Sitting on a Fence

By Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

Just about everyone sees the need to fix our government, as it is not in our control at all at the present. We have a vast assemblage of problems, accumulated over decades of government ruling government, with no concern for “The People, and what our intents are.  The problem seems to be a vast gulf between those ready to do something about our problem, and those who believe we can fix things without heavy handed action.

Colonel Pappas speaks of the story of “how to cook a frog”, Dr. Wallace provides a sound, studious look at economics, Dr. Bates shows us the clear, unquestionably deliberate acts by which this criminal president has assumed rule as dictator, with no response from the central government, not even responsive to any demands of citizens.

I am castigated regularly for being “too brazen” or “over the top”, but I have my own place in this conversation, one which has bearing on how we choose what to do.  I began my career as a mechanic at less than a year old, it is my nature.  By the time I was about twelve, I found it routine for other mechanics to come to me when diagnosis was necessary, I realized eventually, one technician in five has the capability of “troubleshooting”.

The primary reason we have activists, ready for change, and we have the cautious, hoping they believe and are right, we can change our ways and fix things, and those who see the merits of both positions but don’t know which side to turn to is because most people are not accustomed to finding out why something broke, and only a small portion of society knows how to do so.

I stand on the notion we have reached the point we have to confront our unresponsive servants directly; demand they fall in line, before we replace them with “servants” not self-styled “leaders”.  I see society as little different than a radial engine, with thousands of parts all which must fit and work together for the engine to run right, to its full capacity.  I’m not just the mechanic who can take it apart, measure everything, order the parts and rebuild it, but my skills are troubleshooting, analysis, making the big choice; tune and adjust, or tear down and rebuild.  Our government problem is not one of adjustment, but everything out of line and failing. The government doesn’t even look like its picture today.

No one wants to go to war except they expect to gain something of substantial value out of doing so.  Those who understand the nature of evil and man’s proclivities, more easily accept war is a necessity at some point.  Those accustomed to fixing everything with committees always find the idea of “stopping the whole thing, and tearing down the main engine” horrendously fearful, and will argue against as long as there is no absolute, unassailable proof it must be done.

For our society to survive, “We, The People”, must decide who best describes our condition, and act on that decision.  No one but “Us” has everything at stake.  Much as I hate to say it, I hear the master rod bearing knocking, and that means if we don’t ground the bird, pull the engine, and do a complete rebuild, within a couple of flight hours, that engine is going to disassemble its self, violently, scattering parts across the sky, and our Airplane of State is going to plummet like a thousand bricks, ten thousand bits of mortar.

Our constitution is perhaps the most carefully assembled form of government ever attempted, and its extraordinary success due to its singular form.  Since that first couple of decades, every idea anyone has had, has been tacked on, and we now have “a one pound federal government with five pounds of socialism, communism, bureaucracy, fascism and out and out totalitarian dictatorship” added, hooked to ever open corner or loose end.

With one part legal and five parts completely unconstitutional, we can’t do anything less than tear it all down, and start with our original form, and expect to accomplish anything other than “kick the can an ever shorter distance”.  A bare glance tells this truth; a casual inspection proves the glance correct.  The only reason against starting from scratch is the notion we lay at risk the whole time we are at a halt, and rebuilding.  Aren’t five to one odds sufficiently equal to any risk we face at this stage?