Idaho Dispatch

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Op-Ed: Presidential Obsession is a Disease

By • December 8, 2020

Republican voters are rightly disappointed and concerned about the apparent outcome of the recent presidential election. Millions of Americans voted for the less desirable candidate and pending any big news before the electoral college votes next month, it looks as if Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States federal government.

What does that really mean?

The truth is, an American president isn’t the end-all-be-all of American politics. Despite the incredible amount of passion, billion dollars campaigns, and countless hours of debate that repeats every four years, the office of president is still a limited role. Despite the fact that most of us act as if we are electing an all-powerful king, it is not so. Despite the media’s obsession with the position, the United States president does not control every aspect of every life in America.

As Republicans, we should know better. We are often adamant about the fact that our country is not a democracy. We should also realize that the country cannot and should not be controlled unilaterally by a single person. Whether our party’s nominee wins or loses the presidential election, we should never want to live under the dictatorship of a single elected official.

Our constitution provides for a limited national government and even more limited executive branch. If our freedom really depends this precariously on the outcome of a single popular election, we’re doing something wrong.

Americans appear to be getting more and more frustrated with our federal government as the years go by, but maybe that’s because we’re obsessing over the wrong things? If we’re unhappy with our representation there, maybe we should look at the correct source. Under the US Constitution, Presidents are elected by the electoral college, Senators (at least originally) were appointed by state governments, and supreme court justices aren’t even elected at all. Our only true representative in Washington is our own representative…. i.e. our congressman in the House of Representatives.

Presidents don’t write laws, they don’t set tax rates, they don’t even declare war or sign treaties. As leader of the executive branch, the president is mostly there to carry out the will of our real representatives in congress. Despite that fact, the average American can just about tell you what the president had for breakfast every day, yet sadly often has no clue how his or her own congressman voted on the last spending bill.

Aside from the presidential circus, Republicans actually did very well in the recent election. We look to maintain control of the Senate, gained almost a dozen seats in the house, and also flipped several governors and state legislatures across the land. Republicans made gains here in Idaho too.

Thomas Jefferson used to say, that in questions of power, “Let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.”

Let’s follow this advice. If we avoid presidential obsession, maybe we can focus more on the things that really matter.

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Tags: Nicholas Contos, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

9 thoughts on “Op-Ed: Presidential Obsession is a Disease

  1. Have you been paying attention to the voter fraud news??? It’s at all levels. And it’s tied into foreign interests. I believe it happened in my county. If all this is true, we haven’t had a Republic, or a Democracy even, for decades.

    The Fed has extreme control of our lives. Otherwise, Lavoy Finicum could have told Barack Obama to piss off. The Fed allowed the U.N. to have local control. It’s behind the recent Idaho water grab, which eroded property rights. U.N. Agenda 21 is in all local government. Look up Rosa Koire. I don’t think the Constitutional Republic you describe has existed since the treasonous Act of 1871. Where “We The People” was sold For Profit (we are not a Capitalist system, we are Credit-ist).

    The Executive Branches all over the country, are ignoring and making law with this COVID scam. They don’t care about our rights or our health. The CARES Act money, among other financial incentive, is corrupting everything that hadn’t already been corrupted (Mike Pompeo’s NGA speech). And law enforcement has been weaponized against us, instead of protecting our rights.
    Biden inc. is eager to continue down this route, enslaving ALL of us.
    Trump seems to be the only hope. The only President to get us out of the wars and do what he said he would.
    Dems. and Reps. both walked us into this mess.
    People need to WAKE UP! Enough of the pretty, pacify talk!
    Our Individual Sovereignty is under attack. We are being lied to and made to fight each other, as a distraction from the real enemy. Do some research on The Great Reset, and China’s AI Social Score open air prison, w/organ harvesting.

    1. I agree that the American republic has strayed very far from it’s proper course.

      But our salvation does not come from placing all of our trust, attention, and passion in one single politician. Our system was never designed that way.

      We have work to do, and we can’t do much of it if we are obsessed with the election (or lack thereof) of a single high office with limited authority.

  2. Please tell us you are not that naive. Biden and his bunch have promised to disarm Americans and confiscate weapons through executive orders. They have promised to stack the supreme court. These corrupt politicians are all controlled by China. If you want to pretend widespread election fraud was committed, or that your very freedom is at stake, go ahead. But please stop posting nonsense!

    People like you are why Venezuela went full blown communist.

    1. Believe me, I’m no fan of Biden or his proposed policies.

      But what a candidate promises on the election trail and what they are actually authorized to deliver once in office aren’t exactly the same in most cases.

      Biden simply cannot do many of the things that he has been promising, and if he can, it’s because we haven’t given enough attention to the other branches of government.

      If our liberty truly hangs in the balance of a single popular election, we have deep deep problems that need to be addressed. That’s not how it is supposed to work.

      One of the reasons that places like Venezuela have been lost is precisely because they focused too much on popular elections when they should have been focusing more on principles of liberty and mechanisms to protect that liberty.

      1. I don’t think you are fully aware of the amount of corruption that has taken over.
        We can’t fix anything if the entire system has been weaponized against us. The COVID fraud has made that very clear. The only reason we have to take our Oath breaking Officials seriously is because law enforcement chooses to back them up, rather than investigate the corruption and arrest them. Even if they did arrest them, they probably wouldn’t be prosecuted.
        But any of us who try to stand up to the system, will assuredly be persecuted to the fullest extent of government.
        Biden inc. is clearly a puppet. I’m not saying anyone had to vote for Trump, don’t be on anyone’s train, but people who voted Biden inc., either are completely unaware, or they do not care about this country.

  3. So you know America is on the cusp of a civil war, right? Do you not know history? Lincoln is on Mt. Rushmore. Millard Fillmore ain’t. The next 2 election cycles will determine whether this Republic survives. Presidents aren’t fungible widgets. Leadership absolutely matters.
    If people like this author can himself a Republican and say this with a straight face, we absolutely need a new party. One with less soy.

    1. I am in fact worried about a civil war, but what will we be fighting over?

      Will we be fighting over who gets to rule over us?

      1. We are fighting for our Individual Sovereignty.
        That is what our Constitutional Republic gives us.
        Biden inc. will enslave you.
        The same system that corrupted him, has corrupted many more.
        We need to fight for Trump, not trust him.
        Power was supposed to lie with the people.
        I shouldn’t have to pay attention to what my government is doing, I should be able to take my power back, if I don’t like them.

  4. Promoting the Constitution and The Proper Role of Government (see below) is absolutely needed. Realizing that all levels of American govt have strayed from both of those is also needed. AND we need to be involved in local and state government because they are supposed to protect us from higher level govt overreach. It is partly the obsession with presidential elections that prevents us mentally and time-wise from being as involved on the local level as we ought. Get involved locally and demand they do their duty to protect us!!!
    excerpts: https://www.properroleofgovernment.com/
    full text: http://www.zionsbest.com/proper_role.html
    watch/listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyDrC5q6S9o

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