RE: Perception changes Everything - Is Taxation really theft?
It is an easy thing to say. But how practical is that statement? If you earn a certain amount, do you get a letter, badge, or special number to call? Is there a secret handshake you must learn? Let's be practical. Many 'government' workers don't make that much money. I know many people rich and poor, common and extraordinary, yet all have the same single vote. Americans, both natural and naturalized, have the same rights and weight at the ballot box. Collectively, we determine who is in power, what laws will govern us, and for better or worse will determine our future. But it is tough to hold accountable the shortcomings of the entire nation and easier to point to a nebulous entity we call 'government' for the things we don't like.
If you are worth a certain amount, do you get to make laws? No. There are oversights, checks and balances, etc. Can everyday citizens create a law, no, but they can start the process just like anyone with the same potential outcome, a law.
The same is true to strike down a law and even a constitutional amendment. Prohibition started as a grass-roots effort by housewives, who didn't even yet have the right to vote. By the time Congress enacted the 18th amendment, 33 states already had enacted their own acts. It was then repealed several years later by voters who supported FDR for president. (part of his platform was the repeal of prohibition)
People do have power. For better or worse, our fate is in our own hands, since the American Revolution.
Don't believe me? Pick a law you don't like. Research to find out who signed it into law and how that person came to be in their position. Did people vote for them and they earned a majority? Look to see who in the House and Senate voted for the bill. Did people vote for them? Find the author of the bill and where the idea actually originated from. Why was the bill proposed and by whom? Were they an common citizen, was the bill intended to help people? Every law has a history. I cannot think of any single law which did not have the oversight of an elected official.
bribe congress look at the climate deniers iraq with military industrial complex
People in all walks of life and occupations can be swayed via bribes. We know this as voters. Perhaps it is up to us to better vet those whom we vote into power as our representatives. Ultimately we the People decide who are in the top local, state, and federal positions.
Ultimately the people who have no grasp of reality are deceived by the media which thrives on false facts and popularity more than information and then those voted into office can cast their vote whichever way they want in response to money which the public can not see and does not care about.
@anarchyhasnogods Poor choices by the People will likely result in a poor administration which will govern them. Who is at fault?
If we all vote to make all stoplights only red in color (no green or yellow), then who is to blame for the ensuing mess? The stoplight?