a constitutional republic gone awry

I believe that in the beginning, the founding fathers had many brilliant ideas, and that many of them were codified in the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. However, I believe one of the most important concepts never was, because they couldn't think of everything, and because even very intelligent people are often myopic about how important the settled underpinnings of life are subject to fundamental change.

The central idea that I think has been forgotten is that the founding fathers viewed the government as being made up of the best and brightest of our country's citizenry, typically landowners who would take time out of running successful businesses for a few weeks a year to assemble in the nation's seat of government to deal with issues that had to be dealt with, and then return to their real jobs.

Current federal and local governments feed on their own momentum; they have no incentive whatsoever to limit themselves to the serious business at hand, but instead find time to pass bills declaring grits the official food of Georgia, and so on.

A professional class of elected representatives was expressly NOT what the founding fathers envisioned, and therein lies the problem. The rise of the political hack as representative gave birth to the idea that completely unqualified individuals could be elected to public office simply on the strength of an advertising blitz. Idiots like Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Slow Joe Biden and other morons like them have come to power simply due to money spent on public relations efforts that have no basis in reality.

Ted Kennedy, as the most reprehensible of the Kennedy clan, perhaps best embodies what results when you have a family of politicians that inbreed politically and take charge of a feeble-minded electorate.

Teddy Kennedy is NOT what the founding fathers would've posited as their ideal representative. And now that the Republicans are unwilling to defend their majority status in the House of Representatives and the Senate, hypocritical jackasses like Kennedy appear stronger than they are. This is one of many reasons that I characterize myself as an independent. I've given up on W., and the Republicans.

Hugh Hewitt said there are nine words that sum up what conservatives in this country want their representatives in Congress to accomplish. They are:

Win the war;
confirm the justices;
cut the taxes.

I would add two more three-word phrases. To wit:

Win the war;
secure the border;
confirm the justices;
cut the taxes;
slash discretionary spending.