by Stephen Kovaka, CPA | May 22, 2009

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"There is nothing to be reached upon the present lines except the increasing loss of property by everybody, as something swallowed up into a system equally impersonal and inhuman, whether we call it Communism or Capitalism."  G.K. Chesterton  -  1926
"Communism stops only when it encounters a wall, even if it is only a wall of resolve."Alexander Solzhenitsyn – 1980
Economics now A lodger in the house of politics
THE ECONOMY has been the object of agonized attention for many months now, but the focus of that attention seems to be in Washington, D.C.  Long gone are the days when Main Street could go its way, blissfully ignoring Capitol Hill.  While the denizens of Main Street slept, Wall Street invaded and captured Capitol Hill.  Once upon a time government would occasionally intervene in the markets; today it seems that there are no markets anymore, only interventions.  
As a child, I spent one school year walking back and forth from home each day to attend an urban public school.  On the sidewalks, off school property, was where kids like me met the bullies.  In twos and threes, they would shake down the younger kids for their lunch money.  The bullies were organized; the rest of us were just kids minding our own business.  The bullies were bigger and meaner, and they knew that no one was likely to intervene.  They relied on intimidation, backed up by muscle, just like any gang of professional criminals.  The kids who lost their lunch money felt the injustice very keenly, but if they dared to protest, the standard answer of the bullies was a sneering, "Shut up, kid.  What are you gonna DO about it?"   Thus were the arrogance of power and the helplessness of the unprotected individual learned at a young age. 
And this was the very reason why our Constitution provided for a government of strictly limited and separated powers, and a Bill of Rights.  As Washington observed, "Government, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."  Therefore, our Declaration of Independence speaks of the right of the people to alter or abolish government when it escapes its proper bounds and becomes destructive.
BOSTON TEA PARTY 
December 16, 1773  -  Three American ships carrying British tea lay at anchor in Boston harbor.  A mass meeting of some 7,000 colonists was held in Boston to protest the payment of a British duty on tea imports.  When Governor Hutchinson insisted on collecting the tea tax, parties of men armed with hatchets and clubs disguised themselves as Indians (probably to prevent themselves being identified) and boarded the three tea ships in the harbor under cover of darkness.  That night, 342 chests of tea, weighing about 45 tons total, were brought up from the ships' holds, smashed open, and thrown overboard, thus ruining the tea and defeating the tea tax.  The value of the tea was 10,000 British pounds, worth an estimated 1.8 million of today's Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs)
 Loyal subjects of the King, tax collectors, and other representatives of government stayed indoors that night, not daring to interfere with the protestors.  The American ship captains willingly gave the keys to the cargo holds to the "Indians" out of sympathy for the cause, and to avoid damage to their ships.  British demands that Americans repay the cost of the tea were refused.  The boycott on the import of British tea resulted in the burning of the Peggy Stewart brig at Annapolis the following year for attempting to import a small amount of British tea.  6 months later, the American Revolution entered its military phase at Lexington, Massachusetts.
Tax PROTESTS STIFLED BY REGULATIONS
This past April, some Iowa tax day protestors wanted to re-enact the Boston Tea Party by dumping some buckets of brewed tea into the Cedar River from a hired boat, a harmless enough activity.  But first, of course, they had to ask permission from the local government to make their protest.  The government replied that using real tea was out because it would pollute the river (!), but the protestors were graciously allowed to dump buckets of river water labeled "TEA" back into the river in a symbolic protest. 
Clearly this had little but the name in common with the original Boston Tea Party, whose very spirit was betrayed in this ritual reenactment.  It is depressing how much of the media coverage of the April tea party demonstrations was spent in discussing the process (and importance) of getting permission to protest from a variety of government officials and regulators, and following all the rules.
Other protestors in Indiana sought permission to use a bridge over the Wabash River to unload a chest of teabags into the river.  But some of the protestors in Indiana understood the irony of their situation: "Tea is going in the river, regardless," said Jared Fagan, one of the Lafayette's Tax Day Tea Party organizers. "The amount of hoops you have to go through for this to happen is part of what we're protesting."
Alexis de Tocqueville saw this coming 175 years ago:
After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd. Alexis de Tocqueville  Democracy in America - 1835
The April tea parties showed that people are unhappy about rapidly increasing government spending and economic control, and that their protests are easily contained and neutralized, if not quite ignored, by the Powers That Be.  The protestors are allowed to vent their feelings, but then the "flock of timid and industrious animals" are expected to drop the subject and get back to work.  A few politicians may take their cues from the protests and attempt to get out in front of the parade and harvest some votes, but by and large, government will not respond to the protests because they do not threaten the status quo in the least.  
WHY PROTEST?
Do you really expect the government to care about your problems?  In reality, they are content with the status quo because it takes good care of politicians and bureaucrats.  They are not likely to make any real changes just because you are unhappy about the current state of affairs.  These people have supported the policies that caused our current problems and they are unwilling to admit their errors and take responsibility, which is what a change in policy would imply.  Nor will they publicly admit the truth of these statements.  In short, they are in denial, and they believe in the power of government to remain in denial indefinitely, or at least until after they have retired.
Protests from the left are designed to be amplified by the friendly megaphone of the controlled media, and made to seem more significant and broad-based than they really are.  In turn, the press coverage is designed to give support to activists and legislators who push forward the desired changes in the political realm.  These changes have typically been planned long in advance and are implemented in progressive steps.  The socialist support organizations are already in place, ready to absorb and speak for any new recruits.  And by now, they have figured out how to get government to support their organizations financially, at the ultimate expense of the taxpayers.  In short, they have a well-oiled machine that has long been pushing traditional Americans slowly but steadily toward socialism.
Traditional Americans may protest, as in the April tea party demonstrations, but it usually ends there.  The controlled media are not sympathetic to middle-class protests: protesting is the preserve of Young Outraged Militants and Minorities (YOMAMas), the underdogs, and traditional Americans are seen as interlopers on this turf.  So the media apply the large end of the megaphone to such protests, minimizing their impact and making them seem selfish and inconsequential.  Traditional Americans are to be confined to their appointed role of "timid and industrious animals", producing wealth for the socialists to distribute as they in their wisdom see fit.
In order for any significant change to occur, the discontent of traditional Americans must move beyond protest, but what effective actions can we take?  Traditional Americans are essentially unrepresented politically, and they are kept occupied running their treadmills faster and faster to support their families and keep their businesses afloat.
BEYOND PROTEST TO EFFECTIVE ACTION
What doesn't work:

1. Write or call your congressman.  When you see what kind of response you get, you'll understand that this is a hopeless approach to bringing real change.  Hint: most likely you will never be permitted to speak to the congressman, nor will he ever read your letter.
2. Vote for honest politicians who will change the laws.  Even if this were not an oxymoron, 98% of all incumbents are re-elected.  Hence, there is really only one political party, the Incumbency Party.  It takes so much money to run a political campaign that you need to be independently wealthy or you need support by wealthy patrons, who will want something in return.  The largest campaign contributors are corporations that support BOTH Reps and Dems, and don't much care which one wins as long as they remember who helped them get elected.    And then there is the fiasco of computer voting, which makes it so easy for insiders to control who wins a close election (which is most of them).  Voting today is merely to deceive the "flock of timid and industrious animals" that their wishes are being consulted, thereby making them more willing to accept the results, and even accept responsibility for them.
3. Create another political party.  You are fighting uphill against the venerable "two-party" system that has ruled America since 1800.  Third parties have a track record of only being spoilers for one of the Big Two. We already have a Constitution Party that attracts little interest.  Most people feel that to vote for a third party candidate is to waste their vote, since it is assumed that this candidate cannot win.  We do not have a parliamentary system where a minority party can win a few seats and hope in time to grow large enough to influence policy.  And worst of all, the majority of Americans are corrupted because they receive government benefits that they are loath to lose.  As Tocqueville so presciently wrote, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."  This already happened many years ago, and today we live in the American Oligarchy.

Come Clean:

1. Get rid of your TV – you're wasting your life watching spectator sports and commercials.  Cancel your daily newspaper subscription.  Get your news on the internet.  Why let your family be brainwashed by the controlled media of TPTB?
2. Get out of debt.  Your interest payments support the banksters and keep you broke.
3. Sell stocks and bonds and use your investable funds to buy and take delivery of metallic gold and silver.  He who has the gold and silver makes the rules – so let's work together to strip the CRIMEX and empty the vaults of the central banks.
4. Take your kids out of public schools and teach them at home or in a private school.  Do you really want your kids to be indoctrinated by your socialist enemies?
5. Stop voting  -  it just encourages them!  Or at least, never vote for an incumbent (except maybe Ron Paul). 

The first and most important realm of empowerment is self-control.  Stop supporting harmful institutions.  It's time to Come Clean.  The best thing about these actions is that they can be implemented one person or one family at a time.  They are entirely legal.  No need to join an organization, work to pass laws or vote for politicians – you can begin your personal adventure into freedom today.  Plus, the results are immediately beneficial to you and yours.  Are they easy?  Of course not!  Adventures never are.  But if large numbers of us ever take these simple steps to heart and put them into practice, TPTB will have serious problems.  The question is, will they ever be anything but the personal choices of a tiny minority?  That's the way TPTB are betting it.  Ask yourself, if you are not willing to take these safe, legal and personally beneficial steps, what are you willing to do that could make a difference?  I'd like to hear your further suggestions.  As Gandhi put it, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Tax resistance:Many people have devoted years of their lives to opposing illegal taxes in and out of the courts.  God Bless them all.  If nothing else, they have shined a light into a very dark place.  Bill Benson showed that the income tax amendment was never legally ratified in his book "The Law That Never Was"  Franklin Sanders (read his story) dueled with state and federal government on the money and tax issues for 16 years.  The recent Kahre case addressed both income tax and money issues and resulted in a win for Kahre in federal court on criminal charges.  Kahre's tax liability has yet to be decided, and may take years to resolve in court. This writer once got a friendly conference call from an IRS agent and a US Tax Court judge, warning him that he would be convicted and sent to jail as a "frivolous tax protestor" if he showed up to argue his case in the tax court (think about it).  He believed them.  This list could be extended almost indefinitely.  No legal "silver bullet" has yet been discovered, because government does not allow mere facts or legal technicalities to overturn their established way of doing business.  You are playing a rigged game against the house if you take them on in court, and it will cost you dearly.
Monkeywrenching:Also known as sabotage, it is illegal.  This is where push comes to shove.  The Boston Tea Party is a classic example: 45 tons of valuable private property were destroyed to make a political point.  The various national resistance organizations did it to the Germans during World War 2, and German reprisals cost many people their lives.  Earth First is infamous for planting heavy spikes in trees to discourage logging.  Greenpeace does it with their annoying boats.  If pushed too far, even the "timid and industrious animals" will eventually get to this point.  My guess is that automated traffic ticket cameras will become an early target.  I recommend that you take the actions suggested above in Coming Clean before you ever consider this serious step.  Take the beam out of your own eye first, that you may see more clearly your next move.  We have the right to alter or abolish, but not for light or transient causes.
ORGANIZATION IS ESSENTIAL
Without organization, nothing of any real significance happens.  Review the history of the American patriot organizations such as the Committees of Correspondence and the Sons of Liberty.  Not only did they carry out the Boston Tea Party, but in many localities they became a kind of shadow government, controlling the local militia, terrorizing the Loyalist gentry, revenue officers, royal officials and even colonial governors, and thereby paralyzing resistance to the patriot activities.  They mobilized the colonial faction that opposed British policies, organized the First Continental Congress, and instigated the War of Independence.  Many Americans today are not aware that this was as much a civil war between Loyalist and Patriot factions as it was a war against British troops.  This is what it took to change the status quo in colonial America.
Saul Alinsky, the guru of leftist radicals, taught that creating a large and powerful community based organization was the essential first goal of anyone seriously interested in changing society.  For socialists, organizing politically is as natural as breathing, since everything they want must be accomplished by a bigger and more powerful government.  They have always specialized in creating flocks of interrelated organizations to speak for the people and forward their own agendas.  Only organizations and the wealthy have political power, whereas the unorganized individual is powerless.  Why does everyone know this except for traditional Americans? 
Part of the reason is that traditional Americans are not interested in political power; they are interested in being left alone to cultivate their own vines and fig trees.  This worked when government was indeed constitutionally limited in its powers, but today the chances of anyone being left in peace by government are slim.  By now, everyone should be aware that economics is merely a lodger in the house of politics, as government weekly arrogates new powers to itself in order to change unwelcome economic outcomes, mostly of its own making.  Today, traditional Americans are in the conflicted position of having to organize politically to beat back big government and eliminate the need to organize politically on every issue. 
Notice how government is extremely sensitive to any hint of traditional Americans organizing politically outside the Incumbency Party.  (The Incumbency Party comprises Democrats and Republicans who are in office and want to be re-elected, or move up to a higher office.  This means almost all politicians.)  They are always marginalized and demonized by identifying them as "extremists" - skinheads, neo-nazis, racists, religious nuts, mad bombers, gold-bugs, conspiracy theorists and militia organizations.  E-mail and phone calls are spied upon, and any existing organizations are infiltrated.  Government knows that traditional Americans have the power of numbers, but lack effective organization to oppose the plans of the Superclass – and they aim to keep it that way.
CONCLUSION
Let's review some salient points:

1. Free markets, the invisible hand, or economic laws are not going to reduce our taxes for us, "fix" the economy, or save us from heavy-handed government.  Government has shut off the normal economic fire alarms by its interventions, and is now working to replace blown fuses with copper pennies to maintain the illusion of business as usual.  All well and good until the building burns down, and even then they'll paint a smiley face on it and give it a positive spin.  And even then, too many of us will believe what they tell us.
2. Elites have converted the American democratic process into a mere façade, a form of interactive propaganda.  Elections are held, faces change, but policy does not change.  Those who make policy live in a world above the democratic process.
3. Protests and demonstrations by themselves are a dead end; they may even become demonstrations of our impotence.  They have to lead to further, serious, life changing actions, or they mean nothing. 
4. You have to find like-minded people to work with, and coordinate your efforts.  In days to come, tested relationships with people you can trust will be at a premium.  To gain freedom from British rule, our predecessors mutually pledged "their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor".  You don't do that with somebody you just met on the internet. 

"They tell us, sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? . . .
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!"Patrick Henry – "The War Inevitable"March 23, 1775
 

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