Posted on 07/03/2012 11:21:29 AM PDT by pabianice
The Supreme Court has spoken. It is now a 5-4 Liberal Court because the Chief Justice cares more about his cocktail parties and articles in Vanity Fair than he does about his oath to uphold the Constitution. Fine. At least we know now. This is a clarifying, purifying event. No longer can we rely upon the Court to knock-down flagrantly unconstitutional acts of a rogue Congress that passed ObataTax through no less than 12 slights of hand, lies, and misapplication of Senate rules. No. We are the ones we've been waiting for, to borrow a famous political statement from 2008.
No more excuses. We either succeed through our own efforts or we lose what we value. No more excuses. No more short cuts. Are we ready?
Love Ann. She always has a great way with words.
Well said. And not a “silver lining” in sight.
When you consider that 0bamacare passed by exactly one vote, and was confirmed by Roberts, one vote...
Exactly two people destroyed the finest medical system on the planet.
We’ve actually been on our own for decades. The GOPDC have been running over us as have the liberals and the SCOTUS. Holding our breath hoping the next law or SCOTUS decision doesn’t bury us hasn’t worked out so well.
These people do not have the same respect for us that we have for our fellow man. They do not care if our lives are destroyed by their actions. The futures of the children of stangers aren’t something they consider. Not in the way we consider and care about children and not just our own. We understand that future depends on the efforts of all individuals. They simply do not care.
What action are you proposing?
The choice we all face is is a fundamental one: submit - or resist, no matter the cost. In the very near future, you’ll get to discover what you’re made of.
Under the Constitution's own provisions, "the People" are required to be involved in the process for changing the Constitution's protections. A Balanced Budget Amendment might be a good start.
Conservative constitutional scholars need to step forward to enlighten the citizenry on their role, according to the Founders' Constitution.
In the meantime, here are some words from that generation on the importance of "the People" and the States:
"I do not think it for the interest of the General Government itself, and still less of the Union at large, that the State governments should be so little respected as they have been. However, I dare say that in time all these as well as their central government, like the planets revolving round their common sun, acting and acted upon according to their respective weights and distances, will produce that beautiful equilibrium on which our Constitution is founded, and which I believe it will exhibit to the world in a degree of perfection, unexampled but in the planetary system itself. The enlightened statesman, therefore, will endeavor to preserve the weight and influence of every part, as too much given any member of it would destroy the general equilibrium." --Thomas Jefferson to Peregrine Fitzhugh, 1798. ME 10:3"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." --Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820. ME 15:278
"If Caesar had been as virtuous as he was daring and sagacious, what could he, even in the plenitude of his usurped power, have done to lead his fellow citizens into good government?... If their people indeed had been, like ourselves, enlightened, peaceable, and really free, the answer would be obvious. 'Restore independence to all your foreign conquests, relieve Italy from the government of the rabble of Rome, consult it as a nation entitled to self-government, and do its will.' But steeped in corruption, vice and venality, as the whole nation was,... what could even Cicero, Cato, Brutus have done, had it been referred to them to establish a good government for their country?... No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and their people were so demoralized and depraved as to be incapable of exercising a wholesome control. Their reformation then was to be taken up ab incunabulis. Their minds were to be informed by education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and deterred from those of vice by the dread of punishments proportioned, indeed, but irremissible; in all cases, to follow truth as the only safe guide, and to eschew error, which bewilders us in one false consequence after another in endless succession. These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure of order and good government. . . . --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1819. ME 15:233
"An enlightened people, and an energetic public opinion... will control and enchain the aristocratic spirit of the government." --Thomas Jefferson to Chevalier de Ouis, 1814. ME 14:130
"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." --Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820.
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of this. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787.
"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 1789.
"Whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, the people, if well informed, may be relied on to set them to rights." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 1789.
From James Madison:
"Although all men are born free, and all nations might be so, yet too true it is, that slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant – they have been cheated; asleep – they have been surprised; divided – the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson?... The people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it."
"A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people."
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea."
"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court even can do much to help it." - Judge Learned Hand
Yes. Hence, my question in #7.
On Fox 25 this afternoon: 143,000 pages or new healthcare rules that were waiting for the SCOTUS decision have now been implemented by Obama. More to come.
We either succeed through our own efforts or we lose what we value. No more excuses. No more short cuts. Are we ready?Ready? Heck yes!
But in all seriousness, what exactly do you have in mind? That part I'm a bit fuzzy on. Most everyone I know is conservative. No convincing is needed. The libs I know are typical ideologues who refuse to abandon their ideology and are ruled by emotion first & reason last.
So, yes we are *quite* ready. I think we are just waiting for someone to step forward who is politically astute, who knows how the gears in the machine mesh, who knows effective tactics & strategy and who can lead. I think there are a bunch of us who are ready, if only we had a clue what to do exactly and didn't have such crap leadership.
Champion conservative ideas? We do that.
Support conservative candidates directly and starve the GOP? We do that.
Raise our children to be responsible, self-reliant & patriotic? Done that.
Etc.
Beyond that, we have to work. The govt is relying on our taxes. The conservative candidates are relying on our financial support. We can go hold a sign & protest, but it would need to be after biz hours. One of our self-identified weaknesses is that we are not "professionally unemployed" like many on the left seem to be.
From my perspective, the problem we face is daunting and enormous. More than half the country can be relied upon to vote with their hand held out. Even though most likely know full well that govt can not give to one without first taking from another, they will consistently vote for the polit-slut who promises the most goodies from the govt.
On the political right, we have the RINOs, aristocratic elitists, beltway politi-sluts, centrists, moderates, libertarians, Dems who vote GOP for fiscal reasons only, etc, etc, etc... What we identify as "Conservatives" only make up a sub-set of the political right and from all indications, it's well in the minority on the right. We find ourselves vastly outnumbered and surrounded.
So, we need to grow our numbers and "spread the gospel" so to speak. We need to scout for & recruit capable leaders. We probably need our own national organization to challenge the GOP in the primaries, but which caucuses with the GOP in the state/fed legislatures until we can stand on our own two feet. If we are successful in growing our numbers and promoting our national org, then one fine day we may find ourselves either replacing the GOP or taking it over from within. I'll take either and it can't happen fast enough as far as I am concerned. However, it will likely take generations to accomplish.
The problem I have is likely quite common. How do we get started and what are the steps we need to take? Without conservative leadership that we have faith & trust in that can organize & lead; without everyone pulling on the same line together toward a well understood common goal, our efforts will be scatter-shot and watered down.
So, at the risk of presuming too much by attempting to speak for more than myself, for all the folks who are anxious to do something to halt the country's seemingly inexorable march to full-on socialism, "Yes, we're ready". What would you like us to do exactly, that we aren't already doing? We're open to ideas and suggestions.
(no snarky replies needed - that's a sincere & serious question.)
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