Need For "Statesmen"--NOT-- "Professional Politicians"

I agree we need to Flip the House in 2010. I agree we need to elect conservatives to office. Why is it then that our Political Party is often at odds with those goals? Coming from SW Florida, where often an election is decided in the Republican primary, I registered as a Republican. I am an Independent Conservative at heart, but realize the necessity to align myself with a party affiliation to have some say in effecting change. I hope all of you "Independents", particularly here in Florida, will think long and hard about registering Republican and supporting Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate rather than the RNC annoited Charlie "RINO" Crist.

Even the Romans Understood. But where is their great empire today?

"Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges."
"(The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.)"
-- Cornelius Tacitus (55-117 A.D.)Source: Annales, 1st century A.D.
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Cornelius.Tacitus.Quote.40B2

Why is everyone surprised that both major political parties are leading us to the left?

Think about it. Most "politicians" are seeking positions of "power". The only way they get power is to create legislation to effect an agenda.

Since their long term power growth is dependent on them remaining in office, they must forge alliances with other politicians, industry special interests, and certain constituencies. That's the purpose of the political parties. They are the behind the scenes power brokers who help keep their pawns in place.

For a legislator not to legislate would leave them with nothing to do. While that would probably be the best scenario for the country, since we have 200+ years of continually layered legislation strangling us, it wouldn't serve the purpose of the "professional politicians".

Now, think about it. What does legislation accomplish? Control? Limitations of personal choice? Limitations on personal responsibility replaced with a government program? How can any of those things continue to incrementally ratchet up without limiting our freedom? By definition, that very limitation of personal responsibility, choice, freedom, and liberty and putting the control in the hands of the state, is statism which equates to the state's control, i.e. the LEFT.

Whether it's a Republican or a Democrat, their primary purpose in life is to maintain their positions of power; and to do that, they will, in varying degrees, "control" us. Whether they control our ability to earn (policies and regulations limiting companies, thus limiting job growth), to spend (taxes, tariffs, import quotas, treaties, embargoes, etc.), to borrow (manipulation of interest rates, the money supply,etc.), to travel(government authority to issue passports, select countries where travel is prohibited, limit private businesses in creating competitive travel such as antiquated sea laws regarding U.S. Flagged ships, etc.).

We often talk of our "founding fathers". We often attribute great wisdom to them. While I have to agree, the country, the form of government, and set of founding laws are inspired, what most impresses me is the fact that none of them were "professional politicians"; rather, they were "statesmen". By that I mean that instead of being motivated by the prospect of perpetuating themselves in public office, garnering power through legislation and alliances, and voting themselves benefits far exceeding what the average American can afford, they were men motivated to create an environment where liberty could thrive and no government could intervene to take one's liberty away.

So, how'd we get here? POLITICAL PARTIES! POLITICIANS UNRESTRAINED! AN APATHETIC OR IGNORANT POPULACE! All contributors. This is why I have no confidence that we will change Washington just by voting in new members of an established political party. Possibly, if we could find enough "statesmen", or as Glenn Beck says "Re-Founders", we could change the political party mentality and eventually effect political change in Washington. However, don't presume that the "good" people we select and put in power will not become corrupted by that power. Ultimately, I believe the only way to effect real change is to limit the politicians and the political parties' influence by limiting their terms in office. Limiting the "benefits/perks" of the job. Make it a place and a job that Americans will go to "serve" their country and then go home to live with the legislation they've created.

The States have been remiss in allowing themselves to "feed at the trough" and get fat on Federal handouts, to shift responsibility for everything from education to transportation, to unemployment, healthcare, and retirement from an individual/local community/state responsibility to a Federal over reaching umbrella. As my Granny used to say, "you have to pay the piper". The individual states need to put on their "big boy pants", as Jeb Bush calls them, and make the hard calls for their respective states. Shake off the chains of the Federal government and put the Federal government back in the place it was envisioned by our founders: limited government, limited control, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people; not George Orwell's "BIG BROTHER".

Short of that, I can only see ever stronger alliances between power brokers such as industry, unions, politicians, and political parties who do not have our best interest at heart. Along with those alliances we'll have to endure even greater burdens and limits on our liberty. So, we Americans can choose to be led down the path of the Roman Empire, eventual oblivion; or we can stop bickering over the divisive issues that only benefit politicians and start finding and electing people, at all levels of government, who will work to reverse the trends that threaten our society.