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The Constitution Does What it Was Written To Do — Expand Government Power
Mises Institute ^ | January 9, 2018 | Eric Peters

Posted on 01/09/2018 2:49:30 PM PST by Mafe

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I like his analysis. However, I don't agree with the implication that the Commerce Clause was deliberately implemented as a tool to expand government power over the long term. I believe, like so many other things in the Constitution, it was misinterpreted by activist judges. But if it's purpose from the beginning was to be the key that unleashed big government, I have to hand it to the Founders for hatching such a clever plot. I still can't believe Jefferson, Henry, and other Anti-Federalists didn't rectify the Commerce Clause.

By the way, I am glad that Aaron Burr shot Hamilton to death. He deserved it for opposing liberty.

1 posted on 01/09/2018 2:49:30 PM PST by Mafe
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To: Mafe

Eric, who wrote this drivel is a complete asshole. He is a liberal who spends his time rewriting history.


2 posted on 01/09/2018 2:53:39 PM PST by Big Mack (I love this country.It's the government that scares the crap out of me)
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To: Mafe

Dude needs to read the 10th Amendment.


3 posted on 01/09/2018 2:53:41 PM PST by BBB333 (The Power Of Trump Compels You!)
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To: Mafe

Why write enumerated powers for the FED and then give them a wide open anything goes clause?

This analysis doesn’t pass the smell test.


4 posted on 01/09/2018 2:54:47 PM PST by joshua c (To disrupt the system, we must disrupt our lives)
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To: Mafe

I am reading through the pieces in The Debate on the Constitution, part of the Library of America series. All of the anti-Federalists who were against ratifying the Constitution pretty much saw what would happen.

Both the Federalist and the anti-Federalist pieces are well worth reading. There was an astounding amount of informed analysis and opinion written between September 1787 and August 1788. Two volumes, less than $50 from Amazon.


5 posted on 01/09/2018 2:56:42 PM PST by proxy_user
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To: Mafe

Without the Constitution, we would likely have been spit apart and devolved into smaller nations or re-absorbed by England.

New York and Massachusettes were open to that. It was the war of 1812, which showed we were a United Country to the rest of the world and made England live up to its treaty terms.


6 posted on 01/09/2018 2:57:38 PM PST by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: Mafe

Your post deserves a barf alert.

You don’t know sh!t about Hamilton.


7 posted on 01/09/2018 3:00:44 PM PST by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Mafe

I can’t get past the fact that conservatives reverence the Constitution. I thought reverence was a noun. Revere is what conservatives do with the Constitution. So I will never know what the writer is trying to say because I have concluded that he is less smart than I am.


8 posted on 01/09/2018 3:01:32 PM PST by webheart (Grammar police on the scene.)
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To: Mafe

.
The constitution is 99% restraint on government power.

It is chiefly a list of the things government cannot do.
.


9 posted on 01/09/2018 3:02:48 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: webheart

.
The author of this article is a functional moron.
.


10 posted on 01/09/2018 3:04:12 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Mafe
Look! Virtually none of this expansion of Federal powers took place until "Honest Abe" took over, and fortunately for him all the Framers were dead.

Piss and moan all you want about Hamilton, he's the guy who wrote this:

If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers, may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual state. In a single state, if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair. The usurpers, clothed with the forms of legal authority, can too often crush the opposition in embryo. The smaller the extent of the territory, the more difficult will it be for the people to form a regular or systematic plan of opposition, and the more easy will it be to defeat their early efforts. Intelligence can be more speedily obtained of their preparations and movements, and the military force in the possession of the usurpers can be more rapidly directed against the part where the opposition has begun. In this situation there must be a peculiar coincidence of circumstances to insure success to the popular resistance.

The obstacles to usurpation and the facilities of resistance increase with the increased extent of the state, provided the citizens understand their rights and are disposed to defend them. The natural strength of the people in a large community, in proportion to the artificial strength of the government, is greater than in a small, and of course more competent to a struggle with the attempts of the government to establish a tyranny. But in a confederacy the people, without exaggeration, may be said to be entirely the masters of their own fate. Power being almost always the rival of power, the general government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations of the state governments, and these will have the same disposition towards the general government. The people, by throwing themselves into either scale, will infallibly make it preponderate. If their rights are invaded by either, they can make use of the other as the instrument of redress. How wise will it be in them by cherishing the union to preserve to themselves an advantage which can never be too highly prized!

(Federalist No. 28, excerpt)

ML/NJ
11 posted on 01/09/2018 3:06:31 PM PST by ml/nj
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To: Mafe

The Commerce Clause has been sodomized by the Congres$hitter$ for decades, and expended evermore due to USSC rulings. This is no different than the 14th Amendment.


12 posted on 01/09/2018 3:07:27 PM PST by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: 14themunny; 21stCenturion; 300magnum; A Strict Constructionist; abigail2; AdvisorB; Aggie Mama; ...
Federalist/Anti-Federalist ping.

I don't particularly like this article because it's not that well thought out. But I think this is going to be one of those marathon threads, and our group should get involved.

13 posted on 01/09/2018 3:09:02 PM PST by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius available at Amazon)
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To: Mafe

The constitution is NOT a living document. Never was written as a living document and never will be a living document.


14 posted on 01/09/2018 3:11:59 PM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: editor-surveyor
It is chiefly a list of the things government cannot do.

And it has no practical enforcement mechanism. Therefore, in practice government can do whatever the legislature, executive, and judiciary conspire to do.

15 posted on 01/09/2018 3:13:01 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: ml/nj

The downfall of the American Republic began when we abandoned the practice of tar and feathers.


16 posted on 01/09/2018 3:15:01 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: proxy_user

<> All of the anti-Federalists who were against ratifying the Constitution pretty much saw what would happen.<>

When were their fears fulfilled?


17 posted on 01/09/2018 3:16:04 PM PST by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Mafe

The Commerce Clause was designed to be the glue that held the states together. Unfortunately, activist judges have interpreted it much more broadly than was ever intended.


18 posted on 01/09/2018 3:17:08 PM PST by KevinB (When you drink the water, remember the men or women who dug the well.)
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To: Mafe
The Constitution Does What it Was Written To Do — Expand Government Power

I reject that premise...

THREAD REJECTED! unread...

Moving right along...

19 posted on 01/09/2018 3:17:35 PM PST by publius911 (CBS: "Asking the right questions is 100% of catching sexual abusers")
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To: Jacquerie

If you include waging open war against states, then 1861 might be a good guess


20 posted on 01/09/2018 3:18:36 PM PST by Pelham (all warfare is based on deception)
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