President Obama won't release any of his college papers. I will release the following one-page college paper from 2000 on the future political realignment of 2010-2020...just to show the president that it's alright to let other people know what you really believe...and so others may learn what I did about George Washington and The FairTax.
It was Spring of 2000, my first semester on the GI Bill: I had spent 7 years in the army fighting communism under Reagan and Bush, and then 6 years in a big truck observing capitalism in 48 states and Canada. I was 37 years old sitting with 300 freshman in POLS 2311-American Government. The Bush-Gore election was a semester away, the Clinton-Lewinsky erection was long passed. Rodney King's riots were a recent event, O.J. was a free man, and it was still okay to say "Merry Christmas." For some reason diesel cost less than unleaded back then...
Here are the instructions followed by my paper verbatim [minus some middle paragraphs cut for your benefit...not for my embarrassment].
First extra-credit project (5 points max): In class we have discussed the idea of a political realignment. Typically, these happen about every 30 years (or so). Most political scientists believe the last realignment in America politics happened during the 1980s. That would mean that the next one might be expected sometime between the year 2010 and 2020. Write a one or two-page essay describing what you believe the next political realignment will be. Your answer should demonstrate your familiarity with the idea of a political realignment, and with our discussions and readings.
Realignment of the Electorate Based on a Theory of Taxation
The next movement by American voters from one party to the other will be traced to a specific issue, not a general distaste for one of the parties. The issue behind this colossal shift will be taxation.
In today's political arena, and for the foreseeable future, the parties are split, funded, populated and followed or not, based on one of two general views, conservative or liberal. In general. there is no shortage of contempt for the one view by the other, while there are many who will stick to an issue regardless of the view from which it is derived. [...]
A recent trend toward welfare reform has and will continue to create individual achievers out of formerly dependant citizens. The majority of these citizens will necessarily find a surge in their self worth and ambition. Many will wish to, as the campaigners say, "keep more of what they earn." By the decade of 2010-2020 this oft-used campaign phrase will have become real to more of our Washington representatives.
I foresee an individual or group of elected officials with mass appeal putting taxation in front of all other agendas coming from Washington. Somehow the majority of recent calls for tax cuts and a flat tax and IRS reform will pale in comparison to the enthusiasm generated for a complete overhaul of the tax structure of the United States.
Francis Bacon said, "neither should it be, that a people overlaid with taxes should ever become valiant or martial." People of this age have adopted a mind-set of chasing dollars and competing against each other (in their own spheres of influence) for status and position, with little regard to Washington's taxation for profit operations. Most producers are simply too busy existing and enjoying success to give any effort to serious political discourse and reason. Elected officials enjoy a favorable position; there exists a quiet tyranny in this country, and it will be quietly displaced.
The republican Party is the only party (excepting a successful third party) that can become the home for a true tax system overhaul. Democrats have fed off millions of voters who feel the need for, or in reality need, the federal government on a daily basis. The people dependant upon the Democrats and/or the federal bureaucracies are now shrinking in number and local influence. Politicians have recently switched to the Republican Party while in mid-term, and even the media allow the mention of states rights, and devolving power to the states.
George Washington wrote, as influenced by others, in the Fairfax County Resolves of 1774:
6. Resolved, That taxation and representation are in their nature
inseparable; that the right of withholding or of giving and granting their own
money, is the only effectual security to a free people, against the
encroachments of despotism and tyranny; and that whenever they yield the one,
they must quickly fall prey to the other.
There is a bill submitted to congress that will put the power of "withholding or of giving and granting thier own money" back to individuals. It is the FairTax Bill and involves three phases. The current income tax code would be eliminated, a single rate tax on all final sales and services would be instituted and a constitutional amendment that would repeal the 16th Amendment, making the federal income tax unconstitutional...again.
The Republican Party will achieve a huge increase in support from formerly Democrat Party faithful, because the Republican Party will adopt the FairTax legislation.
pwh 2/22/2000
[I got all 5 points! Let us hope the change we see in our elected officials of 2010-2020 involves their dedication to the FairTax!]
