Over 200 years ago a small group of geniuses crafted a document that until the last 60 years or so stood up against the assaults of tyrants and the power-hungry. With the single exception on how slaves were to be treated (and which many of wiser heads predicted would tear our country apart) it was a beautifully written, easily understood document. Yet men have come to pervert and distort it's written word and when inconvenient simply ignore it. We are no longer a nation of laws but of the ruling elite.
When it suits a purpose there are things attached to it that aren't even a part of it.. For example, 'the separation of Church and State'. This was based on a private letter from Thomas Jefferson and what goes largely ignored was Jefferson's concern that religion and worship be protected from the government not the other way around. And when the claim is made that it is a 'living' document you are in effect saying it's whatever you want it to be at the moment. What was supposed to be left to individual state and city legislatures have now been usurped by the judiciary as sort of a super legislature.
If I was part of an effort to formulate a new government I would use The Constitution as my guideline but make a few changes.
1- It mentions government should promote the 'general' welfare as well as the 'useful' science, arts, etc. Concerns were raised at the time about what this means and it would seem those concerns were well placed. Since that time useful science has included such items as studying the mating habits of ferule cats, art has included placing a figure of Jesus in a jar of piss and the general welfare is now the forced seizure of one person's property to give to another. I would strip this phrase completely out since men can't be trusted not to deliberately misconstrue it and use for their own purpose.
2-I would include a prohibition against any Ivy League graduate from holding a prominent position in government concerning finance, politics or the law. Of course at the time when these schools actually were good and The Founders can be excused for not foreseeing the cesspools they've become. From Bernanke to Paulsen to Bush and now Obama these elitists have done and will continue to do great harm to this country as they adopt their theoritical fixes to the economy. They have already almost single-handily destroyed the Constitution.
3- The Supreme Court shall be composed of nine justices with five year terms, shall NOT include anyone in the legal profession (do you get the impression I despise lawyers?), shall be selected at random and the only requirement be that they must be able to pass a reading and comprehension test.
4- I would tidy up the Second Amendment. At the time it was written to affirm the Militia Act of 1789 but taken by itself the attempt has been made to somehow make something that was part of ten enumerated individual rights and morph it into a STATE right. That's simply dishonest but we are ruled by the slysters and corrupt these days.
And finally, although there is no prohibition against it in it now I would specifically add that any state may leave this compact (secede) at any time it felt it's rights were being trampled on. This is perhaps the most important addition. This alone could serve as a check on central government abuse.
I'll try and think of some others. Suggestions, as always, are welcomed.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Libertarians Need To Make A Hostile Takeover
The Republican Party is dead. Finished. Kaput. It died a quiet death with the nomination of 'The Maverick' may he rest in peace. Actually it was even before his nomination when the party candidate elites decided to trash and marginalize the only surviving Reaganite. I speak of course of Ron Paul. Even pseudo-conseverative pundits - Sean Hannity comes to mind - joined in the bloodletting.
It is no longer a party of principles, new ideas or even celebrity. The party of Reagan, that gained even greater prominence with their takeover of the House in 1994 has become a whimpering, cowering lap dog unable to mount a cogent thought or policy. It became a big spending pork barrel machine that rivaled the Democrat Party and thus lost it's way.
And there appears to be no apparent effort to resuscitate itself. Republican leaders moan about the cost of the 'stimulus' package which from here on I will call the Bankruptcy Bill (BB) and seem to want merely to tinker around the edges. They have in essence become the Democrat-lite party. Who needs that?
Now enter the Libertarian Party. Full of ideas based on time honored principles but who has even heard of them except for maybe a handful of people? Yet it was largely their ideas that were adopted by the Gingrich Republicans and won massive victories in Congress.
Face it - we are a two party, or rather a party and a half, country and no third party is ever going to gain much traction. Even Ross Perot with his billions of dollars could only win at best 15% of the popular vote and was only useful as diluting the vote for one party or the other. Teddy Roosevelt, a very popular ex-President, could not win election as a newly formed Bull Moose party died a quick death after his defeat.
There are two ways this country can go. As a free market capitalist economy with a limited decentralized federal government and a return to individual rights and self-determination or we can continue the course towards massive federal government, collective rights and bankruptcy.
Just as the radical 'progressives' (read Marxists) through Moveon.org and other affiliates invaded the Democrat Party structure and effectively took over it's apparatus so does a group need to seize control of the only last salvation this country has and take over the Republican Party and use that as it's instrument to change.
The Liberetarian Party members need to drop their smugness and self-importance and actually DO SOMETHING for a change and aggressively initiate the hostile takeover of the Republican Party which is the only remaining vehicle for it's philosphy to be heard. And once it is heard - that ideas of limited government, individual freedom and resistence to foreign interventionism it may emerge as the dominate influence for generations.
But the time is short. The march towards national socialism (NAZI) is gaining steam and will soon wash over this country and engulf it in a giant cesspool which will leave few, and not very attractive, alternatives to escape it's stench.
It is no longer a party of principles, new ideas or even celebrity. The party of Reagan, that gained even greater prominence with their takeover of the House in 1994 has become a whimpering, cowering lap dog unable to mount a cogent thought or policy. It became a big spending pork barrel machine that rivaled the Democrat Party and thus lost it's way.
And there appears to be no apparent effort to resuscitate itself. Republican leaders moan about the cost of the 'stimulus' package which from here on I will call the Bankruptcy Bill (BB) and seem to want merely to tinker around the edges. They have in essence become the Democrat-lite party. Who needs that?
Now enter the Libertarian Party. Full of ideas based on time honored principles but who has even heard of them except for maybe a handful of people? Yet it was largely their ideas that were adopted by the Gingrich Republicans and won massive victories in Congress.
Face it - we are a two party, or rather a party and a half, country and no third party is ever going to gain much traction. Even Ross Perot with his billions of dollars could only win at best 15% of the popular vote and was only useful as diluting the vote for one party or the other. Teddy Roosevelt, a very popular ex-President, could not win election as a newly formed Bull Moose party died a quick death after his defeat.
There are two ways this country can go. As a free market capitalist economy with a limited decentralized federal government and a return to individual rights and self-determination or we can continue the course towards massive federal government, collective rights and bankruptcy.
Just as the radical 'progressives' (read Marxists) through Moveon.org and other affiliates invaded the Democrat Party structure and effectively took over it's apparatus so does a group need to seize control of the only last salvation this country has and take over the Republican Party and use that as it's instrument to change.
The Liberetarian Party members need to drop their smugness and self-importance and actually DO SOMETHING for a change and aggressively initiate the hostile takeover of the Republican Party which is the only remaining vehicle for it's philosphy to be heard. And once it is heard - that ideas of limited government, individual freedom and resistence to foreign interventionism it may emerge as the dominate influence for generations.
But the time is short. The march towards national socialism (NAZI) is gaining steam and will soon wash over this country and engulf it in a giant cesspool which will leave few, and not very attractive, alternatives to escape it's stench.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The Conscious of a Libertarian
It's been quite awhile since I've written anything political but lately I've had an uneasy feeling, a sense of dread that has overtaken me and so I feel compelled to write if for no other reason than to organize my thoughts. I submit this little piece of cyber dust, casting it into the vast www desert to be lost perhaps for eternity. Maybe one day the winds will shift and unearth this insignificant speck and the reader will be able to confirm the myths and rumors that yes, there used to be a place called America and it did stand for liberty and freedom from an oppressive state.
I began my political journey as a student radical. A maggot-infested, dope smoking FM type as Rush Limbaugh would say. My generation protested a lot, sometimes we didn't know why, but we were tired of a powerful central state always involving us in war and other chaos. We saw disenfranchisement of what should have been free people in our own country and rejected it. We despised and distrusted big government, otherwise known as Big Brother of Orwellian fame. It is one of the great ironies and disappointments to me that those of my generation instead of what logically would have called for rejection of The Beast actually have embraced it as if it were their own child.
The one true guarantor that we would live as free men has over the past century been steadily whittled and chipped away. The process was slow and subtle, at times not so subtle, but that's for another day's musing. We were told that it was a 'living' Constitution implying I suppose that it was whatever happened to be fashionable at the time. We were to no longer be a nation of law but men. The 'deep' thinkers who could define what is right and what is wrong. Still, it held for 200 years, a tattered, fragile document clinging to life support.
Now that plug is about to be pulled. We have a President who has absolutely no affinity for the great document drafted by political geniuses bent on releasing men from the tyranny of a ruling elite. He claims to be a Constitutional 'scholar' but that's a term that is widely applied to any quack and charlatan that wants to lay siege to the title. He refers to individual liberties as 'negative rights'. In his eyes those things the government is prohibited from doing to you are negative. Any sane person would say the opposite but then again sanity left the process long ago. It's been replaced by government debt, a fiat currency and impending bankruptcy. When all the restraints of the Constitution are lifted we will certainly dissolve into tyranny.
At that point we will be left with two choices. Submit meekly to it or let it burn down, start over and rekindle the spirit that made America great. It will be a decision that is thrust upon us, sooner rather than later.
I began my political journey as a student radical. A maggot-infested, dope smoking FM type as Rush Limbaugh would say. My generation protested a lot, sometimes we didn't know why, but we were tired of a powerful central state always involving us in war and other chaos. We saw disenfranchisement of what should have been free people in our own country and rejected it. We despised and distrusted big government, otherwise known as Big Brother of Orwellian fame. It is one of the great ironies and disappointments to me that those of my generation instead of what logically would have called for rejection of The Beast actually have embraced it as if it were their own child.
The one true guarantor that we would live as free men has over the past century been steadily whittled and chipped away. The process was slow and subtle, at times not so subtle, but that's for another day's musing. We were told that it was a 'living' Constitution implying I suppose that it was whatever happened to be fashionable at the time. We were to no longer be a nation of law but men. The 'deep' thinkers who could define what is right and what is wrong. Still, it held for 200 years, a tattered, fragile document clinging to life support.
Now that plug is about to be pulled. We have a President who has absolutely no affinity for the great document drafted by political geniuses bent on releasing men from the tyranny of a ruling elite. He claims to be a Constitutional 'scholar' but that's a term that is widely applied to any quack and charlatan that wants to lay siege to the title. He refers to individual liberties as 'negative rights'. In his eyes those things the government is prohibited from doing to you are negative. Any sane person would say the opposite but then again sanity left the process long ago. It's been replaced by government debt, a fiat currency and impending bankruptcy. When all the restraints of the Constitution are lifted we will certainly dissolve into tyranny.
At that point we will be left with two choices. Submit meekly to it or let it burn down, start over and rekindle the spirit that made America great. It will be a decision that is thrust upon us, sooner rather than later.
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