My January 9th VTC4L convention speech

The following is the text of the speech I delivered at the second annual Vermont Campaign for Liberty convention on January 9th 2010 in Montpelier. Note that although the content is substantially the same, it is NOT a direct transcript of the speech "as delivered".
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One of the core principles of The Campaign for Liberty is:

"We oppose the dehumanizing assumption that all issues that divide us must be settled at the federal level and forced on every American community, whether by activist judges, a power-hungry executive, or a meddling Congress. We believe in the humane alternative of local self-government, as called for in our Constitution."

There are two primary differences in the way that I perceive our current Federal government, and the way that I perceive our state government. I certainly have my disagreements with the government here in Montpelier, but I think that despite our differences, most of the folks here in Montpelier actually BELIEVE that their actions, though sometimes misguided, are in the best interests of the people of Vermont.

When it comes to Washington DC, I see a government that is almost entirely beholden to wealthy special interests and which knowingly pursues policies that serve the needs of those politically well connected elites at the expense of the vast majority of U.S. Citizens.

Furthermore, on the state level, I know that my voice is actually being heard, and I can see that I have the power to influence my government. One of the Representatives from Milton runs a convenience store in town, and I can stop by and talk to him on almost any weekday, about local politics, or politics in general.

I try to communicate with Welch, Leahy and Sanders, and I do so dlilligently, but I’m lucky to get the occasional e-mail response from them, and even when I do, it’s clear that they didn’t get the message. During this whole health care fiasco, I’ve been writing letters such as.

“Dear Senator Sanders, due to the fact that the Federal government has no legal authority to take over the health care system of the U.S. I urge you to vote no on any proposed Federal legislation”

Jan 6th “ Dear Mr. Kinney Thank you for your recent communication regarding health care reform, and your desire to see a strong public option in the final legislation.”

It won’t stop me from trying, but I definitely get that feeling of shoveling sand against the tide when it comes to influencing the government in Washington D.C.

I love Vermont. I really like my community, and I like being in a rural area with beautiful landscapes and living growing things. I go through the state and I see all these people working in their yards, shoveling their driveways, mowing their lawns, taking care of their homes. I see the hard working small business owners, and the people at the local farmer’s markets ...

What really bothers me is the fact that while these people are working hard, doing the right things, taking care of their families and their communities, there is this beast called the Federal government that is actively undermining their efforts. First and foremost by its direct and indirect efforts to confiscate the wealth that these people are producing, and second of all, by using that wealth in ways which are detrimental to the very people that they stole it from.

There’s a massive military industrial complex sucking up trillions of dollars to maintain a global military presence, and to fight illegal and unConstitutional foreign wars. I also see the blatant THEFT . . . Yes, THEFT of trillions of taxpayer dollars being transferred to the politically well connected banking and financial industries.

Then there’s this whole issue of Federal funding for various endeavors that are supposed to help the states. First of all, that's not "federal funding" it's OUR TAX DOLLARS, it's OUR wealth, or wealth borrowed from future generations, or these days it's money hot off the printing presses and undermining your savings account.


The Federal government takes our money, pockets a percentage, spends huge amounts to finance those special interests, and then forces the states to fight amongst themselves for a share of the scraps.

"We get more back than we pay in" That's an argument I hear ALL THE TIME. Can that be true of every state? Does Washington D.C. really have a magic money machine where EVERY state gets back more money than they paid in? Of course not! We're playing a negative sum game, and we shouldn't endorse this system just because WE sometimes happen to be benefiting disproportionately! The whole system is fundamentally unjust.

Now, that’s just depriving us of our resources. On top of THAT, I see armies of bureaucrats and law enforcement agencies eroding our civil liberties . . . and being paid with the fruits of OUR labor. There is NOTHING more hateful and frustrating to me than the thought of government taking my wealth, and then using it to erode the freedoms which they are supposed to be protecting. That seems to be the way the Washington DC bureaucracy is operating. We have people in air conditioned offices, collecting fat salaries with generous benefits packages and retirement funds far and above anything that the average U.S. Citizen has, or will ever have. Then, we have them dreaming up their vision of a Utopian society, and using threat, force and intimidation to impose that vision onto the real world.

Even if they WERE trying to craft policies that are in our best interest . . . like they SAY that they are, and are continually promising us, it’s just not feasible. A set of government policies that might work in downtown Los Angeles, probably aren’t going to be the right fit for rural Vermont. We have a diverse population. Every town, every city and every state has its own unique people, its own culture and its own lifestyle. Attempting to design a single policy that's going to serve each and every one of those communities effectively is an exercise in futility. Every place is going to have different problems and different needs, and every place is going to have different ideas about how to meet their needs and solve their problems.

Once one of these decisions is made in Washington DC and imposed on the nation, the decision makers are so far removed from the actual effects of that decision, they’re in no position to observe the results of those decisions or measure the effectiveness of their programs. They're not IN the local community observing the end results of
their policies, and they certainly can’t be in ALL communities observing the comprehensive consequences.

IF however, we have a state, county, or local program with which people are really unhappy, the people who are affected by the program have a lot of power to remedy the situation. A few hundred, or even a few DOZEN angry voters can have an impact on local elections. Even in a decentralized system, it’s obviously not possible to make everyone happy always, But the way to make the most people satisfied and consenting to government policy is to have a largely de-centralized system

Furthermore, the feedback mechanism is fundamentally broken. The bureaucrats can’t observe the end results of their decisions, and the power of the people to object to those decisions is weak at best.
Remember that idea about government getting it’s powers from the consent of those governed? Well, what if people are REALLY unhappy with a Federal program, what are their options? Complain to the agency? Write to their Representative and Senators . . . elect a new Rep and new Senators . . . we're talking years, and even then, what can THREE out of 535 actually DO to address the grievance? Honestly? Not very much.

No matter how you look at it, big central government is a FAILED experiment. The fundamental flaw in the Socialist central planning philosophy is that big central government COULD work if we could just get the right people elected, when in fact the problem is that big government itself is an unworkable solution. When faced with the frustrations of the fact that an independent and diverse set of people spread across a large geographical area can’t be served by a single set of policies, the only recourse is to mould the entire nation into their vision through the use of force.

That’s where the “dehumanizing” element comes into play. The only way they can make their centrally planned programs work is to turn the people into a set of clones.

This country became a great and powerful one through a bottom-up style government where a small Federal government was the servant of the various states. We didn't become great by sending vast sums of our wealth to a bunch of elite central planners and then squabbling amongst ourselves for a few handouts from well paid career politicians and bureaucrats.

The U.S. Constitution could not be more clear in granting the Federal government a LIMITED set of powers, and then explicitly leaving ALL OTHER POWERS to the States or to the People. It’s important to remember that this architecture was created by a set of people who had experienced life in a system where arbitrary centralized power was the rule of law, and rose up to oppose the blatant injustices of that system of government. With that experience in mind, they willfully and deliberately architected a new system based on DE-centralized power.

It was a wonderful idea, and it has been wildly successful . . . unfortunately, over time, our wonderful bottom-up decentralized system has broken down. We aren’t yet in a monarchy, but our system has been weakened and eroded to the point where our central government today more closely resembles the top-down style system that we fought to get rid of than the Constitutional Republic that our founders envisioned.

We have an overwhelming advantage that those people did not have. Prior to their courageous revolution, the system of law, however unjust, bestowed those tyrannical powers on the ruler. In our system, the rule of law is on our side, and it is our Federal government that is the criminal. So it is the legal right and within the legal power of this state to cast off the chains of a central power confiscating our wealth and telling us how to run our affairs.

Just as our founding fathers rejected the absolute authority of a monarch trying to run their lives from the other side of the Atlantic ocean, it's time that we, the citizens of Vermont, and the citizens of the other 49 states rejected the illegal authority of a renegade government hundreds of miles away in Washington DC. A government which has trampled the legislative jurisdiction explicitly reserved for the states and the inherent rights of the people, and a government which more closely resembles the monarchy we revolted against than the Constitutional Republic that our founders envisioned.
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