And then it hit me. I have the perfect name for the new third party that will gain prominence once the Stupid Party screws things up. I mentioned on last night's BB & Guns that I had little hope that the GOP would take the right message from a win this coming Tuesday. I stand by that prediction - it only took a few election cycles after 1994 for them to become just as beholden to power as the Democrats, just as willing to stomp all over our rights (just different rights) to appease their perceived base to remain in power. Well, this morning the new political party came to me in a thunderclap. We should call our new party:
The "Stay Off My Lawn" Party.
The "Stay Off My Lawn" Party will be socially liberal - people should be free to do what they wish to their own bodies as long as they don't hurt others. You want to smoke dope, marry another dude, or light yourself on fire as a tribute to Chthulu, go right ahead. As long as your actions do not harm any other person, knock yourself out (literally, if that's your bag). However... The flip side to this is that if your actions cause harm to another person, we're going to drop the jail on top of you and leave it there. If you get in a car and crash it into a bus full of nuns and orphans because you were coked to the gills on heroin, then we're going to put you somewhere that makes Gitmo look like Club Med, capiche?
"Stay Off My Lawn" works with fiscal issues as well. The government is not, should not, cannot be in the business of providing everyone with everything. Period. There is a very short list of things that the government can and should be doing - make the currency, regulate international relations, maintain an army to kill people and break things when outsiders threaten, and things of that nature. Making sure I have enough money to retire on is not one of them, nor is it the government's job to make sure that crappy car companies stay in business. "Stay Off My Lawn" feels that the free market is the ultimate test of the viability of any business.
Internationally, "Stay Off My Lawn" fits seamlessly as encapsulated by Agent J in "Men In Black": If you don't start none, there won't be none. Leave the US alone and we're happy to leave you alone; mess with us, we're going to make Nagasaki and Hiroshima look like a damn picnic. We'll pull out of Mecca, Medina, Europe, Africa, etc. - all the places you accuse "The Great Satan" of entering for our own gain - but we're taking our armed forces and foreign aid dollars with us. We're also going to build a reinforced wall across the borders of the US and staff said wall with the armed forces recalled from around the world - immigration will still be allowed, of course; however it will also be firmly and fairly regulated so that only those that truly want to become Americans can enter.
So there you have it, the basic tenets of the "Stay Off My Lawn" party. The party will be overwhelmingly guided by that ancient and mystical document known as the US Constitution and Bill of Rights - if it doesn't pass constitutional muster, we don't support it. The government has no place telling us what to say, what to own for defense, how we testify in court, etc.; in turn, we obey the laws and pay our (greatly reduced) taxes so that the (significantly more limited) Federal government can keep out the bad guys, make the money, and maintain the infrastructure. Taxes go down, private industry takes over many of the former duties, individual freedom goes up. The only price we pay is that we are a lot more responsible for our own actions.
What are we missing?
That is all.
17 comments:
The only down side is what do you do to re-educate all those that the government has faild and can not stand on their own. We need to fix public education so people can survive without the government hand out and re-eductate those it has already failed. . . .
Overall i like the idea, where do I sign up? JayG in 2012!
Sounds like a combination of libertarianism and isolationism, which I can get onboard with. I'm on record as being an isolationist; it served this country well for most of our history.
As I mentioned on FB, if she can get me free bacon Breda gets my vote for President.
Another Pork Stimulus!
I'm thinking Big daddy J as a write in candidate at the next election. Or any candidate who runs on the 'stay off my lawn' party ticket for that matter.
Awesome. I will go one further and take the baseball in the house with me.
How are you going to get the Libertarian Party to rename itself? We've got a lot of sunk cost in logos and pamphlets.
I like you, come run for Gov of NY so I can vote for you....pretty please???? Because this is a race that needs every vote it can get, but I'm so sick of the mess I don't want to have anything to do with it....
How about we use the "Well Regulated Militia" part of the 2nd. Amendment to have the Government issue every able-bodied Citizen weapons and ammo like they do in Switzerland? After all, how do you get people to stay off your lawn if all you have is a leaf rake?
I always liked the name of TR's Bull Moose party. (Not the policies though).
The Stay Off My Lawn Party has a certain ring to it too.
Feel like running for office? I could get behind that platform.
Blogger JD said: The only down side is what do you do to re-educate all those that the government has faild and can not stand on their own.
How is that our problem? Isn't that how the whole mess started in the first place? Most will figure things out fairly quickly, after all they've managed to work the current system nicely. As for the rest, well, that's called natural selection.
I want a Jay G and Breda 2012 bumper sticker.
If we were to go Libertarian, you'd get everything you asked for except the wall. Once we go libertarian, we won't need the wall--no good reason to keep most foreigners out if they will have to pay their own way, and be accountable to our laws.
JD, I'm not sure that education should be left to the government. After all, they're doing such a good job of it right now...
Perhaps it's time to make it ALL private or parochial.
By no means to I want the government more invovled in education. I am just stating that we need to be ready for the aftermath when so many are not ready to care for themselves. It will be chaos for a while and one needs to factor that in. Beyond that I am all for reducting the government to it't constitiutional size just warn me so I can be ready to protect my family from the masses . . . . .
Public education should be done at the local level. . . like it was before big government got in on the deal. . . you know back when it worked???
I'd add that your barriers to our trade are our barriers to your trade.
You have protectionist stuff in place and we'll match you tit for tat.
I want you to know that I am now declaring myself for the Get Off My Lawn party.
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