What is Our Heritage?

Because of my long, but spotty history with the GOP, (I voted for Nixon the first Time) the Heritage Foundation sent me a letter; there is a debate in DC about the “proper use of taxpayer’s money, and the constitutional role of the federal government,” they asked that I fill out  “Questionnaire 114” as well as send them a few bucks which I’ve never done.

First Question was, did I support tax relief Act of 2017 which I was against because it only increased profit without requiring increase in productive capacity or adding employees.  Also, it gave a very small tax break for those of us who did not really need it. The more your income the larger the gift.

The next 2 questions dealt with the size of Government and its spending.   From its founding in 1973 by a couple of very rich GOP donors, it has been for smaller government, fewer regs, and less taxes.

The 4^th and 5th questions revealed what was behind the questionnaire; it asked, “Did you (me) believe lawmakers have drifted too far from constitutional principles” and secondly have “Republicans in Congress failed” to represent conservative principles away from limited government and lower taxes. That sounded to me like they were losing control of their elected minions. Heritage Foundation Conservatives want to conserve (keep) things the way they are, maintain privileges for the ultra-privileged, top 1% and pay less tax to cover reduced functions of government. Keep functions that benefit the ultra-privileged with enough patriotic sounding crumbs to keep of us voting for the defenders of the ultra-privileged.

 The tax  law is the biggest benefit to the ultra-privileged; for example  “Depreciation” as cost of doing business,  which is legitimate for the wear and tear of machines and equipment which lose value with use, but real-estate (?) property with buildings,  hotels and resorts which are generally more valuable at the end of their accounting life and are sold to another corporation sometimes owned by the same ultra-privileged people to start another accounting life to be depreciated again as a cost of business. The tax law is full of many privileges for the ultra-privileged. Questions 6 to 12 complained about spending too much taxes on the non-privileged welfare, immigration reform (Dreamers) and the Green New Deal in the guise of the putting more “in the pocket of hardworking Americans.”  That is how thousands of hard-working lobbyists and lawyers make their wages.

All men and now women may be born equal but some are more privileged than others. It is this that the Heritage Foundation wants to protect based on a narrow interpretation of the language in the Constitution. Our heritage is much more complicated; it is an amalgam of ideas expressed in our Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Amendments to the Constitution, as well as the ideas of the vast number of immigrates as expressed on the Statue of Liberty.  These adjustments show changes in our guiding principles, slavery was allowed now banned, women and native Americans are now allowed to vote, alcohol was restricted then allowed again.

A constitution should change with new realities. Very few principles are the same today as they were 220 years ago.  Originally states were treated as separate counties with limitations on their powers and authority.  The President and Vice President were elected by the state electors, (the number set by the number of representatives plus the 2 senators) selected by a method determined by each state.  The system was changed but the preference of voting citizens was not included. The ultra-privileged can still determine who the electors are and how they vote.

“We the people,” may “ordain and establish this Constitution” but not really run the country.  The Heritage Foundation is here to keep it that way. Many of their members are very generous as well, along with being greedy hordes of wealth and influence for themselves and their offspring.

I am no longer a paid staffer for OCCD, which has been an important part of my heritage for the same 40 plus years; I hope to be able to dribble in a few ideas from time to time until the virus or something else gets me. 

It’s tiny, unrecognizable little things that take away the principle joy of Privilege, life.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or views of OCCD or its members.