It is a mistake to think that the rise and dominance of companies like Microsoft and Google and Meta and Amazon and such are proof that capitalism is alive and well. Quite the contrary. The failure of the U.S. government to regulate the behemoths of e-commerce and e-discourse and A.I. through the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice is the clearest sign that the United States, and by proxy the “Free” world – is dangerously on the verge of a complete collectivist makeover – or fascist, depending on how you look at it. Fascism and collectivism amount to the same thing – all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. As spoken by the pigs who run things, i.e. “the Club.”
Except for the very conspicuous but unavoidable sin of allowing slavery to continue temporarily, America as conceived by the Founding Fathers was supposed to solve this equality tar baby. But what always rises to the top? The cream or the chaff? In politics, the worst element seems to rise to the top most often. The Founding Fathers, knowing that we common people are actually the cream of civilization – the shopkeepers, the laborers, the farmers, and all those who don’t leave the parenting of their children to hired help. They did their level best to create a federal system of government with checks and balances that would keep any given pile of chaff at the top from wielding too much power.
Alas, the chaff has won. They have made the federal government into a complete botch. At 250, the U.S.A. is D.O.A. Perhaps it is best to rename our nation the Holy Roman U.S.A. for all the good its government does representing the interests of the average citizen. The aspirations and guarantees of the Bill of Rights have all but gone the way of the dinosaur.
This is not to be pessimistic. It is not to bury one’s head in the sand. Rather, it is to look for another way. It is, as the late great pundit used to say, living in Realville.
For a very current (no pun intended) example, we need only consider all the fuss over data centers. The arguments are completely misguided. The issue is not whether data centers should be next to the zoo or gobbling up water and energy and farmland and wildlife in our backyards, but whether they should exist at all. The truth is, allowing a proliferation of data centers at all is the mistake. Anywhere. Any time. Allowing data centers in the human experience at all is like political prisoners thinking they have freedom because they are allowed to scribble graffiti on the bricks with which they build their own prisons.
Benjamin Franklin saw this danger when he said, “A republic, if you can keep it.” George Washington warned against it by arguing not only against “entangling alliances” but also against political parties. And within that same generation, Andrew Jackson – scorned these days as if he were solely responsible for the abuses perpetrated against the Indians – was the first president to tackle the problem head-on by taking on the national bank. As soon as you are unable to use your credit card to pay for cigarettes or a firearm or to keep you children in a better school, you will finally know what he was railing against. He was fighting against giving a big national money system the power to choose the winners and losers among the common citizens.
Alas, Jackson’s battle was lost finally nearly a century after his death when the Federal Reserve was established. Do yourself a favor: If you don’t know what all the fuss is about re the Federal Reserve, take an evening and watch “From Freedom to Fascism.” You will come away convinced that this is the ultimate fight today for the little guy before cashless money, the surveillance state, and social credit scoring destroy our last portion of the freedom to determine our own destinies.
That’s just one issue. It brings in others, like the wlfare state, privacy, and individual sovereignty. Like monopolies. Like the diminishing opportunity to own real property. Like tax money spent on wars that no citizen votes for. Like poisons in our food and air and water. Like freedom to worship as one chooses. Like freedom to determine one’s own health choices. Like the freedom for every soul to live and pursue happiness.
The federal government is a miserable failure, whether with the Reds or the Blues in charge. It is up to the states to enforce the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is the new States’ Rights. As you vote for every local office from dog catcher to governor, choose the outsider. Choose the iconoclast. Choose the common man. Choose the one who goes home to his or her spouse instead of the lobbyists’ parties. Choose the one who is not afraid to tell people what they don’t want to hear.
How will you know which one that is?
It is the one who otherwise does not stand a chance without your vote.
For a two-page PDF statement of where Way Out Charlotte Pike is coming from, please CLICK HERE.
john.arra@wayoutcharlottepike.com