Today I received a statement by House Speaker John Boehner that more or less represents the thinking of today’s Republicans and who resigns from his position as Republican Party Speaker of the House on October 30th; Speaker Boehner resigns over conflicting issues within the Republican Party. The big question is, who and what will profit from the Speaker’s resignation.

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER
When confronted with Republican ideology, I try to listen and read this with intelligent and scientific consideration, and my reaction is always the same; I have a logical, learned disagreement. Actually, I have absolutely no hatred for Republicans and have family and friends that I love dearly who are Republicans, though I do wonder why?
So, I don’t hate Republicans, though, “I wouldn’t want my daughter to marry one”! But each person has to make his or her own decisions and find contentment in life or suffer consequences and conscience.
My own reaction is based on my 85 years of life, and I consider my life a tremendous success, despite the fact I have always been considered “poor” in terms of dollars and cents, for various reasons.
My happiest moments in life were not the least bit expensive and my “American Dream” has never been to have unlimited wealth; I’ve been rather successful in not being committed to envy and not coveting anything of my neighbors, or Republicans.
Contentment for me has always been cheap; some interpret this to mean that I lack incentive. However, it is more probable, my being brought up in the Great Depression; my family never craved wealth or expensive material things then because hardly anyone had them and the wealthy always appeared to be much less happy than we were, and worry more than we did.
We of the less wealthy population, certainly did not lack initiative or creativeness, we had to work harder to survive and find contentment than if we had been fully employed, it was just that we realized “we have nowhere else to go, this is all we have”.
Granted, my own wonderful experiences in life, were not entirely of my own doing; I was lucky.
Basically, I had family and friends who loved me, and for me success is having someone love you. Anthropologist Margaret Mead said so simply yet eloquently, “One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night.” That quote is my mantra for two of the most important aspects of life for me, love and contentment.
As for my apparent lack of interest in what money can buy for others, I also rely on a quote of Margaret Mead, “We have nowhere else to go… this is all we have”; this is simply a truism and I just accept it as the most integral aspect of life, and a necessity.
What all of this philosophy of my own life is leading up to, is the reason that I just can’t agree with today’s Republican Party ideology; this was not always so. As I was growing up, Republicans and Democrats wanted the same things for America and the People and the only difference was how our United States of America could provide it.
But today, Republicans have adopted a different and in my estimation false concept of why people even have governments. In school, I was taught that the sole purpose of government was to “provide for the People collectively, those thing the People cannot provide for their self as individuals”.
And I always was fully aware that nothing in life is free, and I never objected to paying taxes for that reason. And tax money is actually the Government’s money; it does not belong to any other individuals.
Taxes are simply the cost for each person living in a society that is dedicated to providing for the People collectively, those things they cannot effectively provide for their self, as individuals. This is the ‘only’ purpose of government.
As the preamble to the U.S. Constitution reads, “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure the domestic Tranquility, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” This pretty well defines the purpose of American government.
Then in Article I, Section 8, the Congress spells out what Congress (our government) can and should do:
“lay and collect taxes”
“regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States”
“borrow money”
“establish Post Offices and post Roads”
“Declare War”
“raise and support Armies, but no Appropriations of Money to that Use shall be for a longer term than two years” (an interesting condition for funding the military)
“To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the forgoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution . . .”
Republicans can call it socialism or whatever they like, but it is in accordance with the U.S. Constitution.
Therefore, the fault I find with the Republican ideology is that Republicans seem to think the Constitution limits what Congress can do, and I see the Constitution making Congress responsible for doing whatever the needs of the People are.
Statement by House Speaker John Boehner
WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement:
“My mission every day is to fight for a smaller, less costly, and more accountable government. Over the last five years, our majority has advanced conservative reforms that will help our children and their children. I am proud of what we have accomplished.”
(I believe our Constitutional forefathers established the fact that the government should be as large as is necessary, to provide for the collective needs of the American People; I see no way that severely limiting government is helping my children or their children.)
(The Republican Party opposes Social Security, Medicare, and universal medical insurance; I believe those things are my government meeting their responsibility to the People.)
(The Republican Party would eliminate and privatize the Post Office, eliminate and privatize public schools, and totally eliminate labor unions and I believe all those are a necessity of the People and a responsibility of my government to provide and protect, and/or in the case of Labor Unions, a Right of the people to unite and incorporate with others with similar individual needs and issues, just as corporations do when they unite with the National Chamber of Commerce.)
“The first job of any Speaker is to protect this institution that we all love. It was my plan to only serve as Speaker until the end of last year, but I stayed on to provide continuity to the Republican Conference and the House. It is my view, however, that prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable damage to the institution. To that end, I will resign the Speakership and my seat in Congress on October 30.”
(Personally, I deeply respect any American who is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to serve as a public servant, as the House Speaker Boehner has, in this day and age of apparent “hatred” of government for doing what the government is supposed to do.)
(Government leadership’s purpose is to provide for the People, and leadership doing irreparable damage to the institution of Constitutional American Government, cannot be and should not be tolerated. Though I am not privy to the reasons for the Speaker’s decision, I respect any decision the Speaker makes in his capacity, and hope and pray it is the best decision for the United States of America as we will all, soon see.)
“Today, my heart is full with gratitude for my family, my colleagues, and the people of Ohio’s Eighth District. God bless this great country that has given me – the son of a bar owner from Cincinnati – the chance to serve.”
(I too am grateful for any blessings extended to the Speaker and his family; government service itself, is not always personally, necessarily rewarding to public servants, and God bless those “Profiles in Courage” who make the sacrifice to serve. Personally, I most often respectfully disagreed with the Speaker on issues; but, I respect his Constitutional Right to disagree, and I can respect the will of the majority.)
For me, the Republican Party of today, is against everything that the American government is supposed to be doing; and the only thing that the Republican Party of today wants, are wars of aggression for the benefit of American businesses and their foreign investments.
This is not the “Grand old Party” of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Earl Warren, who are all heroes of mine. As a consequence, I have seldom found a Republican candidate that I can with a clear conscience support and vote to elect.
Since in America, our Presidential Elections of necessity, limits our choice to only two viable political parties, most Americans including myself, are not allowed the privilege of being a devoted member of one party or the other, but limited for the most part to voting for the lesser of two evils; that is a pity.
Personally most recently, I have felt obligated to vote for Democratic candidates because of my expressed dissatisfaction with the merits of the Republican Party; and I like to think that if the party affiliation were reversed and under the same circumstances, I would not have changed my vote for my candidate of choice. Therefore, I am not a solid and true political party member.
Whatever! Though I disagreed very much with Speaker Boehner, I respect the sacrifices he had to make to serve, and respect him for it.