Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child

I’m sure you’re familiar with the title I’ve chosen for this post. It’s from scripture of course, Proverbs 13:24.  The full verse, depending on your particular chosen version of the Bible is as follows: “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.”

I think that’s prophetic in so many ways, for parents, for the military, for regular citizens, and…for voters.

With that being said, you can probably tell where I’m going with this post. While I’m just as tired and frustrated with this election season as most of you probably are, I’m not so frustrated that I’m at a loss for words. I guess I’m posting a piece as your pithy part time political blogger again. So here goes:

Hey candidates- Pthbbbbbbb!

That’s right- a great big slobbery raspberry to both of them, even the one I’m going to vote for. They’ve turned this election season into the most vitriolic one I’ve ever seen and I’m disgusted by it.  While one of them can't seem to stay out of the mud, or keep his muddy foot out of his mouth, the other seems to live in the mud, not only surviving on the seedy underbelly of politics, but thriving. It’s not just the candidates, but some voters as well. I heard conservative political columnist Maureen Dowd tell about a wife who angrily stated she would divorce her husband if he voted for Trump. I don’t know if I’ve lost koobecaF friends over my own beliefs, not that I really care, but I've heard that others have and that just shows how powerful politics can be on our psyche.

There were other potential titles I was considering. I thought about “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.” Sure, it’s a little comic-book-ish, but both candidates have experience with power, and the Presidency is possibly the job with the most responsibility on Earth. Trump is a very powerful businessman, used to multi-million dollar deals, building great things. He’s responsible for the lives of many- the people he employs who need him to make careful calculations in his business dealings. Doing so ensures projects get built, people remain employed, and the economies surrounding the projects continue contributing to society.

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Hillary has had power since her husband came into office, if not before, and it just continued when she carpet-bagged her way into a NY Senate seat, followed by SECSTATE.  Big jobs there, lots of responsibility, but I can’t really say she did anything to improve our country, or its stature in the world.  I consider that responsibility squandered, as were lives in Benghazi. After giving up on the Presidency in 2008 in exchange for a Cabinet position and future support, she’s been the coming messiah for the DNC.   And that mantle has given her nearly free rein to operate outside the margins of both ethics and the law.

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What do you call that free rein? That leads me to another title that would have worked so well- “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.” Here’s another saying- “Knowledge will give you power, but character- respect.”* She definitely knows how to work the political game, her donors (foreign and domestic), as well as her base, but her character is lacking.  As for the last group, it unfortunately includes the media, who don’t even try to hide the fact that they are solidly in her camp and will do anything to help her win.

Because the media has abdicated its responsibility to be neutral, they are no better than Pravda, supporting the regime without question, and covering up the truth of its misdeeds.  This just strengthens the Executive Branch so that the three branches are no longer equal.  Add to that a constant barrage of negative media against Trump and almost none against Hillary, the power becomes more absolute and ever more corrupt.

The liberals in the country are enabling the corruption- spoiling the child per se, because they either hate Trump so much, or love Hillary so much, that they are willing to turn a blind eye to the ethical lapses and criminal behavior of their candidate.  The DNC obviously believes the ends- stopping Trump and remaining in power- justifies the means.

Robert Creamer, who is connected to the Democratic National Committee and is the husband of Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, was busted in a video bragging about the alleged unethical methods the Democrats use to “rig elections.” These illicit activities include:

• Paying mentally ill people to instigate fights at Trump campaign rallies
• Acting as hubs of information to coordinate campaign and Super PAC activities
• Sabotaging Trump press events

The Democratic operative then punctuated his view on the purported unethical activities with a memorable phrase: “It doesn't matter what the friggin' legal and ethics people say, we need to win this motherf...”                                                                       Source 

The ends justify the means, even if the means are completely unethical, lowdown, dirty, nasty, and highly illegal.

And it appears that the money given to Hillary by foreign governments and the power she's handed by an apathetic public and a complicit media, has enabled her to infiltrate or influence the very institutions responsible for investigating and prosecuting criminal behavior.

FBI Agents say Comey stood in the way of Clinton email investigation

And they're not happy about it.

FBI Agents are ready to revolt over the cozy Clinton probe

The media plays an important role in democratic society with its duty to report wrongdoing, keeping bad behavior in check.  But when that's done in a biased way, the full truth isn't told and democracy suffers.  The truth is sometimes hard to face however and if ignored, our society has to deal with the symptoms, unable to treat the root causes of a problem.

We've seen Greece and Venezuela collapse because Socialism is unsustainable.  It might take a while, decades in fact, but eventually their failure is inevitable. No matter how much the government intrudes in their markets, it can’t hide the reality that Socialism just uses up other people's money, and both countries give away far more to their citizens than they produce.  Here in the U.S., race relations are at an all-time low, at least since before the civil rights movement, because ignoring the reality of the root causes just exacerbates the situation.  We have welfare serving as a never ending crutch, and divisive politics that pit one side against another, blaming the specter of racism.  Sure, racism exists, but its not the ever-present beast that the left likes make it out to be.  And our Chief Executive, instead of calling for calm, fans the flames of it when police do their duty in the face of violent resistance to arrest.  Those issues, when coupled with high rates of divorce, abortion, and irresponsible sex result in the collapse of the American family, and just deepen the cracks in the very foundation of our country.  And shoring that up requires hard truths to be told and acted upon.

When parents refuses to discipline their kid, they raise an incorrigible child.  If a Captain allowed a Sailor to slide when he violates the UCMJ, he will be unable to maintain good order and discipline on the ship and lives could be at risk.  If voters, over a 30 year span, turn a blind eye to terrible ethics, to violations of the Oath of Office, and to criminal corruption, you raise an entitled politician who thinks the rules don't apply to her.

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Early in my career, ethics training became part of the annual training requirements.  Avoiding even the appearance of impropriety was the direction.  However, the Clintons don't seem to care.  Pay for play scandals, private servers, $1M birthday gifts from Qatar, $600+K speaking gigs from Goldman Sachs, $12M from Morocco, $25M from Saudi, withholding evidence from congress, destroying evidence under subpoena, etc., even having a foundation in your name while serving in a government capacity- they're all tremendous conflicts of interest.   None of these sound like she cares even remotely about avoiding the appearance of impropriety. 

As I was researching this post, I found a quote by Jonathan Swift: "Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent."  I picked up on that one because of the abortion issue brought up during the last debate.  There's no protection for the most innocent from Hillary.  It's the exact opposite what we’re seeing from her, and her power is a curse to the unborn, considering her stance on abortion even for babies on the last day of gestation.  Here's another quote, this one from Ralph Waldo Emerson:  "What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you." And it’s a dark soulless pit of despair inside Hillary.

We still have power however, through the ballot box, but we choose to promote the same bad behavior.  We spare the rod, and spoil the nation, essentially condoning bad behavior, when we reelect the same politicians that make up our legislative branch, an organization that we overwhelmingly believe aren’t serving us.   If Hillary wins the election, it will not be the result of her qualifications. It will be because the mainstream media refused to report her many failures.  Failures of character, failures of foreign policy, failures of morality, failure to be a decent human being.  And the voters, supported by a corrupt media, allow it.

I’ll repeat what I wrote in a comment to one of Sarge’s posts last week. “One of my high school friends, a great many of which are either trending Bolshevik or weak in their fortitude to actually listen to an argument from the right, sarcastically commented on one of my many koobecaF posts about Hillary.  He said "Thanks Tom, you really changed my mind on that!"  I responded that I don't do it to with that in mind, I do it because I like posting.”

I realize that I’m preaching to the choir here at The Chant, but writing about politics is somewhat cathartic for me, whether or not someone’s position is swayed.  koobecaF?   It’s become a slimy cesspool for political discussions, mainly in the comments section of public posts.  But even if I won’t change anyone’s mind, I want them to be at least better informed about an issue.  If a segment of society isn't given a chance to hear the truth, or refuses to do so, we're becoming less free and losing the power given us in the constitution.  While the truth sometimes hurts, that's part of the rod we shouldn't be spared- whether it's why we have urban decay, what an ultrasound reveals to a woman with an unplanned pregnancy, or how corrupt our politicians really are.  Voters should be fully informed.  Knowledge is power, whether it be for a human life, crew morale, or in politics.  We'll all be better behaved children because of it.



*Bruce Lee