Democracy takes intelligence
A CIEMR
By Don Harward
The founding fathers took a bold step in trying to run a nation through committee. They had lived under a monarchy and knew that in good times it was good, and the opposite applied as well. In the British Empire, the world’s most powerful and prolific at that time, they witnessed firsthand how their home, the colonies, were taxed unfairly. These colonies of his majesty were basically just told what they were allowed to do. The money and our best were simply siphoned away and sent back to England, the seat of the monarchy.
Now having one person making the calls is actually very efficient. Imagine if you could if Jesus came down to earth and ruled. One person making all the calls, and everyone just follows along. That would literally be heaven on earth because the king, Jesus, would always do what is best for us, and we, loving him for it, would do our best to honor his decrees.
The founding fathers, and no, I did not know any of them personally, knew that a monarchy may be good for a time, but with differing opinions of the English immigrants, vs the French, the Dutch, Swedes and so forth, that one or more groups would likely find themselves on the “outside” of some law or decision. Suppose we declared war on Ireland? Well, I’m thinking the folks who just stepped off the boat from Dublin may take up issue with that.
So a Committee sort of government based on a core group of laws would be the final solution. And one with a brilliant set of checks and balances of the three co-equal branches of government. So to skip through a lot of meetings and debates by these uber-intelligent men, they came up with the constitution which establishes our government and provides the framework of laws that govern how everything operates.
The founding fathers are even noted to have said and discussed that one requirement of this system to allow it to work properly is a common population that is both a part of the discussion, and intelligent enough to be able to make a sound decision. OK with all that in mind, let’s fast forward to today.
Looking around you, at your family, work peers, folks you know down in the hood, in the bar, or at your church, if you even attend one of those. How would you rate them on a scale of intellect, one to ten? Try it sometime. Ask someone a couple simple questions. Here’s a couple: 1. How many countries border the United States, name them. Can you? Did you answer, “Two, Canada and Mexico?” Close but there’s more. Russia borders the United States in the bearing sea where our international borders actually touch. OK trick question, right, but how many could even name Canada and Mexico? I asked that question once and the answer I got was, “Canada, Mexico, and New Mexico!” Really happened!
Ask them for the prime numbers and see how many try to give you the prime interest rate. Ask them what are the three branches of the federal government?. Name 10 states, or trick em up and ask them what state name starts with a “Q.” Don’t even think to ask them the state capitals of those states, heck, you don’t even know!
It takes thinking intelligent people to make good decisions in the complex setting we find ourselves in this technological age. I’d wager that far greater than 50% of our population just isn’t smart enough to make a good decision. Our education system which has been turning left for many decades is at fault, along with the people who have championed that cause. If I had my fifteen minutes of Kingship over the America, I’d eliminate it and allow states to start over. (My libertarian leanings are showin’ through a bit right there).
I’ve made an argument to say that for this federally knitted together group of states to work properly, the people who have their hand on the gearshift and their foot straddling the clutch pedal had better have a clue, but sadly I feel most Americans do not.
Case in point, let’s examine a gentleman’s comment to a former essay I wrote about the Trump. He argued, perhaps suggested is a better way of stating his position, that Mr. Trump was caught red handed talking provocatively about the fairer sex to some talking head and communist intelligence agent, err, media person. And for that reason, Mr. Trump should not be president. Anybody?
Anybody see anything wrong with any of that? I mean the guy (Our president) probably has had too much of Kentucky’s finest bourbon at one time and developed a case of loud mouth. Well! How dare he? How could a man fall to such lows? And how could such a man ever be qualified to lead the honorable elite of this great socialist state?
These people are all tripped up at the first stumbling block. Talk about “Do-Not pass Go and Do-Not collect $200!” And there they remain. They have fallen and that embarrassed them. They have a nasty red mark and need both medical attention, and a nice safe place devoid of nasty old rocks. They need someone to apologize to them for not removing that rock, heck, some old white person is responsible for the maintenance of the trail, right? We should defund the park service and pay reparations to others who may have been frightened by other rocks.
The problem is that on the other side of that single rock lies the Appalachian trail, what, over a thousand wonderful miles of it, right? And so it goes with the American system of government. It is darned complex and takes some time and study to begin to understand. Couple that with one’s need to know what’s going on all round your fighting position and you have what is shaping up as a major chore, and I will admit it is.
Learning to fly was pretty daunting, I recall. Getting the heading to stay in one place while the darned altitude clock stayed where the very demanding guy instructing me told me to put it was darned near impossible. And then there was this airspeed thing. Seriously, dude, you want all three? And no sooner than you start to get all that lined up properly, the old fool is tappin’ on the fuel gage! What, you want me to watch that too???
Well I could never have imagined getting all that to stay put for more than the instant I accidentally flashed through all the correct points on my way to a fiery crash, but I did. There was the day when the noisy old guy got out and said, take the thing around the pattern and try not to make me look bad, and try not to kill yourself. If I could ask more thing, please return the machine right back here in a useable condition, and off I went.
Years later I was that pesky old guy with what must have been hundreds of students of students over the years. But the machines were some of the most advanced on the planet and I could fly them across continents or down low with little people shooting at me with nary any effort at all. I would navigate a pass in the foothills of the Himalayas while calculating how much one of my mutual funds might be worth with three more good years and survive the transit.
And so it goes with learning about our government and stuff in general. If you don’t progress to watchin’ the gas gage while still knowin’ your altitude, airspeed, and heading, then do yourself, yes, yourself and everyone else a big favor and on election day, go get high, or drunk, or just sit around and watch reruns of “Let’s make a deal.” Please allow the responsible people to make the big decisions which ultimately will benefit you more than you have the capacity to realize.
Voting people, you have a loaded 9mm glock in your hands. Use it and carry it in a safe and thoughtful manner. Don’t go waving it around and don’t play around with it lest you accidentally shoot yourself in your own foot!
NSDQ
CM
God Bless America
