The core of the Democrat Party saw every action of the Bush administration as nothing more than treasonous corruption. The core of the Republican Party sees the Obama administration in the same light.
Take specifically abortion. To those on the right it is the clearest case of murder, understood by all as the killing of an innocent. To the left abortion is the ultimate affirmation of freedom and liberty.
As in the above examples, and in an unending list of others, there are issues on which the citizens of these United States will never agree. This should not come as a surprise to anyone. It was certainly not a surprise to the Founders. That is why they constructed a Republic based on a government of limited powers. The key to which was a distribution of powers weighted inversely to the breadth of their jurisdiction.
The key to a stable country is "the consent of the governed." Such consent is only attainable when there is agreement on what the government is trying to do. And the ability of human beings to reach consensus is inversely proportional to the size of the group.
Abraham Lincoln and his radical Republican brethren killed this basic principle in America. And the dysfunction in the nation has grown in proportion to the growth of Federal power ever since.
We are again in crisis as a nation. The very fact that secession is under discussion is proof of this.
Does any reasonable person believe this to be a nation operating under a system of limited government? Does anyone really think that it is the function of the Congress, the President or the Supreme Court to restrict the powers of the Federal Government? They ARE the Federal government!
The Constitution can only function to bind a nation of sovereign States. The independence of the States is the fulcrum of the balance the powers in our system.
Right now the Federal Government rules without constraint. That this is unstable is becoming more and more clear. The end state of the path we are on is not pretty. But perhaps the citizens will recover their will and return the country to its roots. Let's hope so.
Well said Trek. Let’s pray and hope. This quote comes to mind as I read some of the arguments above,
Samuel Adams:
“If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
I gather the principle you are referring to "the consent of the governed." It should be obvious that the slavemasters, both in their deification of slavery and in attempting to overthrow the regime of 1776, were not much interested in the consent of the governed.
It was not the Republicans who brought us unlimited government, it was the Democrats. The Republican period 1861-1933 was in fact a time of very limited government, although, of course, you might disagree if you are a Klansman. In contrast, it is the Democrat ascendancy since 1933 which has brought in unlimited government.