect us. Nor does it fear us. Indeed, with every passing decade, it becomes bigger, stronger, more powerful, more intrusive, more coercive, more corrupt, more haughty, more exclusive, more intimidating, more arbitrary, more dangerous and more directly threatening.
Our protests and demands go unheeded as they work for their own selfish ends, and the enrichment of themselves and their friends—by the billions of dollars— and our expense.
It is time to make them FEAR us. It is time to regain control over our government. And one way to do that is the wholesale defeat of incumbents. It would sent a very powerful and clear message: "We The People are in charge!" And it would have a chastising effect on every elected official across the country.
Thomas Jefferson said, “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
It is time to make them FEAR us. It is time to regain control over our government. And one way to do that is the wholesale defeat of incumbents. It would sent a very powerful and clear message: "We The People are in charge!" And it would have a chastising effect on every elected official across the country.
Alternatively, using our energy and resources to get a few good people elected to the rotting corpse of a pernicious system won't make the stink go away. We’ve got to burn the whole damned pestilent carcass to ashes!
The long term answer is not more Republicans in office, or fewer Democrats. That's a cosmetic and temporary stop-gap—
The long term answer is not more Republicans in office, or fewer Democrats. That's a cosmetic and temporary stop-gap—
We need a Paradigm Shift. We need to reverse the balance of power and of fear. We should have the power, and the government the fear!
And when that happens, we can proceed to Drain the Swamp.
We need to make government permanently unattractive to vipers, vampires, cannibals and leeches. We need it to attract a "better class" of person. We can begin by stripping all the perks, privileges, profit and power from the jobs.
Here's a quick and dirty list of some specifics we could work for:
Here's a quick and dirty list of some specifics we could work for:
Terms Limits
Deep Salary Cuts for all government workers & elected officials
Deep Salary Cuts for all government workers & elected officials
Abolish government worker unions
The end of:
Golden parachute lifelong retirement benefits
Special health care
Gerrymandering
Lobbyist cash
Exemptions for Congress from the laws they pass
Earmarks
Pork barrel spending, etc.
Make passing bills they don’t read grounds for impeachment
Require a balanced budget
Require total transparency
Limit federal power to those enumerated in the Constitution
Restoration of the Founder’s requirement that State Legislatures appoint Senators
The end of:
Golden parachute lifelong retirement benefits
Special health care
Gerrymandering
Lobbyist cash
Exemptions for Congress from the laws they pass
Earmarks
Pork barrel spending, etc.
Make passing bills they don’t read grounds for impeachment
Require a balanced budget
Require total transparency
Limit federal power to those enumerated in the Constitution
Restoration of the Founder’s requirement that State Legislatures appoint Senators
No cars, no drivers, no planes, no banks, no hairdressers, no restaurants, etc. paid by taxpayers
We must strip the Imperial State of all its grand trappings—and everything not specifically permitted to it by the Constitution
(We can refine/revise this list as seems appropriate)
When I say I want to take our country back, I’m not talking rhetorically, or metaphorically, I mean it literally. I want to return to our Founders’ ideals and our founding documents. And in today’s America, that is nothing short of revolutionary.
The question is, are we radical enough, revolutionary enough, serious enough, dedicated enough, outraged enough to see it through?
For those who offered the very reasonable & practical suggestions that we work to elect Republicans to office or “identify vulnerable Democrats” to defeat—with all due respect, there is already a large citizens' organization busy doing that. It’s called The Republican Party. That is their mission and their job.
It's not, however, mine; nor my vision for “We The People”.
Of course, that does not preclude any of us working for candidates we believe in. But “We The People” as an entity, will remain a non-partisan citizens' group not affiliated with any political party because neither of them represent us - ordinary, real Americans.
(We can refine/revise this list as seems appropriate)
When I say I want to take our country back, I’m not talking rhetorically, or metaphorically, I mean it literally. I want to return to our Founders’ ideals and our founding documents. And in today’s America, that is nothing short of revolutionary.
The question is, are we radical enough, revolutionary enough, serious enough, dedicated enough, outraged enough to see it through?
For those who offered the very reasonable & practical suggestions that we work to elect Republicans to office or “identify vulnerable Democrats” to defeat—with all due respect, there is already a large citizens' organization busy doing that. It’s called The Republican Party. That is their mission and their job.
It's not, however, mine; nor my vision for “We The People”.
Of course, that does not preclude any of us working for candidates we believe in. But “We The People” as an entity, will remain a non-partisan citizens' group not affiliated with any political party because neither of them represent us - ordinary, real Americans.
We have to stop participating in the old paradigm that the two corrupt parties have trapped us in: the useless, continual wrangling for power and influence by the elites of both sides, but never addressing, acknowledging, or changing the underlying disease.
It is the Power Elites of both Parties that are destroying out country. And it is the immense power and of the government they've built that makes such wrangling profitable and worthwhile—to the exclusion of consideration of what's good for the country—to all the "players" in Washington.
The rejection and marginalizing of real conservatives by the Beltway Republicans cannot be overstated, it cannot be overlooked, and it cannot be forgiven.
The "elite" Republicans' treatment of Sarah Palin is as clear a demonstration as is possible of their own sense of entitlement, their view of their own superiority, and their jealous rejection of sharing power with "The People".
They want this representative of real people...to just go away!
"We The People" stand firmly with the Founders in their belief that Government Is The Enemy of The People, and should be small, weak and under the control of the citizens. And it doesn't matter what letter it has after its name.
The Founders didn't include the Second Amendment so that we could hunt ducks! They intended to guarantee that the people would always be armed against the likelihood of tyrannical government.
Exactly as they feared, government, through the machinations of those who seek to use it for power, for riches, for influence, for ego-satisfaction, for immature idealism, for belief in false utopias, or because they think they know 'what's best', has become Leviathan. It has become the Imperial State.
If we are going to restore our Republic and our Rights for ourselves and our children, we must return to the vision, principles and values of our Founders of small government that is Of the People, By the People and For the People.
And we can only do that by dismantling the Imperial State, Draining the Washington Swamp and clearing out all the vipers that thrive there.
Of course, there are a few worthy Public Servants there and elsewhere struggling against the polluted current, and we appreciate them and thank them for their honor and effort. But against the combined strength, weight and power of the corrupt, their efforts are ultimately in vain.
Only the American People working in accord, speaking with one voice can Take Our Country Back. And that is the mission of "We The People". To cling to (learn, teach and share) our core American principles and values, to be true to the Founders' vision, to increase our numbers, to join with other groups, to grow the movement...
....to reclaim our nation and our heritage and become once again: The Land of the Free!
wtp
It is the Power Elites of both Parties that are destroying out country. And it is the immense power and of the government they've built that makes such wrangling profitable and worthwhile—to the exclusion of consideration of what's good for the country—to all the "players" in Washington.
The rejection and marginalizing of real conservatives by the Beltway Republicans cannot be overstated, it cannot be overlooked, and it cannot be forgiven.
The "elite" Republicans' treatment of Sarah Palin is as clear a demonstration as is possible of their own sense of entitlement, their view of their own superiority, and their jealous rejection of sharing power with "The People".
They want this representative of real people...to just go away!
"We The People" stand firmly with the Founders in their belief that Government Is The Enemy of The People, and should be small, weak and under the control of the citizens. And it doesn't matter what letter it has after its name.
The Founders didn't include the Second Amendment so that we could hunt ducks! They intended to guarantee that the people would always be armed against the likelihood of tyrannical government.
Exactly as they feared, government, through the machinations of those who seek to use it for power, for riches, for influence, for ego-satisfaction, for immature idealism, for belief in false utopias, or because they think they know 'what's best', has become Leviathan. It has become the Imperial State.
If we are going to restore our Republic and our Rights for ourselves and our children, we must return to the vision, principles and values of our Founders of small government that is Of the People, By the People and For the People.
And we can only do that by dismantling the Imperial State, Draining the Washington Swamp and clearing out all the vipers that thrive there.
Of course, there are a few worthy Public Servants there and elsewhere struggling against the polluted current, and we appreciate them and thank them for their honor and effort. But against the combined strength, weight and power of the corrupt, their efforts are ultimately in vain.
Only the American People working in accord, speaking with one voice can Take Our Country Back. And that is the mission of "We The People". To cling to (learn, teach and share) our core American principles and values, to be true to the Founders' vision, to increase our numbers, to join with other groups, to grow the movement...
....to reclaim our nation and our heritage and become once again: The Land of the Free!
wtp
Whew! Lengthy, but well worth the effort. Awesome and inspirational message. Very well said!
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