Scarecrow For President

Stewart Browne, who wrote the article on national collapse at Strike the Root, has a blog that exposes the failure of reform from within and proposes to run an actual Scarecrow in 2012. Check out this recent post:

As crises often do, the current maelstrom is creating some political realignment.

Here's 50 years of history condensed into into 15 steps.

1. FDR creates The New Deal coalition, the most powerful political coalition in American history.
2. Those who believe in smaller government are funneled into the Republican party in response to FDR's coalition.
3. The Republican party gives small government types their chance with the Goldwater campaign. Goldwater suffers a monumental, epic loss, giving us an early lesson of how democracy responds to attempts to reform it from within.
4. The Republican party tinkers with the formula and moderates the message to appeal to a broader group, including those in the south who are displeased with the Civil Rights Act. Nixon wins.
5. Nixon wants to dismantle much of what Kennedy and Johnson did, but ends up just continuing and expanding on their legacies.
6. In the aftermath of Watergate, a former movie star with superb political charisma rises to prominence in the Republican party.
7. Reagan wins, and a failed assassination attempt gives him enough political clout to get a tax cut passed.
8. Even though government and total taxation greatly expanded under Reagan, his one legislative success deludes a generation of Republicans into thinking they can shrink Washington.
9. The 1994 elections bring about a strong Republican majority in both houses of Congress, and Republicans crush in state and local races. Republicans ran that year on a small government message.
10. Republicans fail miserably to shrink the government at any level. Clinton and Congressional Democrats politically outfox them on every initiative. If ever there was evidence of how difficult it is to try and shrink government from within, the '94 class is it.
11. Republicans moderate the message. Under Karl Rove's tutelage, Republicans adopt a strategy of speaking to the center, thinking that once elected they can then govern from the right.
12. Republicans win the Presidency, both houses of Congress, and a majority of state and local governments.
13. Under Republican watch, the US government undergoes its greatest expansion in history. The national debt skyrockets. Future obligations under Medicare explode in a new entitlement program. The economy tanks.
14. Republicans suffer a crushing defeat at all levels in 2008, and hand over to Obama and a Democratic Congress a system perfectly staged for a giant government power grab.

Votes reflect where the society and culture are, they do not shape society and culture——unless you are in favor of expanding government. It is possible to use the vote to expand government and change the culture to accept larger government, but it is impossible to vote for less government. It is a one-way street.

I'm a believer in living reform. Reform will come from outside the system. Until conservatives and libertarians are willing to make personal sacrifices for freedom, nothing will change. If you want to change things, the thing to do right now is not to think of how to elect more Republicans, it's how to stop supporting the system.

A few possibilities:
1. Reduce your tax burden. This can range from moving overseas, reducing your work load, consuming less, etc.

2. Homeschool. Private schools are fine, but many are just better run versions of the public schools. Children use the same textbooks and get the same left-wing indoctrination.

3. Sell your dollars. The U.S. government prints dollars to fund it's deficit spending. If you have little faith in the government, why do you have faith in its money?