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The Declaration of Independence Defines Our Principles
Townhall.com ^ | November 21, 2011 | Star Parker

Posted on 11/21/2011 4:26:48 AM PST by Kaslin

It is encouraging news that the Supreme Court has decided to consider the constitutionality of key provisions of Obamacare.

By the end of next summer we’ll know if the federal government can force individuals to buy health insurance and if they can force states to comply with a newly expanded Medicaid program.

Professor Walter Russell Mead blogs that in the debates to ratify the Constitution, it was considered a weakness “that important laws could be passed and would operate for some time before people knew whether they were legal…”

He points out that there are more clever ways that forced purchase of insurance could have been constructed by Obamacare drafters that would have made it less vulnerable to a constitutional challenge.

But is that really the point?

Is it not sad that the most fundamental aspects of our ability to live as a free people boil down these days to how nine Supreme Court justices choose to read and interpret a word or phrase?

Is it not sad that most basic violations of individual liberty are not intuitively obvious to so many citizens and members of Congress?

Or perhaps even sadder, that liberty may no longer be the objective?

It so happens that this is the anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, delivered November 19, 1863 – one hundred forty eight years ago.

Lincoln opened the address with his famous “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty…..”

His point of reference defining the vision of the nation was 1776 – The Declaration of Independence.

One hundred years after the Gettysburg address, Dr. King stood in front of Lincoln’s statue and gave his most famous speech, and the words he chose to quote also were those of the Declaration, about the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Now that the Supreme Court has agreed to review Obamacare, a lot of jokes are circulating recalling how cavalier then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats were regarding the constitutionality of what they were doing.

But regardless of how they may or may not have thought about how the words of the Constitution might justify what became Obamacare, it would be impossible to justify such actions through the lens of the ideals of liberty stated in the Declaration.

To suggest that a nation “conceived in Liberty” can tolerate a handful of Washington bureaucrats telling several hundred million citizens what health insurance is and forcing them to buy it is beyond absurd.

Perhaps what the ongoing saga of American history is about is the struggle to understand and apply our operating manual – our Constitution – in a manner consistent with the principles of our nation’s founding.

We, of course, began day one off track by rationalizing slavery into the Constitution.

The evidence today is we have a long way to go to align with those founding principles. A good start would be to even think about them and see them as relevant.

If we did, there is no way Obamacare would have passed.

Nor would we have concluded that our financial crisis was caused by too much freedom rather than too much government. Now we’ve hamstrung our whole financial services sector with ill conceived new laws while the government backed entities that caused the whole thing – Fannie and Freddie – remain standing unscathed, still sucking up billions of taxpayer funds and paying their executives million dollar bonuses.

How about a government that wastes hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds in uneconomic “clean energy” ventures and then rejects a pipeline project that would deliver millions of barrels of oil, create tens of thousands of jobs, and their only request from government is a permit?

It’s obvious what’s wrong today. We’ve either forgotten what being American means, or we no longer care.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: foundingfathers; mediaandculture; obamacare; supremecourt

1 posted on 11/21/2011 4:26:51 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

bump healthcare


2 posted on 11/21/2011 4:45:32 AM PST by Taffini ( Mr. Pippen and Mr. Waffles do not approve and neither do I)
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To: Kaslin
We, of course, began day one off track by rationalizing slavery into the Constitution.

The goal of the Framers was to form a government, not Utopia. Smart move.

3 posted on 11/21/2011 4:45:39 AM PST by Jacquerie (Think outside the pizza box.)
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To: Kaslin
Professor Walter Russell Mead blogs that in the debates to ratify the Constitution, it was considered a weakness “that important laws could be passed and would operate for some time before people knew whether they were legal…”

I'd like to see a citation from the perfessor for this one.

4 posted on 11/21/2011 4:49:43 AM PST by Jacquerie (Think outside the pizza box.)
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To: Kaslin

“To suggest that a nation “conceived in Liberty” can tolerate a handful of Washington bureaucrats telling several hundred million citizens what health insurance is and forcing them to buy it is beyond absurd. “

Says it all...and we who are supposed to know better are going to sit by and watch it happen. Unwilling to risk our “personal security”. Our lives are too precious to us to risk them for freedom...therefore, no matter what the court decides...America has lost.


5 posted on 11/21/2011 4:52:47 AM PST by Wpin ("I Have Sworn Upon the Altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny...")
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To: Kaslin
We’ve either forgotten what being American means, or we no longer care.
Not "we", Star, they or some in Congress.
Otherwise you're saying that your statement applies to yourself as well and I don't see that in this article.

Just too wide of a brush, IMO.

6 posted on 11/21/2011 4:56:04 AM PST by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: Kaslin

It can’t be done. We can’t apply the original operating manual. What worked for a much smaller and much more self-reliant population, will never work for 300 million and so many of them in a state of dependency (whether by public education, other indoctrination, habit, drugs, bad parenting, or government’s heavy hand on the economy).
You cannot make the turn back to liberty with these people, these weights and bonds on them, and them on us.
There would be chaos, killing, catastrophe, such to make the Civil War look like a cotillion. Nobody wants it and nobody will let it happen.


7 posted on 11/21/2011 5:11:03 AM PST by Lady Lucky
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To: Lady Lucky
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, Give me Liberty, or give me Death!"
8 posted on 11/21/2011 5:24:50 AM PST by DTogo (High time to bring back the Sons of Liberty !!)
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To: Kaslin

Freedom is often given away for security. I am opposed to Obamacare so do not misconstrue my cynicism. National Health Care is unconstitutional but so are so many things. The government infringes upon our freedoms in so many ways, the question is whether the people are willing to accept it. If it was created in a way that was friendly toward business, not hurtful, it would have even more support and Obama would surely prevail. The politicians just ride the winds of public opinion. Issues of personal liberty seem open to the mood at the time. Social Security, forced busing, national gun laws, national drug laws, our entire system of taxation are all examples issues that have had serious problems but they came into existence anyway.


9 posted on 11/21/2011 5:33:27 AM PST by dog breath
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To: Lady Lucky

Lucky Lady exactly how precious is your freedom and liberty to not want to resist tyranny? No we do not want civil war. But neither do we want to be slaves to a ruling class stealing from us. We will not be able to reset our nation to the founding manual without a purge of the cancer of dependency and government tyranny. Quit being so naive! If you like socialism move to Cuba or Venezuela. This is America and I say NOT ON MY WATCH will I any longer bow to oppression. Incremental or otherwise. See tagline.


10 posted on 11/21/2011 6:04:15 AM PST by o_zarkman44 ("When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson)
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To: o_zarkman44

I did not write that I do not wish to oppose tyranny.
I did not write that I like socialism.
I’ll thank you not to put words in my mouth.


11 posted on 11/21/2011 6:29:36 AM PST by Lady Lucky
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To: Lady Lucky
You cannot make the turn back to liberty with these people, these weights and bonds on them, and them on us.

That is what the founding fathers did, they took a turn to liberty we can certainly do it today if we have the will.

There would be chaos, killing, catastrophe, such to make the Civil War look like a cotillion. Nobody wants it and nobody will let it happen.

That is what happened with the revolution, it can and may happen again if the government does not learn that many people what freedom not a false security. If the government continues to take away our rights then they will bring it upon themselves.

12 posted on 11/21/2011 6:59:52 AM PST by Ratman83
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To: Ratman83

The will is not there.
There is no comparison to the time of the Founding Fathers. I could spend hours writing of all the critical differences. In the end you would not be convinced.
But in the meantime...what are you waiting for? “If the govt does not learn...if the govt continues to take away our rights...” When will you be convinced it isn’t going to learn? How many rights are you ready to lose?


13 posted on 11/21/2011 7:07:20 AM PST by Lady Lucky
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To: Lady Lucky

A core is building that talk and are preparing. The obamacare ruling may be the tipping point. Some have already reached their limits, the freeman etc. You can say that it will not happen, and you can accept your chains when they come. Others are not of the same mind set. We will have to wait and see how it works out.


14 posted on 11/21/2011 7:22:47 AM PST by Ratman83
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To: Ratman83
We will have to wait and see how it works out.

You're making my case, Ratman.

15 posted on 11/21/2011 7:41:42 AM PST by Lady Lucky
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To: Lady Lucky

No I am only saying that the time must be right, even the Founding Fathers did not just immediately jump to war. You on the other hand sound like what was once a Tory sympathizer. O this is good enough.


16 posted on 11/21/2011 8:00:26 AM PST by Ratman83
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To: Ratman83

Easiest thing in the world, to sit there at a keyboard and say the time isn’t right yet.
“I’m not really in chains...I just don’t want to go anywhere yet.”
“I can quit drinking anytime I want to. I just don’t want to yet!”
“Things aren’t bad enough yet. But just you wait!”
When will it be time? The answer is blowin’ in the wind!


17 posted on 11/21/2011 8:11:23 AM PST by Lady Lucky
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To: Lady Lucky
Whatever, the easiest thing is what you are doing. You know saying nothing can be done we just have to live with it. You do not tell the enemy when you are going to strike.

I have no more time I wish to waste on someone who wishes to live with the chains that you love. Have a nice day.

18 posted on 11/21/2011 8:25:32 AM PST by Ratman83
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To: Ratman83

Classic projection. Who’s loving the chains here?
You too, Ratman, have a lovely day.


19 posted on 11/21/2011 8:32:49 AM PST by Lady Lucky
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To: DTogo

“Give me Liberty, or give me Death!”

The problem is, most people are now thinking “give me death in my featherbed.”

They keep kicking the definition of tyranny down the road, hoping that they can continue to kid themselves and others, and die of old age before the illusion of liberty becomes unsustainable.

The men who founded this country, if they were here today, would be shooting already. Long, long since.


20 posted on 11/21/2011 9:24:56 AM PST by Lady Lucky
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