"Change" for the sake of "change" is nonsense. Those who campaign on "change" do so to hide their real agenda. Every new politician is a "change" from his predecessor. We need real change. A wholesale change of our Imperial Congress.
I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe... Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. -- Daniel Webster
The concern manifested in this statement by the early 19th century statesman Daniel Webster resonates all too clearly during this second presidential election year of the 21st century.
Our Congress has abandoned all constitutional restraint. It has become as distant from the concerns of the vast majority of citizens as was England's King and Parliament in the late 18th century.
Consider these issues:
The high cost of energy resources (coal, oil, gas). Fuel costs have gone through the roof. This is not by accident. It is by design. Our Imperial Congress has decided that since you and other citizens will not voluntarily do what they want you to do (pay the high cost of alternative energy resources), that they will simply force you to follow the path that profits their interests by prohibiting removal of vast known resources of fossil fuels, construction of new or improved oil refineries, or construction of nuclear and coal-fired power plants. By preventing vast domestic resources from being tapped, the Imperial Congress drives up your cost of living for everything that requires either electricity or transportation. It's hard to imagine anything that does not require at least one of those two resources. Congress has deliberately created this cost crisis -- it will not be the instrument of its solution. Proof of this is evident in the recent votes to open up several petroleum resources that were defeated by the Democrat majority in the face of the peoples' suffering dramatically higher fuel costs.
The hoax of human-caused global warming/climate change. As anyone who has kept up with the latest research over the past few years knows, the underpinnings of the human-caused climate change hoax have been thoroughly discredited by both scholarly examination by top scientists and by observation of recent weather trends. First, the past several years have seen a sharp drop-off in global temperatures. This was not predicted by the flawed IPCC computer models and it flies in the face of the underlying theory that claims "more CO2 = higher temperatures." Ocean temperatures have dropped. Recent Arctic Sea melt is now attributed to ocean currents and a likely "hot spot" of volcanic action under the Arctic Sea, not rising temperatures. Decadal scale changes in ocean and atmospheric steering currents track very well with 20th century climate shifts and appear to be consistent with solar variability (sun spot frequency, sun spot strength, solar wind, magnetic flux), which now appears to be a much stronger driver of climate change than previously believed. Indeed, atmospheric CO2 appears to have a rather small impact on global climate, contrary to the increasingly absurd rantings of Dr. James E. Hansen, Al Gore, and the agenda-driven politicians writing distorted summaries for the IPCC. Hansen has recently embarked on a childish effort to alter temperature histories in a desperate attempt to try to minimize the record of recent cooling that began in 2002 (there has been no statistically significant warming since 1995). Proof of duplicity is the commitment (though delayed) by many in Congress to enact an absurd "cap and trade" scheme that will make Al Gore vastly more wealthy while costing the American economy trillions for no discernible impact on climate!
The high cost of food (corn products and livestock products where corn feed is significant). In their infinite capacity for short-sightedness, our Imperial Congress embarked on a foolhardy scheme to require ethanol from corn become a major agricultural undertaking. While this helps major contributors to politicians, like the Archer Daniels Midland Company, it severely harms much of the rest of the agricultural industry dependent on corn feed (specifically the small family-owned farms) while it drives up the cost of food products that rely on corn or corn-fed animals. Add to this the recent flooding (which our Imperial Congress still hasn't managed to figure out how it can regulate) and we have the basis for a worldwide food shortage/cost crisis that was entirely preventable if those who purport to represent us had our interests at heart. This is a congressionally-mandated crisis!
Ethanol fuel additive. While alcohol-based fuels may promise to provide a reasonable alternative to petroleum-based fuel, there are several reasons why this is not the time to be playing around with our nation's fuel supply. First, auto manufacturers have not marketed a flex-fuel vehicle for the general market. Such vehicles exist and are at a very small premium over standard gasoline-powered autos. However, because few fueling stations offer alcohol fuel pumps, there is little demand for such vehicles. Here is a case where the Imperial Congress could have done something constructive instead of completely distorting the food chain with their idiotic ethanol program. All the Imperial Congress had to do was pass a law requiring every auto sold in the US be "flex-fuel" capable (i.e., capable of running on 100% alcohol, 100% gasoline, or any combination of alcohol and gasoline). This would open the door to fueling stations adding alcohol pumps and the production of a variety of alcohol-based fuels (e.g., methanol and ethanol from a variety of biological products). As things are now, our food chain is grossly distorted, costing Americans far more for food products, and autos designed for gasoline do not run as efficiently on gasoline-ethanol mixes (e.g., 10% ethanol/90% gasoline). The result of using mixed fuel in an auto designed for gasoline is poor performance (hesitation) and lower mileage! This flies in the face of Congress' mandating higher average fuel economies for automakers. Does congressional hubris blind those folks to the contradictory nature of their mandates? Mandate more ethanol which produces lower mileage while mandating higher mileage! Has the term "Congressional Idiocy" become a redundancy? Certainly "Congressional Wisdom" has become an oxymoron!
There is only one "change" (in this year of "change") that might possibly save this nation from the future warned about by Daniel Webster. Each of us must become better informed and then become an agent to help others better understand that our lives are being destroyed by an Imperial Congress that does not have our interests at heart. Self-aggrandizement, personal gain, and massive hubris prevail in our Imperial Congress. The only solution can only come from an informed citizenry. We must enforce term limits by never voting for any incumbent in any future election. The notion that somehow these lawyers in Washington, DC, are anointed with some special capabilities is absurd on its face. Look at the mess they've gotten us into.
This Independence Day, take a pledge to help make our country independent from this Imperial Congress. Pledge to vote, not on the basis of Party, but on the basis of incumbency. Vote against all incumbents. We need to rid this nation of the Imperial Congress with a modern-day election revolution.
And for the sake of sanity, do not vote for "change" for president. Any candidate will be a "change" from any sitting president -- that is a given. Those who campaign on "change" are merely hiding their real agenda. Such campaigns appeal to the shallow, those citizens who seem incapable of thinking about issues and making prudent decisions. We must do our best to help educate such people so that they can help prevent the destruction warned about by Webster nearly two centuries ago.
Make election day this November our new Independence Day! Vote against all incumbents!
Author of "Looking Out the Window", an evidence-based examination of the "climate change" issue, Bob Webster, is a 12th-generation descendent of both the Darte family (Connecticut, 1630s) and the Webster family (Massachusetts, 1630s). He is a descendant of Daniel Webster's father, Revolutionary War patriot Ebenezer Webster, who served with General Washington. Bob has always had a strong interest in early American history, our Constitution, U.S. politics, and law. Politically he is a constitutional republican with objectivist and libertarian roots. He has faith in the ultimate triumph of truth and reason over deception and emotion. He is a strong believer in our Constitution as written and views the abandonment of constitutional restraint by the regressive Progressive movement as a great danger to our Republic. His favorite novel is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and believes it should be required reading for all high school students so they can appreciate the cost of tolerating the growth of unconstitutional crushingly powerful central government. He strongly believes, as our Constitution enshrines, that the interests of the individual should be held superior to the interests of the state.
A lifelong interest in meteorology and climatology spurred his strong interest in science. Bob earned his degree in Mathematics at Virginia Tech, graduating in 1964.