The Helsinki Summit held on July 16, 2018, demonstrated to the world something very shocking. That a United States President would grant equal value of the word of a pathological lying, dictator, murdering thug of a former KGB Colonel, on equal grounds as the entire United States intelligence community. When asked if Russia meddled in the 2016 election, President Trump said he was told it was Russia but Vladmir Putin said it wasn’t. And by the end of the conference, Trump descended into the insanity of still wondering where the server was, Clinton’s missing emails and conspiracy theories about how the electoral college favors Democratic candidates. Sheesh.
Does Putin have something on Trump? I don’t know. Maybe Robert Mueller knows and we’ll find out one day. Or Maybe Trump just likes to hang around tough guys. Maybe he just wants to be Putin’s friend. Why on earth? Maybe because the presidency is just another reality show for this guy and he’s got a great future in entertainment after.
In any case, it’s clear it’s not “America First”. It’s “Trump First”. It always has been. And since the GOP and numerous other Republicans have been satisfied with their thirty pieces of silver (tax cuts, Supreme Court nominations, etc), he isn’t going anywhere. I don’t think any of these successes are worth the damage Trump is doing.
But, instead of taking up more of your precious time, dear reader, with going on about how awful this president is, I’m going to offer the only solution I think we can work to resolve the issue. At least a little.
This coming 2018 election, my State of Michigan, has the governorship up for grabs. Beside this, all thirty-eight seats in the Senate and all one-hundred-ten in the House are open. Everything is open if we want to clean house. That’s an extraordinary opportunity. It’s not once in a lifetime, but considering what we’ve seen coming from the Trump Administration, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that moving away from any representation from Washington D.C. is ideal and for my state, now’s a good time.
The Federal Government has no power without any money behind it. What happens is it siphons off tax money from the states and in return, the states send representatives to D. C. to ask for it back (including more than they put in). Why does Florida send money to D.C. to be handed out to earthquake relief in California? Why does California send dollars to D.C. to be passed on to Florida during hurricane season? Why not just keep that money in-house?
In order to keep federal funding coming to the states, the states must comply with federal regulations. And I think it’s high time each state considers if this arrangement is in its best interest.
So in this coming 2018 election, my focus will be on not who I want to beg and grovel from D.C., but who is going to withdraw as much reliance from D.C. Which candidate for governor, which for Michigan House and Senate wants to severe the toxic relationship and get Michigan more self-reliant. I’m not talking a physical secession from the Union. I’m talking about a financial and psychological one. I’m talking about being able to withstand awful presidencies, and their handlers in Congress who don’t reign them in. If Michigan and other states were more self-reliant, if each state asserted its Tenth Amendment rights and stuck it to D.C. any time it over stepped its Constitutional authority, shitty presidents wouldn’t matter. In fact, wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to care who was in D.C.?
Here’s my proposal for any candidate running for a Michigan election: Run on a platform of policies that can better jobs, education, healthcare, and all the important issues from in-house. Iron out how we’re going to move away from D.C. dollars and into something else. Examine the benefits of digital currencies if need be. What are the implications of chiseling away at this relationship? How much can we really do?
I don’t know.
Smarter people than I have been working on something like this. The Free State Project is an idea among pledges not to wait for their state to enact a more self-reliant government but to move to New Hampshire (chosen for reasons) and make up a majority that can then make it happen. Will it work? Don’t know. I, however, enjoy living in Michigan and have no intentions on leaving. We have four seasons, plenty of natural resources and sit right in the middle of the largest bodies of fresh water on the planet. If there’s ever a zombie apocalypse, if they can’t swim, we only have the southern border to wall off (attempt at humor).
At any rate, states removing themselves from the financial control of Washington D.C. is ideal even without the likes of Donald Trump as president. What’s good for Michigan may not be for Arizona. What’s good for Hawaii may not be good for Montana. And so on. States could compete for people by offering better living and reasons to come. States could try libertarian governments, socialist governments, etc and the people could choose to move or stay. It’s a lot easier to do than leave the country entirely.
Consider this article more exploratory, a bit of brain storming, opening the discussion on financial succession, with the goal to remove the influence of D.C. over the states and restore what the Federal Government is supposed to be as stated in the Constitution. This isn’t an end of the conversation. It’s the first volley. And it begins in 2018 where I intend on voting for whoever is willing to get Michigan out of the dysfunctional relationship it has with Washington D.C. Because I’d like to look back at some future Helsinki disaster where the president is acting a fool and think no more about it than there goes our weird uncle that comes around from time to time but our family of fifty generally ignores him.
Freedom Cocktail 