How to Retrieve American Greatness

 Those that fail to learn from History are doomed to repeat it.

America will never be destroyed from the outside: “If it ever reaches us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad.  If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher.  As a nation of freemen “and freewomen” we must live through all time or die by suicide.” Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838 Springfield, Ill.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.  Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858 Springfield, Ill.

Benjamin Franklin, September 17,1787, at the Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – on the thinking that would protect the great ideals of the America to come: “Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors.  I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it “well administered”.”  

What does it take to amply stir todays American?  How much disgrace can be shed upon your patriotic tears and chills and those that sacrificed, before you realize your land is crumbling before your eyes?  America as we dreamed is literally at risk and the answer is in this column.  This disgrace must end.  It is time that rhetoric, deceit, greed and con end.  Until we target the bottom line cause of the degradation of America we will continue our reckless pursuit toward doom.  No detours, no frivolous excuses or accompanying blame.  The absolute bottom line that may doom not just America, but all of humanity.  It is not Trump, it is not the Senate or the House or the Supreme Court.  Trumps lack of quality and debased thinking and the absolute disgrace of the rest are the result, not the cause.  America’s decline is a result of the ease with which we accept permeating corruption.  It is the corruption “of” Title 18 U.S. Code 201 – Bribery of public officials and witnesses to wit:  being induced to do or omit to do any act in violation of the official duty of such official or person.  There it is, buried in a small article in a Central New York Restaurant Publication, the single sentence that may well cause the end of the world.  

As long as we fail to recognize the overriding power of greed in the human condition we will not take the precautions to address it.  Humans require rules. Not Freedom Sucking rules but rules that contain the greedy and selfish pursuits of money and power.   

Herewith the answer:  Old Campaign Finance law still in place, Citizens United, Corporations are People (millions from single donors) and the new low that is underway allowing dark money, (donors do not have to be revealed) all must end.  These are the tools of pure unabashed bribery.  They are the tools of social destruction. and the final nail in the coffin of the American way and the intent of the United States Constitution.  They are the tools that remove the best that humans can be.  They are the method of the demise of the quality of the United States Supreme Court, the United States Congress and the Office of the President of the United States.    

For evil to prevail all that is required is for good people to do nothing.  I urge those with leadership skills to take charge.  The law I am going to furnish here, if adhered to, would restore Constitutional Intent to the United States of America. It needs champions and a movement.  Taken seriously it would recognize the glaring proven evil that we live and force the end of “Reward and Money for the people’s decisions” by the few, from guiding our law.  Bribery is ignored as it rewards those that force, and then are in charge of its existence.  Due to bribery no one is even discussing the job sucking horde of robotic technology that may be the final nail in the coffin of unimaginable Civil disturbance.  At the breaking point there will be little sanity.  Trump has brought us closer to the edge.  He is proof the system is broken and enough to elect him have had it.  For generations no recourse was provided.  Our suffering turned to evil for help.  One with a heart that mocks the handicapped and kowtows to our enemies.  Bribery permeates our system and has, over time, diluted our most noble course in history.  Once sparked upheaval is a like a wildfire.  You need to stop at the edge of a cliff.    

To any naysayer I say the road we are on is a certain road to widespread civil disorder.  A scary unrecognizable America is far too close to ignition.  The likelihood of nuclear war is closer to midnight than ever before.  The planet is under attack by plastics, garbage and all forms of pollution and warming and corruption induced disagreement.  Only the best that we can be has a chance at providing the leadership the world is crying for.  To find them, what is said here must be done.  The only way to achieve this is to recognize this great human weakness of greed and remove it from “leadership”.

The Following is the law, on the books.  A Law unenforced as it is controlled by those the law is meant to guide.  If American Patriotism is so lost that it fails to cause American Leadership to find a way to enforce this law with accompanying Campaign Finance Reform, we are doomed:                

Title 18 U.S. Code 201

Federal Prosecution of Public Corruption in the United States

(a)For the purpose of this section—

(1)

the term “public official” means Member of Congress, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner, either before or after such official has qualified, or an officer or employee or person acting for or on behalf of the United States, or any department, agency or branch of Government thereof, including the District of Columbia, in any official function, under or by authority of any such department, agency, or branch of Government, or a juror;

(2)

the term “person who has been selected to be a public official” means any person who has been nominated or appointed to be a public official, or has been officially informed that such person will be so nominated or appointed; and

(3)

the term “official act” means any decision or action on any question, matter, cause, suit, proceeding or controversy, which may at any time be pending, or which may by law be brought before any public official, in such official’s official capacity, or in such official’s place of trust or profit.

(b)Whoever—

(1)directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of value to any public official or person who has been selected to be a public official, or offers or promises any public official or any person who has been selected to be a public official to give anything of value to any other person or entity, with intent—

(A)

to influence any official act; or

(B)

to influence such public official or person who has been selected to be a public official to commit or aid in committing, or collude in, or allow, any fraud, or make opportunity for the commission of any fraud, on the United States; or

(C)

to induce such public official or such person who has been selected to be a public official to do or omit to do any act in violation of the lawful duty of such official or person;

(2)being a public official or person selected to be a public official, directly or indirectly, corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally or for any other person or entity, in return for:

(A)

being influenced in the performance of any official act;

(B)

being influenced to commit or aid in committing, or to collude in, or allow, any fraud, or make opportunity for the commission of any fraud, on the United States; or

(C)

being induced to do or omit to do any act in violation of the official duty of such official or person;

(3)

directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers, or promises anything of value to any person, or offers or promises such person to give anything of value to any other person or entity, with intent to influence the testimony under oath or affirmation of such first-mentioned person as a witness upon a trial, hearing, or other proceeding, before any court, any committee of either House or both Houses of Congress, or any agency, commission, or officer authorized by the laws of the United States to hear evidence or take testimony, or with intent to influence such person to absent himself therefrom;

(4)

directly or indirectly, corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally or for any other person or entity in return for being influenced in testimony under oath or affirmation as a witness upon any such trial, hearing, or other proceeding, or in return for absenting himself therefrom;

shall be fined under this title or not more than three times the monetary equivalent of the thing of value, whichever is greater, or imprisoned for not more than fifteen years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

(c)Whoever—

(1) otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge of official duty—

(A)

directly or indirectly gives, offers, or promises anything of value to any public official, former public official, or person selected to be a public official, for or because of any official act performed or to be performed by such public official, former public official, or person selected to be a public official; or

(B)

being a public official, former public official, or person selected to be a public official, otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge of official duty, directly or indirectly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally for or because of any official act performed or to be performed by such official or person;

(2)

directly or indirectly, gives, offers, or promises anything of value to any person, for or because of the testimony under oath or affirmation given or to be given by such person as a witness upon a trial, hearing, or other proceeding, before any court, any committee of either House or both Houses of Congress, or any agency, commission, or officer authorized by the laws of the United States to hear evidence or take testimony, or for or because of such person’s absence therefrom;

(3)

directly or indirectly, demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally for or because of the testimony under oath or affirmation given or to be given by such person as a witness upon any such trial, hearing, or other proceeding, or for or because of such person’s absence therefrom;

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than two years, or both.

(d)

Paragraphs (3) and (4) of subsection (b) and paragraphs (2) and (3) of subsection (c) shall not be construed to prohibit the payment or receipt of witness fees provided by law, or the payment, by the party upon whose behalf a witness is called and receipt by a witness, of the reasonable cost of travel and subsistence incurred and the reasonable value of time lost in attendance at any such trial, hearing, or proceeding, or in the case of expert witnesses, a reasonable fee for time spent in the preparation of such opinion, and in appearing and testifying.

Many Americans are made of Founding principle and heart.  In a world of greed, it is impossible for them to flourish.  Citizens United and current Campaign Finance Law are Social Cancer.  You don’t put a band aid on Cancer.  You remove it.  Remove America’s Cancer:  Greed.  Make room for the Franklins, and Jeffersons, and the Lincolns and the Kings among us.   

If you want our Founders Dreams, if you believe in the equality, justice and fairness and the clear intent of the Constitution, if you want the integrity of your chills and tears as you hear the Star-Spangled Banner or the Battle Hymn of the Republic, if you want to insure the value of those Americans who fought and                    died for us in fierce battle,

“end this glaring evil that is destroying us”.

and causing our bravest, our honored dead, to weep.

Bill McClellan