Jimmy McMillan for President??!!??

by Bill Claydon

Sales of CDs and Jimmy “Rent is too damn high” McMillan dolls must be down. Despite being someone who simply cannot even be classified on the ideological spectrum, he has resurfaced at CPAC! And better yet, he wants to run for president as a Republican! What? Is the “Rent is 2 damn high” party (of one) not big enough for national politics?

As an entertainer whose faux NY gubernatorial campaign focused on one issue — that rent is “too damn high” — he hasn’t really articulated himself on other, more pressing issues. Until now. He has announced (drumroll please) that the DEFICIT is too damn high! I’m not sure there is anyone who can disagree with that.

Fun and games aside, he does make a good point. The youth are strapped down due to the shortsightedness and big spending ways of previous generations. Young people of today and future generations will be forced to pay for the lack of vision espoused by the previous generations who have grown government far beyond its Constitutional limitations. This goes for both major parties. We are simply on an unsustainable path and no amount of whining from big government cheerleaders representing the failed policies of the past is going to change that. The status quo cannot be maintained and we are facing a reckoning.

However, such a reckoning, while upsetting in the short term, is very necessary to bring this nation back to its Constitutional parameters. We have drifted morally and in terms of abiding by the Constitution. The out of control spending by the current and previous presidential administrations just hastened what would have probably come a couple of decades later. Had the tremendous waste merely increased at a slower rate, we would have continued to drift. Things were not right under the Bush years (or those of the last several presidential administrations) and have simply declined faster under Obama. We needed that faster downward spiral to create a wake up call.

The Founders instructed that ordinary people must pay attention to what is happening in government. Most ordinary people were “asleep.” The wake up call has finally begun to get people away from their distractions and more involved. Everything must be examined, considered, and tested as to its constitutionality. And no, the “general welfare” phrase (or as some ignorant types have called it the “good and welfare clause”) in the Constitution is not a catchall for every single big government whim that can be dreamed up so as to further enslave future generations with debt.

These are indeed exciting times and I for one am quite glad this reckoning is happening sooner rather than later. We were on the wrong path….and it will take decades to correct the mess that much of the 20th century created. It's better to get started now than to put off the necessary clean up job.