As third President, Thomas Jeffferson used all his power to bring the nation’s $112 million dollar debt back down to earth.   The founding father was known as a maniacal believer in reducing the national debt, something he felt if left untouched would lead to “unrest and revolution.” Still, doing so meant reducing government spending by nearly 70% - from $9m to less than two! 

But cutting the federal gut, the process of eliminating full swaths of the apparatus, was actually a prospect Jefferson, the anti-Federalist, relished.

And so, truly, began the Republican party and the country’s insistence on fiscal policy – oddly abandoned in the last decade. Still, Jefferson’s moves meant a drastic reduction of federal role and power and most notably perhaps the complete dismantling of our navy. A choice proven disastrous twelve years later as the British ran across the White House lawn in the War of 1812.

Point is that for Democrats to succeed in Novermber, they must acknowledge this deeply rooted American trait and cater to the will of the people, old and new. This is not just the Tea Party but over 200+ years of economic theology and practice. This battle is not fresh, it dates us back to the beginning, to Hamilton and the founding financial principles.

So start by reducing the deficit, which indirectly and directly affects the national debt. Reduce it by a single dollar and you gain leverage over the oppositions argument. Reduce it by $2 and you double the leverage, like a splint beneath a giant boulder. Always easier to make progress $1 at a time.

In this regard, perhaps, the current Administration has two distinct advantages: improvement and cash.

For one, the economic outlook could continue, and should, to improve. Indicators are favorable in no small part because of the injection of capital at the most investment-wise moment. Assets acquired via the bailouts are returning to us in kind.

Bottom line here is that Obama took a chance, took out a bet on America. And it is proving to be a very wise decision, both for taxpayer and country, hell, even for the globe as a whole. BusinessWeek does an excellent job of making the case.

The other benefit is in cash, nearly $500 billion in stimulus funds that have, as of yet, to be disbursed. Hold that golden war chest, gold ticket, then deliver it at the best possible moment in the form of a tax rebate or even more simply, to reduce the deficit…by three dollars!

Because if deficit and/or debt reduction arrives before November, you neuter the central argument of the Tea Party via the descendants of Jeffersonian philosophy and policy. Average Joe’s don’t understand ‘deficit-spending’ yet know in personal terms what ‘debt’ means. In fact, voters get touchy about deficits when they, themselves, are cash-strapped.

In the end, Jefferson was half right. His insistence on reducing debt yielded results but also robbed America of the opportunity to invest in itself, its future and stability and at a time of needed growth. Deficit spending had, in fact, helped America grow into the 1790’s (by taking on state debts) and would once again prove vital in the 1930s.

Truth is, with a little fiscal policy, it is possible come winter to meet T.J. and his legacy somewhere in the middle. Possible and necessary, yes…if you want to win.

This is a good start

I doubt many noticed, like the media, but when Dick Cheney said this weekend that he was a “big supporter of waterboarding,” he not only showed what an idiot and evil SOB he is, he also inadvertently admitted to a war crime.

By ALL international standards and laws, waterboarding is a war crime. Begun in the frickin Spanish Inquisition, waterboarding is an awful, useless tool that simulates effects of drowning. I mean, throw a rock and you’ll hit a report about how torture produces poor intelligence.

Truth is, we should fry him in front of the world to regain our moral standing. We not only created decades of recruitment but we also lost a moral high ground we had held high since WWII. US does not torture. Period.

I get a chill imagining the reactions of all the great men who gave and sacrificed to create a global beacon of freedom comprised of a government in which “no man need be afraid of another.” FDR would fall out of his wheelchair.

Don’t you see? It CONFIRMS us as the “bad guy.” We ARE better than all the rest, aren’t we?

Yes, even if it means our end. The ideal is bigger than whole of its parts. Besides, if we fry the old bastard, perhaps ironically then, will they finally and long last ’greet us as liberators.’

My frustration for Obama grows on a daily basis.

Not only does he have to contend with a bunch of useless bureaucrats (read, lawyers) in DC but he also has to deal with an American public that wants it all now (jobs, growth, tax cuts) but doesn’t want to pay for it in any way shape or form. It’s catch 22 x 2.

In simple terms, it is as if the poor President is attempting to deal with, explain to and placate a four year old special child who wants more cheetos but doesn’t want to pay for them, in fact, he wants to be paid to get his fingers covered in cheesy dust.

And so we have the American public, fickle and insatiable like a toddler – and dangerously so. For even Jefferson championed and welcomed the French Revolution.

Yet the world would soon learn that the insatiable and desperate French public wold lead it to a reign of terror, of anarchy and sheer horror. The world, and the American public, must not forget this dark period where sheer impatience became the enemy of stability and security and progress.

History, as we know, give us guide to the future lest we suffer the indignity and stupidity of ignoring lessons learned – normally at the cost of thousands and millions of lives and their split blood.

For perhaps these periods, like that of the Revolution, are meant to provide counsel. Do we not study our prescient past with eyes aglow for the lessons they impart on the current situation? Did not the Great Depression provide us a guide map to the Great Recession and the lessons learned then placed in practice?

Still, we cannot ignore the petulant child. For he does not learn, or remember, an effect of the misfiring electrics of the brain. The kid cannot be reasoned with as reason is absent, it cannot be pulled into sacrifice as it would render their inner universe, their singular and personal solar system mute by default. It fears exposure, does not comprehend the vision forward.

Yet the impatience of the child frays nerves more than other attributes, good and bad. We have become overly impatient - to the point of revolutionary change, a promising yet destructive ideal.

For only a four year old, or the masses as a collective IQ, could conceive of a situation wherby we can demand to receive and receive, without even the instinct to give.

And so we sit, mired in a gridlock that could easily be reversed via public interest and debate and rationale – but that is too much to ask, yes, of a four year old consumed by his cheetos.

Napkin anyone?

If you think the environment now in Washington is toxic, then sad to say, you don’t know much about the history of ‘toxicity’ in our political capitol – even before it was located in D.C., back before it involved ten paces, ’seconds’ and bullets.

From the first ‘political party’, the ‘Republicans’ of Jefferson, to the first true party (as we know it now) the ‘Democrats’ of Andrew Jackson, the single most concurrent factor through all of it is ‘opposition.’

Remember, we began and functioned in our early years as a single party, the Federalists. Would we have reached any decisions if two parties existed there at the beginning?

In fact, the means by which we ‘disagree’, the very ideal and tradition of opposition was created via the parties themselves. A “party” being simply the vehicle for opposition. With one ‘faction’ in power, the other had to ‘unite’ common sentiment and general disagreement – as thus the political party was formed.

“Opposition” and “obstruction” have been political tools of the minority in all the ages, against even the most regal and respected, save Washington himself. Yes, save Washington, who achieved a sort of diety status in his own lifetime.

Not so for others. From Sally Hemmings to Rachel Jackson to Watergate, we can pinpoint various moments in US political history and find that the mud was just as thick, if not thicker. And no one was spared.

Andrew Jackson’s wife died shortly before his inauguration from, as many have speculated, the weight of the brutal campaign waged by his opponent, John Quincy Adams. Yes, it was so vicious as to be held historically responsible for the death of the annointed First Lady.

American heroes, hallowed men, who now grace our money and art, were once derided as traitors, adulterers and criminals in the public square – in appalling fashion. In fact, one drew so much ire he was killed for it…by the sitting Vice President of the United States.

For going on twenty years Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers, threw slime at his opponent, Aaron Burr, until it all climaxed with the destruction of both lives and careers on the shores of New Jersey when Burr, the VP at the time, mortally wounded Hamilton in a duel – continuing proof that nothing good happens on the Jersey shore.

Ultimately, we need to step back from our PC-ness for one second and embrace the inner politician – the type of which would meet on the shore, to defend every ounce of their honour.

We deride our politicians for playing the game of politics yet vote them out if they do not play it well. Wtf? True politics is the art of compromise, of narrative and oratory, of representation with taxation, of leadership and courage. It means being American in the truest and most sparkling sense, for the betterment of all.

Because it is not the game that needs redefinition, no, we need to figure out what “politics” means to us and U.S. Is it a dirty word or not?

We need to decide and then let our representatives know, they don’t seem to get it either. But at least, for the moment, let them fling their arms about, I’m still a believer that the cream rises to the top.

And if not, I’m all for bringing back the duel to get it done. Sure, you can still say what you want about the President but then you should be prepared to defend it with your life, on the shore, with your second and the chosen pistols at ten paces.