Oh, The Horrible Hypocrisy

by Craig Cantoni

There is a scene near the end of the movie "Apocalypse Now" in which the renegade Colonel Kurtz says, "Oh, the horror, the horror."  While watching the congressional hearings on Enron, I kept repeating to myself, "Oh, the horrible hypocrisy, the horrible hypocrisy."  I am referring of course to the horrible hypocrisy of Congress.

Compared to members of Congress, Enron executives are novices when it comes to lying, stealing and breaking the law.  At least with Enron, the responsible executives may lose their fortunes and serve prison time.  But with Congress, the miscreants lie, steal and break the law with impunity.  

For example, members of Congress blame Enron executives for employees losing their retirement savings, although the truth is that Enron employees had control over whatever money they put into their accounts.  

Those same members of Congress know that Social Security will be bankrupt in about 30 years, but they continue lying to the public about the program's solvency and continue forcing citizens to contribute to what is truly a Ponzi scheme.  Worse, members of Congress have feathered their own nest at taxpayer expense with a rich retirement plan for themselves.

Another example of hypocrisy is how members of Congress accuse Enron executives of phony bookkeeping.  At the same time, they know that the Social Security Trust Fund is an accounting fiction, as is much of the national budget.

But knowing the truth about Social Security does not stop Tom Daschle from looking into the TV cameras, flashing his saccharine smile and saying with all the false sincerity he can muster, "The Republicans want to balance the budget with money from the Social Security lock-box."  That is like a cat burglar calling a bank robber a thief.  

A reporter worth his salt would respond to Daschle, "You're a liar.  There is no such thing as a Social Security lock box."  Instead, reporters go along with the charade, just as they did in the Soviet Union about government crop forecasts.

Another example of hypocrisy is how members of Congress blame Enron for buying favors in Congress, although the fact is that corporations are outlawed from making political contributions.  Meanwhile, Congress is buying votes by giving taxpayer money to special interests.  The latest outrage is increasing crop subsidies for wealthy farmers and farm conglomerates.     

The worst hypocrisy is how members of Congress are accusing Enron executives of breaking SEC regulations at their Houston headquarters while they are doing something much more serious in Washington:  They are breaking the supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution.

Of the 535 voting members of the House and Senate, only one member, Representative Ron Paul of Texas, strictly obeys the supreme law of the land.  Others like Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona come close, but no one is as law-abiding as Rep. Paul.  He refuses to vote for any legislation that is violation of the Constitution.

Think about that for a moment.  One out of 535.  Only one out of 535 loves his country enough to obey its supreme law.  Only one is a true patriot.

The Constitution is violated in too many ways to list here, but a few are worth mentioning.  

Take one of the most violated provisions of the Constitution, the Commerce Clause.  Its intent is unambiguous:  to regulate commerce among the several states.  It was not intended to regulate wetlands used by geese that migrate between the states.  The only exception might be geese that wear Gucci loafers and carry laptops and cell phones.  

If the national government wants to expand the Commerce Clause to geese, it can do so under the law by amending the Constitution.  But until it does so, it is violating the law by stretching the definition of commerce to include migrating birds.  

A more serious example is how the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is frequently and intentionally violated, primarily by the government condoning racial preferences in hiring, promotions and college admissions.  Such preferences not only violate the Equal Protection Clause, but they also violate a more recent law, the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  The act is unambiguous.  It forbids discriminating on the basis of race, gender and ethnicity.  

Those who say that the Equal Protection Clause and the Civil Rights Act allow the government to favor one race over another cannot read plain English.  They should not be allowed to operate heavy machinery, let alone control the levers of our constitutional republic.     

Then there is the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution.  It is violated more than the number of women who have been violated by Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy and Gary Condit.  One example out of thousands of sickening examples is the farm subsidies mentioned earlier.  Giving money to wealthy farmers does not help the general welfare.  It does the opposite.  It hurts the general welfare by taking money from citizens to raise the price of their food.

All of the lawbreaking has culminated in the latest and most egregious violation of the Constitution.  It has culminated in the recent passage by the House of the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill.  This incumbent protection act is clearly in violation of the First Amendment, especially the part of the act that restricts advocacy ads within 60 days of an election.  Shays and Meehan should be indicted for submitting the bill.  I'm serious.  

It had to come to this.  It had to come to the point that leftists in Congress would borrow a page from Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, et al.  They want to put the government in charge of political speech.  Curiously, many Republicans are going along with the leftists.  But maybe it is not so curious.  If the supreme law of the land is irrelevant to political prostitutes, political principles will also be irrelevant to them.       

In the movie "Apocalypse Now," Colonel Kurtz rebels against the hypocrisy he sees in the U.S. Army.  As a patriot and former Army Captain I do not ask the following question flippantly:  Is it time for a rebellion?  

I do not ask this because of the hypocrisy of Congress.  I ask it because of the lawbreaking of Congress.  I ask it because I believe that the citizens of a constitutional republic do not have to follow illegal laws.  No, I misspoke.  What I should have said was that the citizens of a constitutional republic have a RESPONSIBILITY to violate illegal laws if they love their country.

In that vein, I plan on running an advocacy ad within 60 days of an election if Shays-Meehan passes the Senate.     

Want to join me?
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Mr. Cantoni is an author, public speaker and consultant.  He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com. ;      

Last update: 3/13/2002; 8:02:16 AM.