Congress shall provide
for the general welfare
of the United States

Section 8 or Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States of America (Remember, that document that starts “We the People” or “Ee’d Plebnista” as Captain Kirk heard them), reads “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.“

The Congress.

AND NOT WILL, BUT SHALL.

Shall have the POWER …

To PROVIDE FOR THE

GENERAL WELFARE …

The online dictionary defines welfare as, “the health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group.”

Sometime …

Well, ALL THE TIME, I wish our elected representatives in Congress would read the Constitution of the United States of America.

Not just the Bill of Rights, but the entire Constitution of the United States of America.

Provide for the general Welfare of the United States.

How about that!

Section 8 also calls upon Congress “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.”

Maybe we need someone to read and explain this to Congress.

It just calls to mind that old joke, if CON is the opposite of PRO, what is the opposite of PROGRESS?

least interested
in politics segment that
actually decide

“The segment of the population which is least interested in politics actually decides the outcome of most elections.”

So wrote political consultant, Stephen Shadegg back in 1964 in his book, How to win an election; the art of political victory (New York, Taplinger Pub. Co, 1964).

Mr. Shadegg republished the book in 1972, as The New How to Win an Election.

Of which Jeff Greenfield said it was, “staggeringly unreadable.”

And so what that in 1964 Mr. Shadegg was taking part in the overwhelming unsuccessful 1964 Presidential Campaign of Barry Goldwater when he wrote that.

I don’t have much to say about Senator Goldwater at this time except that he must have had something going for him as my parents named my little brother Peter Barry Hoffman.

For most of time together in highschool, he was a year younger, kids were always coming up to me and asking, “What does the B. stand for in Peter B. Hoffman?”

I refused to tell.

One of few times I had Pete’s back in High School.

Not that he needed me.

Senior Class President.

After school job at the corner drug store.

Married the head cheerleader.

Lived in Bailey Park.

Ran a savings and loan.

Okay I added the last two.

But I digress.

So to repeat, the segment of the population which is least interested in politics actually decides the outcome of most elections.

How do we apply that today?

I know who I am going to vote for this fall.

Most of the people I know, know who they are going to vote for this fall.

Not much in the way of a what happens in a political campaign will change our minds.

Me and the people in my world are NOT part of the segment of the population which is least interested in politics actually decides the outcome of most elections.

BUT ….

But we KNOW people who are part of that segment.

So my 2020 campaign is called PLUS ONE.

If all of us find one person, just one person, who IS part of the segment of the population which is least interested in politics actually decides the outcome of most elections and we make it our personal goal for 2020 that we make sure this person votes (and I would say votes the right way but …) we can change this election’s outcome.

We can take charge of this election.

We can prove that what we always say about the power of the vote, the power of free elections is true.

So I ask you, “Who is your PLUS ONE for Tuesday, November 3, 2020?”

And I ask you to ask other people who you know who are also not part of segment of the population which is least interested in politics actually decides the outcome of most elections, “who is your plus one?”

One last quote from Mr. Shadegg.

“There is no prize for second place in a political contest.”

greatly prefer, cast
my lot to free open plains
than confined limits

Adapted from this passage,

“If I were an Indian, I often think that I would greatly prefer to cast my lot among those of my people who adhered to the free open plains, rather than submit to the confined limits of a reservation, there to be the recipient of the blessed benefits of civilization, with its vices thrown in without stint or measure.“

From the book, My life on the plains : Or, Personal experiences with Indians by By Gen. G. A. Custer, U. S. A. (New York: Sheldon and Company, 1874)

General George Armstrong Custer was a loud mouthed, big talking brag.

But he could see the other side of an arguement.

Based on the above passage, he might have even thought the other side had the right idea.

At least he could understand why the other side felt the way they did.

But like many loud mouthed, big talking brags, the General finished on a low note.

More famous today for the way he finished than for any other accomplishment in his life.

He did manage to graduate 35th in a class of 34 from West Point, which is a neat trick if you can pull it off.

A Major General of Volunteers in the Union Army at the age of 24.

Boggles the mind.

I still get a tear in my eye when Errol Flynn leads the charge of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg in the movie, They Died with Their Boots On.

I catch my breath when Mr. Flynn as General Custer calls to his men, “RIDE YOU WOLVERINES!”

But I digress.

The blessed benefits of civilization.

The blessed benefits of civilization, with its vices thrown in without stint or measure.

Again here, either the General or his ghost writer makes the good point.

I am working to make analogy that all of us this fall, will cast lots.

Do we cast our lot with the people of the free open plains.

Or for the confined limits with blessed benefits of civilization, with its vices thrown in without stint or measure.

It is easy to figure out who the loud mouthed, big talking brag is in my analogy.

The General could at least see the other.

The orange guy can’t.

And I can’t see the blessed benefits of his civilization, with its vices thrown in without stint or measure.

Counting down to a last stand.

those wisenheimers …
turned their backs upon their
fathers religion

Old words with a different take on the meanings.

Wisenheimer was a word in my home when I was growing.

If we got too smart, my Mom or my Grandma or both would call us a bunch of wisenheimers.

Just hearing the word said out loud made us laugh and maybe even more smart.

It was a term I took to mean just a smart aleck.

I ran across an obituary for the author Philip Roth today and there was this line; “The Jewish community saw Roth as a wisenheimer – a sharp-tongued young man who had turned his back upon the religion of his fathers.”

A sharp-tongued young man who had turned his back upon the religion of his fathers.

Seems like a whole new meaning.

But I sure can find a lot of application for it today.