Latham reviews DC situation Fort Dodge Messenger
ROCKWELL CITY -When U.S. Rep. Tom Latham met with a handful of Calhoun County residents Wednesday afternoon, he heard about how they're fed up with Washington.
The Republican from Ames said he shared their frustration.
''You ought to be there,'' he said during a town hall meeting at the Rockwell City Community Center. ''You think you're frustrated?''
Congress failed to pass a budget on time in 2010, had a protracted struggle over raising the nation's debt limit last spring, and came close to a government shutdown this week. ''Dysfunctional'' was the word one man used to describe the government during Latham's meeting.
The way many other states create congressional districts is an underlying cause of the problem, according to Latham. In Iowa the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency makes congressional district maps to be approved or rejected by lawmakers. But elsewhere, the lawmakers themselves draw the maps. Latham said they create districts that are favorable for each party. That, he said, means the most conservative Republicans and the most liberal Democrats get elected.
The Lew Rockwell Show 05/16/2010: An Interview with Charles Goyette
Covering the US government's economic depredations, police state enactments, and wars of aggression. Libertarian hero Charles Goyette pegs ...
The Eight Marks of Fascist Policy
John T. Flynn, like other members of the Old Right, was disgusted by the irony that what he saw, almost everyone else chose to ignore. In the fight against authoritarian regimes abroad, he noted, the United States had adopted those forms of government at home, complete with price controls, rationing, censorship, executive dictatorship, and even concentration camps for whole groups considered to be unreliable in their loyalties to the state.
After reviewing this long history, John T. Flynn proceeds to sum up with a list of eight points he considers to be the main marks of the fascist state.
As I present them, I will also offer comments on the modern American central state.
Point 1. The government is totalitarian because it acknowledges no restraint on its powers.
This is a very telling mark. It suggests that the US political system can be described as totalitarian. This is a shocking remark that most people would reject. But they can reject this characterization only so long as they happen not to be directly ensnared in the state’s web. If they become so, they will quickly discover that there are indeed no limits to what the state can do. This can happen boarding a flight, driving around in your hometown, or having your business run afoul of some government agency. In the end, you must obey or be caged like an animal or killed. In this way, no matter how much you may believe that you are free, all of us today are but one step away from Guantanamo.
As recently as the 1990s, I can recall that there were moments when Clinton seemed to suggest that there were some things that his administration could not do. Today I’m not so sure that I can recall any government official pleading the constraints of law or the constraints of reality to what can and cannot be done. No aspect of life is untouched by government intervention, and often it takes forms we do not readily see. All of healthcare is regulated, but so is every bit of our food, transportation, clothing, household products, and even private relationships.
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