With all the disinformation and historical revisionism buzzing like flies on politics (even with the “Tea Party” as much as anywhere else), I just had to present what I believe to be the facts.
So here’s an annotated USA constitution again: http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/the-united-states-constitution.pdf
I’m not breaking my vow to never blog again…I’m just sayin’ that our President’s speech was too long, and all wrong.
Here’s what he (or McDonnell) should’ve said:
My fellow human beings, over the past hundred years, American voters have gradually surrendered their property, initiative, freedom and security to politicians, and that was a stupid thing to do.
Now our debts and fears, crime and perversions have grown so big and obvious that, frankly, I’m embarrassed that you still think that you can trust politicians with your life, liberty and pursuit of health insurance. The whole point of our constitutions was to put a leash on politics, so that real people could live by their own choice, generosity, sweat and ingenuity. But we rob you blind, tell you we saved you from worse, and you’re still voting for our two-headed, Demorepublicrat monster.
Dang, people.
It’s by your choice that those who’ve been right all along are called “fringe,” and most accurately, “loser;” while those who’ve been wrong, or worse, deceived you intentionally, are called “expert,” “wonk,” or of course, “The Honorable so and so.”
I cannot apologize for your choices, but I am truly sorry that we politicians did what comes natural to us, and that you still have much to suffer before our mess can be made right.
I’ve already said that I’d rather be a good one-term President than a mediocre two-timer. So whether voters have learned from our collective mistakes or not, I now intend to do what’s right.
And what’s right is to recognize that, while any fool can wield power, only the great restrain it.
My fellow Americans, I am the President who will wean you off politics.
You want somebody to care for you? Make some friends, join a church or voluntary service association, and raise a good family. If you can’t get people to care for you voluntarily, I’m sure not going to sqeeze taxpayers for you.
As for a financial stimulus? I will suggest that Congress gets double-pay to just stay home and leave you the heck alone.
About terrorism…we never should’ve gone weak-kneed over zealots with exploding underpants.
I’m telling all you red-blooded game hunters out there, that as of right now, it’s open season on terrorists. Have at ‘em, but of course try not to make too many mistakes.
Does that scare you? If so, then you have no idea how much suffering takes place in the homes of our soldiers; and you have no idea how much our endless wars cost you in money, social disorder, freedom, security and opportunities lost forever.
Overnight, ordinary rednecks could end and forever scare away terrorism at a tiny fraction of the current cost in dollars, corruption and human life; and allow us to bring our troops home. Not just from Afghanistan and Iraq, but from all over the world. We’d no longer flex our muscles or play nanny on foreign soil, because the world would know that we are impenetrable here at home.
As far as job creation goes?
I know economics was supposed to be two-thirds of my speech. But government is violence, not business. Government is more about oppression, slavery, genocide and war than anything else it may pretend to be. It never creates. It cannot give without first taking. You should never have let us rob Peter to pay Paul. Not only is it morally wrong in its essence, but you should have known that you are not Paul.
To wrap this up, let me say that I have read the Constitution that I swore to uphold against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and I now aim to do just that, as written in both black, and white. People have fought and died for this precious contract, and I will never again let anyone in my administration treat it with anything other than respect.
Then again, it’s up to you, American voters, to hold me to that.
Thank you, and may God bless us all.
I shouldn’t say “I told you so.” So I’ll just say, instead, that being right has never done me any good at all. In fact, it’s been a costly annoyance to both me, and to all my loved ones. Being right is no advantage in the voting booth; it seems absolutely detrimental in electoral politics. It’s no advantage in any way I can think of. And it’s downright dangerous to be right when the government and its media are wrong.
I hope, in fact, that I’m desperately, completely and astoundingly wrong about what’s coming next. I pray that I am very, very wrong.
So I’ll not say “I told you so” about all the warnings, predictions, admonitions and sermons I’ve written, spoken and kinetically harangued upon my friends in the ongoing battle for liberty and justice. No, I will restrain myself by means of superhuman humility and magnanimous spirit…
But we should admit that the media got it right. They have correctly portrayed the “tea party” hubbub, and the liberty movement in general as undirected, vague, and ultimately, pointless blather.
It pains me to say so, but my allies in liberty and justice are not just wasting their own time and money. Rather they are destroying our combined credibility. They discredit truth, and are, in effect, stealing from us all by spoiling the opportunity for those who’d do the right thing.
What is the right thing? I’ve said it many times on these pages, but maybe it’s just too simple to comprehend. Maybe it’s too basic to seem like a clever tactic or even a pragmatic first step.
We all have to agree to what it is that we want. And there is only one thing that I am aware of that all of us actually want…Rule of Law under existing state and federal constitutions as written.
We’re out of time for all this fooling around. We must stop thinking of tactics and games. We must stop thinking of others as our enemies when we need no enemy other than ourselves. We will never convince others of anything as long as we are ourselves such doddering fools that we can’t articulate for the media just what the heck it is that we want.
Before I go and say again what it is that we should be doing, here’s the setup:
“The media” are not anything other than people. While these particular people tend very strongly toward soviet-style authoritarianism, it’s not their ideology that causes us problems. It’s the usual human laziness, mental weakness and idolatry that plagues us all. Like us, they worship celebrities and disparage those who attempt to become one, and fall back to earth. They kick such people. Trust me.
They love excitement, but see it in all the wrong places (sports, celebrities…and weather). And like the rest of us, it takes the firm administration of a baseball bat to make them change their ways.
So when you get a microphone in your face, “the media” will try to label you as quickly and dismissively as possible. If you offer ten minutes of Patrick Henry-like rhetorical brilliance, they’ll air the one point at which you stumble and say, “ummm…” If you speak convincingly about something they don’t understand or don’t like (Rule of Law under existing constitutions as written), and offer, for example, income tax, you’ll be dismissed as a “tax protester,” and nobody will ever hear what you said about the constitutions, or the sweetness of politics on a leash.
This last point is my whole point.
We must, immediately and without any waffling, converge on a single message and deliver it without any side trips, divergence, hesitancy or missteps. We must simply, firmly, passionately yet reasonably present the demand that politicians, policemen and soldiers keep their oaths to the laws that protect us from them. They must obey the written constitutions, as written. No “interpretation” from the bench, no caveats, provisos, ifs, ands or buts.
You must not protest government spending, taxation, or even overt oppression. Do not mention Ron Paul, though this is his cause too. Don’t talk about central banking or “The Fed.” You must not write letters, campaign or speak to neighbors about the myriad symptoms presented by our collective social disease. We must address only the disease. Quit nibbling at branches; it’s time to strike the root.
What’s the root that we can all agree upon?
The existing state and federal constitutions are still the best, most practical, most proven, most fair and just social contracts ever signed into law. So let’s agree that these are exactly, and only, what we want.
We have easy communication now. We can still move freely.
Do not assume that this will last much longer. And most definitely do not assume that a “revolution” will get you what you want if you can’t even agree now what it is that you hope to accomplish with violence. The hour is late, and our side is losing. Your choice is not up to your enemies. It’s all up to you. Personally. Right now.
It may be oddly written, and I’ve learned that it’s not the best office-party icebreaker. But every Hoosier should read, understand and memorize Article I, Section 25 of the Indiana Constitution. It is short, unambiguous, and very, very important right now.
“No law shall be passed, the taking effect of which shall be made to depend upon any authority, except as provided in this Constitution.”
What could these words mean, but that even legislation does not create authority; laws depend upon authority.
It’s not only the Indiana Constitution that expresses this. All throughout our constitutional republic, all political authority comes from our constitutions.
In other words, here in Indiana, as elsewhere under the Rule of Law established by our state and federal constitutions, politicians are not allowed to authorize themselves. All of their power is written into constitutions, or that power is denied.
Just as you mustn’t allow a bad dog to hold his own leash, we mustn’t allow politicians to “interpret” the constitutions that restrain them. “Legal precedent” and “case law” do not exist in our constitutions and have no legitimate power over constitutions. Therefore, for example, no federal official can interpret away any first amendment rights because federal authority over religion, speech, press, assembly and petition is very plainly prohibited (see the First Amendment to the US Constitution). All of our constitutions say this many times and in many ways; and constitutions were agreed upon and signed as solemn contracts (see the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1799).
Yet most politicians are routinely violating all of the laws that protect us from their historically demonstrated tendencies. They have thus abrogated their legal authority, and rule by force alone. Dick Cheney’s “nation of men, and not laws” is not just scary, it’s literally criminal. This affects you more than you’ve been told.
Perhaps the most every-daily-relevant example is in your wallet. State and federal constitutions mandate the use of gold and silver coin as money; and they’re clear that only our legislative assemblies have authority over this money.
But that’s not how your money works now. And the way your money works today, is to rob you right into your grave.
With all our record-breaking taxation, regulation and litigation, there is only one private enterprise in America that has never been regulated, audited, taxed or brought to justice. It is the so-called “Federal Reserve” Bank that’s been printing Monopoly money and charging you plenty for it since 1913. It’s not federal, there’s no reserve, and it’s most definitely unconstitutional!
Frustratingly, many of even my political friends and allies tell me that “we’re too far from the constitutions now; we can’t demand compliance.” But that’s like saying that once a criminal has done his deed, we, as a culture have failed, and that the criminal must therefore go free.
That is not sane. That is self-flagellating madness.
Others claim that this is a democracy (why minorities want majority rule is beyond me), and voters can choose anything – even self-destruction.
I concede that this is pretty much what is happening. But that’s both unconstitutional, and suicidal.
In each of my political races, and through all the years since 1995, I’ve proposed various plans to sunset all unconstitutional laws, agencies, powers and practices, and make the armed thug we call government go legit. That is the law, it is morally right, it is proven to work…
…and our current path has proven to fail every time.
The Russian Revolution dreamed of liberty, justice and equality for all, but produced Stalinist nightmares and social collapse. The French Revolution wielded the rhetoric but not the laws of our founders, so it was more about beheadings than freedom. Even our own nation’s not-so-distant history illustrates oppression, slavery, genocide and war. How can we think that now, with our government more powerful, secretive and intrusive than ever, we have put our ugly past behind us?
If you were to get curious and take the couple of hours necessary to read both the state and federal constitutions (yes, you really can read them without a federal judge telling you what they mean), you’d see that all of our biggest problems are unconstitutional.
Most taxation and government spending is unconstitutional. All military engagements since WWII have been unconstitutional. Pork, corruption, spiraling healthcare and education costs and tumbling dollars are all unconstitutional.
And every American constitution, both state and federal, codifies our right to alter or reform our government. The Texas constitution couldn’t be more clear that should the federal government break its side of the constitutional contract, then Texas is specifically free and sovereign. And that’s in the document’s very first paragraph.
You ought to read it!
Say what you will about our constitutions. Call them outdated, call them “agrarian.” But then read them. We have nothing better, and we’re headed toward a truly ancient and horrible default state without them.
OK, so this is yet another final blog. I thought a sort of summary of what I’m all about, combined with what could be the fruit of all this, was due.
So forgetting, for the moment, what’s likely to happen next to the Great Experiment, here’s how I think things generally go, specifically what happened here, and what to do about it if we’ve any sense left.
You see, it is the nature of human governments to become ungoverned and oppressive. Our default state is sin, slavery, genocide and war, after all. Our nations’ founders knew this and devised a limited, federal form of government with divided powers opposed by checks and balances…and they wrote down the laws in plain speech to be read, understood and obeyed without exception.
It worked better than anything before or since. But as with anything good, decay was inevitable on this fallen world.
In terms of rate of improvement (rate of increase of standard of living, leisure time and productivity; rate of reduction in working hours, disease and hunger) the USA reached its peak around 1912, started leveling off and then reversing thereafter. I think that this is because Jim Crow and ”big government” in the form of modern socialism was just then really taking hold. But I believe the point is that previously, Americans were simply left alone such that they could seek their own success unimpeded.
But Americans are now working longer and harder (20% longer hours with 2 weeks shorter vacations just since 1979) for less and less while the government takes more and more.
The Land of the Free now has the world’s highest percentage of citizens in prison. The Home of the Brave now has more lawsuits than all the other nations on earth combined.
By September 11, 2001, it took only a handful of men armed only with box-cutters to show us the fools.
The USA hasn’t legally declared a war since WWII. US Rep. Henry Hyde said that the constitution is, “Inappropriate, anachronistic, it isn’t done anymore.” So we’re now warring in clear violation of Article I, Sections 8:10, and 10:3 of our U.S. Constitution as a “humanitarian” effort to spread Freedom and the Rule of Law while we have given up those things here at home.
Why do we tolerate this?
The signers of the Declaration of Independence believed “…All experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Yet they also insisted that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
So, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
It is time to do something, certainly. Fortunately, in this country there are precedents for peacefully reasserting the U.S. Constitution and Rule of Law.
In response to the Alien Act and Sedition Act, the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia passed resolutions in 1799 demanding that government keep the terms of its contract (the U.S. Constitution).
From the Virginia Resolution: “…this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid that they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.”
From the “plain sense” of the Constitution these men insisted that “…the Liberty of Conscience and of the Press cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified by any authority of the United States.”
This is quite opposed to the ruling by District Court Judge David Hamilton that prayer and speech in the Indiana General Assembly must be modified, restrained, abridged and cancelled.
The signers of the Kentucky resolution declared that “…if those who administer the general government be permitted to transgress the limits fixed by that compact,” that it would be their duty to nullify the union.
In other words, while the ink was still wet on the U.S. Constitution, some of our founders (notably Jefferson and Madison who helped author the Kentucky Resolution and Virginia Resolution) sensed infractions against the contract and demanded redress.
Just a few years later however, in 1803, a mostly harmless ruling in a minor issue became a major problem.
In Marbury v. Madison, The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Marshall decreed that the Supreme Court’s power to issue writs of mandamus, as granted by the Judiciary Act of 1789, were unconstitutional. In other words Marshall used the Constitution, as written, to restrain another branch of federal government (the heart of the case) as well as his own court. This much was proper.
And in context, it was proper for Marshall to say, as he did, that “It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”
Sadly, those words have been taken to mean that the Supreme Court is empowered to change the meaning of the Constitution; and that is not what the founders intended, or what Marshall meant.
Civil law means what it says, and judges should say so. But the power to “interpret” law as anything other than what was intended by congress was never given to courts by the U.S. Constitution. Only common law is determined in court; so what Marshall said would have a power grab, and probably would have been stopped…if it weren’t for the fact that Marshall himself knew better than what we’ve made of his words.
For he also said in that same ruling that “…the particular phraseology of the constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.”
The civil law of the constitution was exhaustively explained in the Federalist and Antifederalist Papers, Madison’s Diaries, letters and books written by the men that wrote the Constitution itself. No interpretation is necessary or legal. We can change it or obey it; nothing else is legal, and nothing else works.
That is, after all, the Rule of Law, right?
Yet with Marbury v. Madison began a long, but initially very subtle and slow train of abuses and usurpations by the judiciary that we must now correct.
Because as the inevitable result of the statement, ““It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is” came the famous question, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”
This is the backdrop for what I’m proposing for an Indiana Resolution. But let me tell you the reason.
We have foolishly asked politicians for new laws, new restraints, when the whole of the problem is that politicians completely disregard law and anything like restraint.
Perhaps it’s too simple. Perhaps it’s that we’ve no experience with governed government. Whatever the case, since 1799 we have never demanded that our politicians simply obey the written law, as written.
So should the following resolution pass, we have a more recent, simple, directed statement of fact as agreed upon by our state’s legislatures. And with that, new laws can have effect, just as the old, better, wiser laws, will once again be in force.
Here’s what I propose:
Indiana Resolution
WHEREAS
James Madison and Thomas Jefferson understood the letter and intent of the Constitution for the United States of America;
These men, working on behalf of the states of Virginia and Kentucky (respectively) authored the “Virginia Resolution” and “Kentucky Resolutions” of 1798 to 1799;
The legislatures of the states of Virginia and Kentucky passed these resolutions less than ten years after their ratification of the Constitution for the United States of America, affirming those states’ understanding of the letter and intent of that contract;
That this Indiana Resolution affirms the plain sense of those resolutions insomuch as:
a. The States are the owners and defenders of federalism.
b. The Constitution for the United States of America is a contract to be obeyed as written.
c. The federal government has no legal right to exercise powers not specifically granted to it by the Constitution for the United States of America.
d. Any powers exercised outside constitutional authority are legally void, and should be allowed no force or effect.
RESOLVED
That the General Assembly of Indiana, having sworn or affirmed oaths to support both state and federal constitutions, does unequivocally support those contracts;
That the powers not unambiguously and specifically delegated to the United States federal government by the Constitution of the United States, nor prohibited by it to the states, are held by the states, or by the people.
That the states who form the union and who in compact validate the US Constitution and the federal government thus formed, being by the US Constitution both legally independent and sovereign, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction; and that a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy.
That the Governor be asked to transmit a copy of the foregoing Resolutions to the President of the United States and to the Governor of each of the other states, with a request that the same may be communicated to the Legislature thereof; and that a copy be furnished to each of the Senators and Representatives representing this state in the Congress of the United States.
Well now. Here’s something interesting.
Not only is the Orwellian title attention-grabbing in its own right (and absurd, since experience hath shewn that governments by their nature do the opposite of “save lives.”), but just read this perversity and see if you don’t get cold chills. Just think about the ramifications – our corrupt, foolish and selfish politicians collecting and owning all DNA data from everybody born in the USA:
Oh, but it sounds so well-intended and helpful, doesn’t it? What’s the history of that as applied to politicians?
Anyway, it’s scheduled for debate in the House of Representatives. Nearly all reps will vote on this without having read a word of it. They may tell a 20-something legislative aid to read it for them, but most of those starry-eyed future congresscritters haven’t lived long enough to get through a history book and they’ve never heard about such a thing as constitutional limitation of powers.
It’s up to you to tell your reps what’s what and just who they work for. Brave New World? It’s still your choice.
Choose wisely.
I wrote this column about 5-6 years ago. But I think it’s still relevant:
The word “egregious” comes from a Latin root that means “outside the flock.” Originally, and for quite some time, “egregious” meant “illustrious,” or exceptionally good. But ours being a brave new world, “egregious” now means exceptionally bad.
The word never meant “average” or “centrist;” not even briefly. It just flipped from one extreme to another with no stops in between – just like quantum physics. This phenomenon is odd, but harmless in common speech.
Quantum political speech, however, is another matter. In politics the stakes are wealth and poverty, life and death, peace and war. And in politics, words are law.
“Federal” used to mean a limited, distributed trust between sovereign states. What we call federal government now is actually its opposite; an all-powerful central force that should be called “unitary.”
“Liberal” used to describe our libertarian founders view of limited government; now the word means its exact opposite, socialism. “Conservative” meant a desire to keep status quo. But modern conservatives spend more money, and increase the size and scope of government to a degree and speed that “liberals” must surely envy.
JFK gave the rich their biggest tax cut ever. In 1932, FDR called Hoover a socialist and campaigned for fiscal restraint. The anti-communist Nixon was more socialist than Bill Clinton. Republican Teddy Roosevelt was a tree hugger. And Democratic Senator Byrd of West Virginia is called “Sheets.” …You know why.
Every label, every stereotype, every concept of party we apply to American politics has flip-flopped in the most egregious manner.
So with all the talk about “Democracy” in Iraq, I’d like us to pause, take a cleansing breath, and think before we leap into yet another brave new meaning.
Alexander Hamilton wrote of the early USA, “We are now forming a republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy.”
Benjamin Franklin was more to the point, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”
I hope you know that we don’t live in a democracy. Democratic elections are merely the method by which we select our proxies in a Republic. And as any minority should know; real democracy, or majority rule, can mean slavery, Jim Crow, and that the angry mob gets its way.
After the democratic rise of Hitler, Mussolini, and a gaggle of tin-pot dictators around the globe, we really should ask ourselves which we’d rather have; democracy or liberty, because you can’t have both. We should ask if it’ll be democracy, or rule of law, because you can’t have both.
And as we speak the word “democracy” in reverential tones, let’s remember that less than half of our eligible citizens vote. So we may claim great wonders from our democratic process, but it’s only in ignorance of the real blessings of citizen freedom and might, and of all the wealth and opportunity made possible by a “liberal” form of government kept on a constitutional leash.
We need to restore the proper meaning of “liberty,” because even to the imperfect degree that we’d ever achieved it, liberty is what made the USA strong, prosperous, and egregious, in the best sense of that word.
In real life, Lemmings do not run into the sea. But people do. Since the first violent blow of human history we have sought leaders to give us banners and trumpets, point to the cliffs and cry “FORWARD HO!”
It’s invariable fact that all nations die; and with very few exceptions, the modus operandi is suicide.
Now, until fairly recently, American Presidents warned us more about this death by our own hands than about any external threat. From Kennedy and Eisenhower, to Jefferson, Adams and Washington, our leaders dismissed external threats compared to the perils of central banking, unlimited political powers, ungoverned militarism and even …democracy.
Now our government is much more powerful and secretive than when it tested syphilus on black men, or fed plutonium to school kids. Yet no president ever mentions constitutional restraint any more.
I’m afraid this is what they call foreshadowing. And it’s not our first warning.
The world hasn’t seen a year’s peace since the War to End All Wars. Crime has exploded since the War on Crime. God knows the war on Drugs has been a bust. We’re working longer hours, taking less vacation, the land of the free has the world’s highest percentage of citizens in prison…
And we have voted for all of it.
What’s worse is that it looks like we intend to keep charging toward that cliff. If such betting were legal in Indiana, I’d bet that in the upcoming election, voters will once again choose the bipartisan violence, corruption and oppressive failure that have been proliferating like bacteria for the past 90 years.
One way or another, this foolishness will end; either by a collective act of will, or by slack-jawed ignorance and societal collapse.
Choices are taken away from us every day. We don’t have so many left. The choices we make on Election Day have been mindlessly partisan, thoughtlessly shallow and unresearched for too long. It’s time to vote as though it’s a matter of life and death; because, of course, it is just that.
It is the process and habit of human beings to seek an advantage over others. From athletes on steroids to politically connected businessmen; from subsidies and handouts, to laws and bought cops; it’s easy to see varying degrees of cheating, corruption, deception and crime all around us.
I trust this is not an epiphany. This should not be news to you. But, at the very least, we do need to be reminded in more than just the Sunday sermon context that people sin; and that it is our nature to do so.
The reason I mention all this is because an awful lot of people are willing to pay good money and make deep sacrifices to gain unfair advantage over others …but only a desperate few are willing to give anything to level the playing field.
In other words, many (and probably most) people, rich and poor alike, will do whatever they can to cheat their neighbors (tax subsidies, handouts, legal disparity) if there’s any chance they might get away with it. Only the “losers” even try to play fair.
The bottom line of this is that lots of nefariously driven folk will contribute to political campaigns, lobbying and political mischief, while almost nobody lifts a finger to oppose this. People seeking advantage will of course “invest” in political power.
Nearly nobody promotes liberty.
Oy vey.
I was very encouraged by the outpouring of support for Dr. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign. Obviously, I will cast my vote for him in Indiana’s primary because to do otherwise would be a senselessly wasted vote. And I’m hoping, of course, that Dr. Paul’s cause will not die with his candidacy. But it’s only in knowing what we face that we can stay motivated, and succeed against humanity’s overwhelming tendency to sin, and to self-destruct.
Let’s not fool ourselves about what we oppose when we promote liberty. We oppose human nature. We oppose what the Bible calls the “stiff necked and stubborn” tendency to turn from God and toward our own selfish, foolish and proud destructiveness. Nations always die just as the people who comprise them die. Humanity’s rare flowerings of civility depend upon a passionate few who do what’s right and oppose our inborn desire to screw up.
Liberty ain’t natural, but it works. It has never been easy; it has always been a never-ending fight. And, I assure you, you’ll get no thanks in this life. It’s been nothing but grief and work for me.
But do I need to remind you of the alternative? You do know, don’t you, that our default state is oppression, slavery, genocide and war?
Liberty, security, peace and prosperity can be ours. But we do have to fight for it. And never stop.
Here’s a very good article on the Supreme Court case of the D.C. Gun Ban by John and Maxim Lott. But this case really has little to do with our gun rights. It’s really whether we have any rights at all. …Right here in Indiana. Let me explain:
What we call “government,” or “politics,” comprises the sole agency of humanity’s default state of oppression, slavery, genocide and war. Individuals, no matter how wicked, are obviously unable to oppress, enslave and war without the delegated power and collective obedience we call “the state.”
Politicians and political schools of course tell you that civil society cannot exist without their organized and variously/occasionally benign prohibitions and punishments. This isn’t true, but for now we’ll leave alone the idea that government isn’t always entirely bad.
But it usually is. History demonstrates redundantly that if we don’t actively and continuously fight our default state of oppression and murder, we will indeed suffer as most people have suffered since shortly after Cain slew Abel. That’s just the way human societies work.
Read the Declaration of Independence and you’ll see that our nation sprang from men who really wanted only the rights due them as English subjects. They didn’t want to create a new nation, but found it necessary to create one as their King was intractable to reason…and law.
This is a pattern. A nation begins with at least some degree of liberty for its citizens. The nation thrives to the degree its citizens have freedom. The rulers get greedy/corrupt. Freedoms and property are progressively stolen. The nation fails.
If you grant this take on human history and behavior, let us then consider where we are in the life cycle of a nation by considering what some noted Americans have said:
There never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Benjamin Franklin
Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. ~James Madison
The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. ~James Madison
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. ~James Madison
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~Abraham Lincoln
We Americans have no commission from God to police the world. ~Benjamin Harrison
War settles nothing.~Dwight D. Eisenhower
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
When American presidents prepare for foreign wars, they lie. ~Robert Higgs
I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace. ~George W. Bush
Now I’ll not suggest that our troubles began with GWB. No, we’ve had trouble since constitution’s signatures were still wet. The price of liberty has always been eternal vigilance…against politicians.
But what I am suggesting is that Americans are threatened like never before. We’ve been lied to for so long (via mass media, government schools, political races) that we don’t even know how this country is supposed to work.
In fact, some may wonder why, if I’m running for Governor of Indiana, I’m worried about the Supreme Court or even the Constitution for the United States of America.
Well, because it’s the Governor’s job to worry about such things, that’s why.
The Indiana Governor swears an oath to both constitutions, you know. It’s the states who’re responsible for federalism (as opposed to the unitary government we now suffer). Read the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, and you’ll see how our founders intended that the states push back, hard, to ensure federal government.
As the governors are the executives, the executors of both constitutions, it’s therefore the job of governors to worry about undeclared wars and stolen rights far more than it’s their job to subsidize the Colts with taxpayer money.
