The President’s speech you so desperately long to hear

This is the President’s speech you so desperately wish to hear:

Ladies and gentlemen of Congress and the Supreme Court, why did you come here? Most of us could have done better financially in the private sector, but you chose to come here. Why?

Do you remember when you first decided to enter public service? How idealistic you were. You felt you could, in some way, improve the lives of the people.

You could have been lawyers or doctors, or business leaders, and most of you could have risen to the tops of your professions. Instead, you willingly sacrificed riches to become senators, representatives, and judges. You entered the uncertain world of politics.

Did you do it for the glory? Did you do it for power? Did you do it to get a better table in a restaurant?

No, you — we — did it for the morals. We understood that the fundamental purpose of government is to improve the lives of the people.

People do not form governments for our aggrandizement. The people did not send us here and pay our salaries so we can stand on a dais and bask in the warmth of their cheering. The people did not send us here to defeat the other party in never-ending, useless wars.

The people sent you here — and you came here — to make their lives better. The people sent you here to answer just three questions.

What can I do for the people?

What can I do for America?

What can I do for the world?

Do you remember those optimistic days? How exciting they were. How good it felt to believe that in some small — or perhaps not so small — way, you could make a positive difference. Your life could have a special meaning beyond just your coming and your leaving — beyond merely dust to dust.

Your legacy could be not that you defeated the other side, but that you made America and the world a better place for those less powerful than you. You believed in the words on the Statue of Liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Yes, we were the golden door. The shining city on a hill. America.

And then you came to Washington. And the jaded ones told you to throw away your idealism. Throw away your compassion. Throw away your morals. They told you — they told all of us — our life was to be a tiny, obedient cog in a vast machine. They told us to answer just three questions:

What is best for the President? What is best for my party? What is best for me?

And so, like those tiny, obedient cogs in the vast machine, we now march in lockstep.

Is that why you came here — to be just a reliable, obedient vote?

Today, the nation has been divided by lies and hatred. Every day some new corruption, some new outrage, some new anger. Even our precious election is riven by lies and threats and anger.

Look back now at what we have lost. Our beautiful dream, our American dream.

Does it bother you, as it bothers me, that almost every question put before Congress is answered in exactly the same way, with a hundred percent — or near a hundred percent — of the right answering one, and a hundred percent of the left answering the other way, because it is best for me to vote with the party.

Why are we all so predictable? Can it even be possible that all — ALL — your beliefs and morals are identical to those of the other two hundred people of your party — identical on all questions — and opposing the beliefs of those in the other party?

Is it even possible, that on every question coming before Congress, you are exactly the same as the man or woman sitting next to you, on your side of the aisle?

Is that why you came here? To be nothing more than a rubber stamp for or against? Is that why you gave up an alternative future?

Think back now: When was the turning point in your life? When did what’s best for the people fall out of consideration? When did you stop caring about people and care only about politics?

And if you’re a judge, I ask you this question: When did the law become more important than the people?

When did you lose your compassion for those less fortunate than you? Have you become so cold and heartless that you care more about legal minutia than about the actual fact of human suffering? When did the turn of abstruce phrase become more important than the reality of the human condition? When did clever rejoinder become more important than a child’s life?

And really, ladies and gentlemen, why are you so predictably right-wing or left-wing? How about “people-wing”?

I have been here for many years. I have been as guilty as any of you in losing my way in the endless labyrinth of uncaring big government. I regret those wasted years, when I focused on giving the wrong answers to the wrong questions, simply to go along.

I could have been so much better. I could have done so much more for the people. And though I can’t go back, I can change direction, and try to remember the idealism that first brought me here.

We, few, sitting in this room, control the levers of power. America is the most powerful — financially and militarily — the most powerful nation in history. We truly have the power to make the earth a better place for all humanity, and we certainly, easily have the power to make America a better place for all Americans.

Shall we squander what little time we are given in this world? Shall we squander our power on internecine wars? Is that why you have given so much of your lives, day after day, to win one battle, then to lose the next? Will defeating your neighbor yield a better result than cooperating with, or helping, your neighbor?

Is morality naive?

At one time, the world looked to America for moral leadership. That can be true again. In your heart and your mind, you know right from wrong. You know truth from lies. You know good from bad. You know generosity from selfishness. You know compassion from cruelty. You know love from hatred.

You know these things and the world looks to you and the world knows you know. And the world will follow your lead.

Sometimes, in the short run, evil wins. But evil has no staying power in the hearts of humanity. Evil skulks fearfully in darkness and denial. Righteousness opens its arms to the sunshine of joy and self-respect.

How will we few people in this room be remembered? Will we lie and make excuses. Will we rationalize? Or, will you look back in satisfaction at knowing you have done the right thing for humanity? Will you be proud of the good you have accomplished? What will be the meaning of your life?

Today we begin our destiny. We can step back from cold, blind politics.

We can do this. Hand in hand, working together we can do this.

We can answer the questions we have been given the power to answer:

What can I do for the people? What can I do for America? What can I do for the world?

We are not just Republicans or Democrats. We are Americans. We are not just Americans, we are human beings.

We can make the world a better place, for ourselves, for our children, and for all the children yet to be born.

Let us begin.

Together.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
3. Social Security for all or a reverse income tax
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
5. Salary for attending school
6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 
8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
9. Federal ownership of all banks
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

The Ten Steps will grow the economy and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY