The Urban Archipelago
I say we elect the editors of The Stranger to office in 2006. Much of what they say is not Democratic, Progressive or Liberal as much as it is Anti-Federalist.
One thing the article does not mention is that the right wing is not conservative in any conventional sense of the word. Making "Conservative" an epithet is a good idea, but conservative implies that things would remain the same or go back to an earlier state. What the right wants now is outrageous and unprecedented. They are combining church and state, staging pre-emptive invasions, and trying to spend our tax dollars on "faith based initiatives".
The Federalists wanted a strong central government for, as Alexander Hamilton wrote, "The additional security which its adoption will afford to the preservation of that species of government, to liberty, and to property." The Federalists feared backwoods hicks and their dirty politics as much as we do and thought there was no way they could ever take over the Federal government, so the centralized power should be at the Federal level. Somewhere Alexander Hamilton is as pissed off as he's been since he last saw Aaron Burr.
The right wing wants to tear down Constitutional protections. They are dangerous, selfish radicals who need to be stopped. Stripping the Federal government of many of its overarching powers is essential in order to achieve the agenda presented in the article.
Local police can be ordered not to pursue casual drug users, but right now the Feds can send in the DEA clowns. Much of the spending of Federal HIGHWAY funds is dictated by the Federal government. The one funded by Halliburton, GM, and the pensions of former Enron employees.
The Federal government should not be able to threaten to cut highway subsidies if states won't toe the line and pass silly laws, like requiring that you be 21 to drink. It should be the states that produce revenue, and get little of it back like New York (the last state to raise the legal drinking age from 18 to 21), that dictate policy and tell the Fed that they will be short a whole lot of dollars if they get any urges to dictate local policy.
This can only be accomplished if we reform our tax code. Right now we are suffering taxation without representation. Your tax dollars and mine are buying bombs we don't support to drop them on people that we'd rather see alive. Taxes need to go through the states to the Fed. Let the red states try to pay for a $120 billion war with their farms in the other kind of red, and their abandoned factories. Maybe Singapore and India will pick up the tab with their outsourced jobs, or the companies that saved the money. . .wait they're based in cities.
It will require attacking the 16th ammendment straight on and probably passing another ammendment to remedy the overwhelming taxation power the Fed has been granted. It's tough, but it is also a rallying point and a platform plank. Take the power away from the armchair quarterbacks currently spending tax revenues from New York, California and Chicago to make sure nobody attacks Iowa or Wyoming. They have it coming if you look at the way they're dressed, but that's another issue.
One thing the article does not mention is that the right wing is not conservative in any conventional sense of the word. Making "Conservative" an epithet is a good idea, but conservative implies that things would remain the same or go back to an earlier state. What the right wants now is outrageous and unprecedented. They are combining church and state, staging pre-emptive invasions, and trying to spend our tax dollars on "faith based initiatives".
The Federalists wanted a strong central government for, as Alexander Hamilton wrote, "The additional security which its adoption will afford to the preservation of that species of government, to liberty, and to property." The Federalists feared backwoods hicks and their dirty politics as much as we do and thought there was no way they could ever take over the Federal government, so the centralized power should be at the Federal level. Somewhere Alexander Hamilton is as pissed off as he's been since he last saw Aaron Burr.
The right wing wants to tear down Constitutional protections. They are dangerous, selfish radicals who need to be stopped. Stripping the Federal government of many of its overarching powers is essential in order to achieve the agenda presented in the article.
Local police can be ordered not to pursue casual drug users, but right now the Feds can send in the DEA clowns. Much of the spending of Federal HIGHWAY funds is dictated by the Federal government. The one funded by Halliburton, GM, and the pensions of former Enron employees.
The Federal government should not be able to threaten to cut highway subsidies if states won't toe the line and pass silly laws, like requiring that you be 21 to drink. It should be the states that produce revenue, and get little of it back like New York (the last state to raise the legal drinking age from 18 to 21), that dictate policy and tell the Fed that they will be short a whole lot of dollars if they get any urges to dictate local policy.
This can only be accomplished if we reform our tax code. Right now we are suffering taxation without representation. Your tax dollars and mine are buying bombs we don't support to drop them on people that we'd rather see alive. Taxes need to go through the states to the Fed. Let the red states try to pay for a $120 billion war with their farms in the other kind of red, and their abandoned factories. Maybe Singapore and India will pick up the tab with their outsourced jobs, or the companies that saved the money. . .wait they're based in cities.
It will require attacking the 16th ammendment straight on and probably passing another ammendment to remedy the overwhelming taxation power the Fed has been granted. It's tough, but it is also a rallying point and a platform plank. Take the power away from the armchair quarterbacks currently spending tax revenues from New York, California and Chicago to make sure nobody attacks Iowa or Wyoming. They have it coming if you look at the way they're dressed, but that's another issue.
posted by Accidental Guru at 11:58 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home