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[E.J. Dionne 'splains] What Our Declaration Really Said
Real Clear Politics ^ | July 4, 2011 | E. J. Dionne, Jr.

Posted on 07/04/2011 6:33:19 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

WASHINGTON -- Our nation confronts a challenge this Fourth of July that we face but rarely: We are at odds over the meaning of our history and why, to quote our Declaration of Independence, "governments are instituted."

Only divisions this deep can explain why we are taking risks with our country's future we're usually wise enough to avoid. Arguments over how much government should tax and spend are the very stuff of democracy's give-and-take. Now, the debate is shadowed by worries that if a willful faction does not get what it wants, it might bring the nation to default.

This is, well, crazy. It makes sense only if politicians believe -- or have convinced themselves -- that they are fighting over matters of principle so profound that any means to defeat their opponents is defensible.

We are closer to that point than we think, and our friends in the tea party have offered a helpful clue by naming their movement in honor of the 1773 revolt against tea taxes on that momentous night in Boston Harbor.

Whether they intend it or not, their name suggests they believe that the current elected government in Washington is as illegitimate as was a distant, unelected monarchy. It implies something fundamentally wrong with taxes themselves or, at the least, that current levels of taxation (the lowest in decades) are dangerously oppressive. And it hints that methods outside the normal political channels are justified in confronting such oppression.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 10amendment; declaration; statesrights
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To: Mikey_1962

You inspired my new tagline.


21 posted on 07/04/2011 7:27:52 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Government borrowing is Taxation without Representation)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

By willful faction I assume he means the Republicans who won a majority in the House of Congress that originates all financing bills concerning budgets, taxes and spending?

And they were elected by the PEOPLE based mostly on their stated principles on reducing spending in lieu of taxes and spending.

What makes that majority a willful faction?


22 posted on 07/04/2011 7:33:58 AM PDT by wildbill (You're just jealous because the Voices talk only to me.)
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To: Beelzebubba

I would love to smack this little Marxist silly. He isn’t worth the punch.

The media reminds me of the “Familiars” from the Blade trilogy


23 posted on 07/04/2011 7:36:39 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Save the planet, destroy the MSM)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Whether they intend it or not, their name suggests they believe that the current elected government in Washington is as illegitimate as was a distant, unelected monarchy

We do believe just that. And he has unwittingly revealed what the current resident of the White House really thinks he is, a monarch. And Moochelle obviously sees herself as the spouse of the monarch. Marie Antoinette updated to the nanny state: "Let them eat carrots".

24 posted on 07/04/2011 7:47:07 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ( If you can remember the 60s....you weren't really there)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

The F’n moron can’t get it through his tiny little brain tht WE ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY.

The declaration is a founding document but it is not in any way, shape or form the law or a directive of law.

It stated grievances against an oppressive government and stated the reasons why a people could and would take control of their own governance despite the fact that even many of the signers did not necessarily want to separate from Britain.

It was a number of years after that independence was won that the founders came to the conclusion that a weak and virtually neutered government was no better than the the monarchy. They came to the Constitution as a framework with which to set up a government which would bind the states and give the people control while maintaining control over what the federal government could get away with.

The Constitution is the framework for what we are supposed to be as the United States; the Declaration was the rational for the split which led us to the Constitution.

These idiots need to figure it out that if they create the same types of grievances today that it could lead to a renewed declaration presented our imperial democrat party.

FUBO & FAD


25 posted on 07/04/2011 7:51:35 AM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Liberals think the average citizen can’t....conservatives think the average citizen can.


26 posted on 07/04/2011 8:48:09 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
It implies something fundamentally wrong with taxes themselves or, at the least, that current levels of taxation (the lowest in decades) are dangerously oppressive.

I take it he's never confronted California's combined state income, sales, and property tax rates on top of Federal income taxes.

Sheesh.

No, our Constitution begins with the words "We the People" not "We the States."

And it created two houses of Congress, one for the people and one for the States. Further, the President is elected by the States. By this omission, Mr. Dionne has passed from ignorant to ignoramus. Too bad, I had thought Mr. Dionne intelligent.

We can wreck that system if we forget our Founders' purpose of creating a representative form of national authority robust enough to secure the public good.

A purely collectivist contention. 'Securing the public good,' as the Founders saw it, was by securing the blessings of INDIVIDUAL liberty. I note that the word "regulation" did not make it into Mr. Dionne's list of grievances. Bureaucracy that is a prime target of the Tea Party. Doesn't he know that?

27 posted on 07/04/2011 8:52:15 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (GunWalker: Arming "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as well funded")
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To: Carry_Okie
Actually, "We the People of the United States.......do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

To be effective....9 states had to ratify it.

Moreover, the Declaration of Independence IS specific to 13 states.

The big fight was between the Federalists and States Rights advocates....Where are we??Same story...different day.

28 posted on 07/04/2011 10:05:20 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: John S Mosby
You bet. And he twists every line to fit a construct. Nothing about “Big Government” UNTIL grievance 10? Which presumes that the list of grievances are in descending order of importance— they were NOT.

YES! I found that so telling of how they believe they can just make things up.

29 posted on 07/04/2011 12:01:10 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: smoothsailing
Notice how he puts the onus on the Tea Party....it is they who are angling for a fight -- a "revolution." They are going against the Constitution -- that is is the Tea Party that is way "off-base." This smacks of, "Watch out!" He's on his high horse pointing out those people who should be ostracized (as a warning to conservatives and an alarm to his comrades). The entire Left (media, educators, politicians, unions) are on the same page and are raising the level of hate speech against the American people (who he knows outnumber the Left) who have had the audacity to turn to them and say, enough!

We've all seen the level of violence increase since Holder said white people have never been historically oppressed so they don't need protection from the government. When Obama calls a Cambridge cop out of line for doing his duty....drip - drip- drip ....permission is being given.

They are setting the stage and identifying the characters in this "2012" play (who's "bad," who's "good") coming soon to your state and hometown.

30 posted on 07/04/2011 12:16:04 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: John S Mosby

Good post.

But even though staying current and paying the interest, the administration will decide that cuts will be “needed” — targeted where they will peal off votes — hurt people and business more than they already have.

FEAR is the Left’s golden ticket.


31 posted on 07/04/2011 12:24:02 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: RJS1950
The F’n moron can’t get it through his tiny little brain tht WE ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY.

He knows and so do his comrades, and why they are trying to get rid of the Electoral College.

32 posted on 07/04/2011 12:25:45 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Carry_Okie
...........Doesn't he know that?

Sure he knows. He's just telling us to "stuff it" because they're ready to reveal their hard core socialist beliefs to the country and celebrate them.

33 posted on 07/04/2011 12:31:54 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
They knew that it takes public action -- including effective and responsive government -- to secure "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Except that today's scumbag lefty politicians are less concerned about "the pursuit of happiness" than they are about making life "fair" and equalizing outcomes (ie., lots of "free stuff" for the Democrat party base of bums, deadbeats, and parasites - - in exchange for votes, of course).

The document doesn't really get to anything that looks like Big Government oppression ("He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance") until grievance number 10.

I don't care what number it was, Dionne, it sounds exactly like what normal Americans are dealing with today, and it keeps getting worse.

34 posted on 07/04/2011 12:37:39 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

EJ still stupid after all these years....


35 posted on 07/04/2011 12:49:40 PM PDT by chris_bdba
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To: Carry_Okie
Too bad, I had thought Mr. Dionne intelligent.

Seriously?

Here he writes a column in which he includes the following passage: "...our Founders' purpose (to create) a representative form of national authority robust enough to secure the public good", and completely subverts the history of the US Constitution as being primarily a document which was framed to limit what the federal government could do. A "robust national authority"?? Good grief! (Don't even get me started on Dionne's insane phrase, "national authority".)

No, the lefty scumbag Dionne is not now, nor has he ever been, particularly "intelligent".

FRegards,
LH

36 posted on 07/04/2011 12:50:32 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: All

Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other. — President John Adams


37 posted on 07/04/2011 4:03:39 PM PDT by Liz ( A taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col Sanders.)
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To: All
There is no neutral ground in the universe--every square inch, every split
second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan. -- C.S. Lewis
38 posted on 07/04/2011 4:04:49 PM PDT by Liz ( A taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col Sanders.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

An interesting history of the is/are debate:

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1907/


39 posted on 07/04/2011 5:44:39 PM PDT by Lauren BaRecall (Boehner, you B@st@rd!)
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To: Lancey Howard

The Constitution did both. Have you ever read the Preamble?


40 posted on 07/04/2011 6:41:51 PM PDT by Lauren BaRecall (Boehner, you B@st@rd!)
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