Hey Shuckster,
For starters , In graduate school at FSU I took Constitutional Law, Land Use Law and Environmental law. I have read all the Federalist papers and I would say I have pretty good idea what the Constitution is and is not about. I worked either in government or as a consultant to it for 15 years. My view of government is one of being part of it and my skepticism of it is healthy.
My employees I care very much about. You don't know jack crap about how to run your own business and what it means to tell 17 people you have to close and don't know when and if they have jobs. I have my life savings tied up in my business. My crew might have lost some income but I had the potential to lose it all.
I don't blame Democrats though my state is controlled by Democrat governor who is dumb as a box of rocks. I got some PPP money but here is the rub, if the government didn't shut me down I wouldn't need to beg for assistance . Walmart stayed open so why couldn't I ? the hypocrisy of the public policy is glaring .
It's not that my employees got an extra $600 a week that bugs me. I think it's bad public policy. They should have gotten 100% of their unemployment for sure . Here is the other thing ...I sometimes write about u intended consequences. My unemployment insurance went up for 2021. I was paying a little over $20k annually for that insurance mandated by the state of North Carolina to now over $26K . I guess I need to magically pull that $6,000 out of my butt? There is no Free lunch my friend ,ever..Somebody has to pay and small business ownera take it and take it. It's is hard owning abd running a small business. Government does not make it easy.
lastly, I despise with every ounce of my being the national mainstream media. They are clearly in the tank for one side . They are hypocrites and what galls me is they are protected to exist in the Bill of Rights and in the very same amendment calling for free speech ,they get a carve out for a free and independent press. Then they turn around and have calls to deprogram half the country, to silence people on social media. Now let's be clear, the Bill of Rights limits what Government can do . Twitter ,facebook and such they are private organizations and they can do what ever they want. I can also chose to not to go there and I don't . However,it is scary and unacceptable when AOC and her ilk call for lists to punish political opposition. When elected people call for silencing and targeting people on lists that should make your skin crawl . That's the Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. That's China .
So Shuck , I likely don't agree with you on 20% of the stuff and I think more opinions ,not less,more speech not less is key to building a better future. Debate is healthy and silencing people is a terrible idea. I want to know who the dingbats are. I want to know who the real racists are either in the KKK or Black Panthers. You want that out in the open so you can bear those crappy ideas with better ideas. Silencing people is never good even when we find their ideas offensive and bankrupt.
I think Democrats and Republicans ,especially at the top of both parties absolutely suck. They are globalist selling the middle class out . They divide us and use the poor as their pawns. We are quickly becoming a system of oligarchs in the media, tech and government. It's not what the principles of our Constitution and Bill of Rights are founded upon at all. The core of it is the individual and individual liberty are what Government is supposed to serve and defend. That's purpose of the American government. We are citizens not subjects.
So , bipartisanship needs in my opinion ,needs to be where both sides agree on that principle .Both sides need to say the Bill of Rights us where we agree.
Those documents are our founding documents and they are the contract between you and I and our government..They are the rules in which our relationship is established. Now, if you don't like the rules, the founders included a means to change them through the Amendment process. Go through that process to change the rules and honor and trust the amendment process. Too often both sides want judges to determine policy and neither has the courage to propose any meaningful amendments. For starters I would propose term limits and balanced budget amendments. These two things would go a long long way in fixing Government.
lastly,. I care deeply about my crew. My issue with the $600 is two fold.one, human nature is such that if you said you get your regular unemployment plus $600 on top of that , why would anybody want to go back to work. I was put In a position as an employer to say I am open now and you need to come back to work or you're fired or I turn a blind eye to it all and figure it a out until their $600 weekly check ran out? It sucks to be honest .
My other opposition is this. No where in the Constitution does it authorize taxing one group to penalize them and give another group the first groups wealth. Do not go down the notion of general welfare because that is mentioned in Article 1 Section 8 in a sentence that preludes the 18 specific enumerated powers. meaning in order to provide for the general welfare and common defense the following 18 enumerated powers are given to the federal government..no where does it say take from group A to give to group b. Again, if you want to champion a socialist state then propose an amendment to give the federal government the power to redistribute wealth. or champion the 10th Amendment where it states all powers not specified here in are reserved to the states and people respectively.. So, if Florida wants to redistribute wealth it can chose to do so, but as it stands now the feds have zero authority to do it.
The issues are not whether I care or not ,it's about what is the specified power in the Constitution that gives my government the authority to do what it is doing. This is why I think in order to have meaningful governance it must start with agreement on the principles in our founding documents. We need a basis of agreement and civility . In 2021 we no longer have these and thus why bipartisanship in my opinion is a joke.
