When a Senator leaves his seat it always feels momentous, like the end of an era – something to mark in history as a sign of the times. And the longer he serves, the grander his legacy – the more certain he is to be showered with praise and tearful sentiments from an adoring media, to have a building or two named in his honor, to start a charity foundation based on name recognition, to get a prestigious award, or to become an “honorary” something-or-other.
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Ted Kennedy was all but deified, having spent so much time in public office that he died a sitting Senator in 2009. Robert Byrd got the same glorified treatment having served from 1959 to 2010, being entirely absolved of his history with the KKK. Harry Reid, who announced his retirement early Friday morning, will likely be given much the same treatment, who will have served a distinguished 30 years.
Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) announced his retirement Friday 27 March.
Reid was known most recently to the patriot community as the Senator who told Cliven Bundy and his supporters “this isn’t over,” after the BLM was forced to retreat from the Bundy Ranch in April 2014. With these words, he showed that he had not only failed to defend the sovereignty of his State per his duty as a Senator, but actually threatened it, maneuvering against it on behalf of the federal government – a complete reversal of his Oath. (He must have really been getting senile if he thought he was elected to represent Washington to Nevada)!
Mounted cowboys, militia and protesters advance on BLM agents, forcing a withdrawal of federal forces from the Bundy Ranch, April 2014.
If you’re celebrating the news that a major leftist leader will now be out of politics, stop it. How far have we declined as a society that we can see a phrase like “retires from the Senate” and not churn in disgust? Take a moment and reread that headline, and understand the really sad issue this brings into focus: the fact that someone can spend so much time representing a State Government that he’s able to retire from it.
A Washington without Congressional term limits is a place that changes people. They go in with grand ideas and noble intentions, and come out either battered and defeated, or full-grown creatures of the swamp. A new senator spends six years immersed in celebrity, pillars of white marble, spacious offices and taylored suits. He sees the inside of a city that runs on sucking wealth from the richest nation in history, and he adapts to his environment. Most, if not all, become “of Washington” after half a decade in this culture. Those who flourish in Washington are those who do not belong there.
Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood, the quintessential ‘of Washington’ politician in Netflix’s “House of Cards.” Image: collider.com
Nevada, therefore, has been without a Senator for over two decades. Instead, Washington’s socialist, statist machine has had an overlord to drive the unified agenda of the political left.
Let us take this opportunity to reignite the conversation about congressional term limits. Washington changes everyone who goes to change it, and therefore we need a continuous flow of fresh blood, congressmen and senators who remember the smell of the air in their home States. We The People must demand an end to career politicians who can retire from their offices. We must demand it and, as discouraging and disheartening as it is, cast a vote – it’s a game we have to play, and it’s not like they’re going to vote themselves out of their wealth and power.
Allow me to head off criticism from those of you who read my previous call to “opt out of the system.” I’m as aware as most of DontComply’s readership that there really is no Republican Party or Democrat party – only one big party that we’re not invited to. I’m also aware that I’ve called a concealed carry license “an abuse of liberty,” but possess one myself. My position is simply this: while this Country we live in has become a mockery of what the founders intended, it’s not your fault you were born into it. Therefore, there’s no moral shame or lack of courage in playing a game you have to play, to exist in the circumstances you’ve been given.
Vote, regardless of whether you think it matters, if for nothing else than to get rid of the incumbent on principle. Because if we stop voting, we know what comes next: as we have seen throughout history, when ballots fail, bullets are sure to follow.
(And on that note, happy retirement Harry)!
By Anthony James Kidwell -DontComply.com
