Posted on 07/28/2013 5:43:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
Americans voted twice for a big-government President, and now we’re beginning to experience the impact of big government. Are you shocked?
It’s been nearly five years of the President and Congress spending future generations into the oblivion of debt, the Executive Branch securing control over huge chunks of the private economy (two car companies, multiple banks and the health care industry are only part of it), and a dramatic expansion of both the defined role, and the powers of the IRS. At this point in the Obama presidency, we the people should not be surprised by a government that has purported to be able to give us everything we want, but, as we are now experiencing, is in fact powerful enough to take away everything we need.
Protesting is insufficient. Americans need to develop a healthy dose of skepticism- the sooner the better – about the promises of politicians to meet our every need, and we should abandon this false assumption that the agents of our government will exercise their power fairly. History suggests that governmental power is usually abused, and America may be on its way to repeating that history.
In many ways, our present reality is a sad state of affairs. We are, after all, not merely innocent victims of the IRS scandal, the NSA scandal, the Benghazi cover-up, the emergence of “Common Core” nationalizing of public schools, or the refusal of our government to honestly confront domestic terrorism. We empowered our current President and his Administration, not once but twice, and are thus complicit in it.
But here’s the good news: in many other ways, some of the founders of our nation understood human nature so remarkably well that they foresaw a day when future generations would want not so much a President, as a messiah. And some of those same early Americans offered some guidelines that, if we choose again to follow them, could help lead us out of our current malaise.
Such wisdom is yours for the reading in “The Federalist Papers,” that old compilation of some 85 newspaper editorials that argued for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, published between 1787 and 1788. While making the case for limiting the power of government, and establishing “checks and balances” between government’s various “departments,” James Madison eloquently wrote in “The Federalist Number 51:”
“ It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government……”t would seem that Madison the philosopher (who went on to become our Fourth President of the United States) was quite certain that those who govern will never be “angels” (he would probably also concur that a President will never amount to a messiah). Madison also seems to indicate that those who govern will naturally begin to think a bit too highly of themselves, and will have difficulty with ‘self-restraint.”
The good news, even in this brief passage of Madison’s writings, is that “the people” - - those of us who are “the governed” - - can still function as the force that prohibits government from spiraling out of control. Certainly, we are still “free enough” – at least for now, anyway - to speak out, to allow our voices to be heard, and to freely exchange ideas about our country and its government - - even if those ideas are contrary to the edicts of a dead-certain Command-In-Chief.
The question is not “can we,” but “will we” function as that balancing force against a government that has seized way too much control of our lives. Madison and the other founders set the course. Will we follow their lead?
Hamilton would have been willing to have his vigorous and effective government intervene on behalf of the commercial and speculative classes, i.e., business, but he would have been repulsed by direct government payments to people.
Repulsed by direct gov’tm. payments to the people, naturally! It is antithetical to business principles.
Yes, but we’re going to have graphics till the end of time. Those plus links, lucky us!
Thank you for writing that. I have often said that were it not for FR, I would be ignorant of mind and ignoble of heart.
That type of resistance would be crushed in a week by those jets.
Really? A standing Army, without desertions(of which they would be many perhaps 50%), of 500,000 will occupy 20+ states with 180 million people(mostly armed)? It is you that are the dreamer. Our Army while it does contain a few pocket of professionalism, is tiny and is mostly deployed overseas. A good thing looking at our current CIC.
Agreed. Hamilton has a bad name around here because he was a Federalist, but you and I are in agreement. I simply think that for the time, his advocacy of that was needed.
Like potato chips, though, they just didn’t know where to stop...:)
| Action | User | Date/Time |
|---|---|---|
| Append keyword "sourcetitlenoturl" |
Olog-hai |
07/28/2013 6:11:28 AM PDT |
Knock it off with the keyword spamming.
That depends on whether the pilots were willing to fire on Americans. Many, perhaps most, will not. And those who will are going to be at the mercy of those who will not on the ground. They will have fatal "accidents."
I just went round and round with a young man at the bank this week. These young folks don’t know what America was like before the crooks got control.
I educated him on how I bought a house for 1/3 of what his cost and paid 12% mortgage interest. The money I borrowed was saved by a senior citizen who was living on the interest I was paying.
These young folks don’t know the difference. They are being hired and trained to do the will of these crooks. Their education has been dumbed down and they aren’t taught to think for themselves.
I take every opportunity to let the young people know how it used to be and how it should still be.
We need to start small and organize in our communities and discuss what is happening and why. Then we need to take steps to make it happen right where we are like Sarah Palin suggested. It will spread. The ballot box has been hijacked. We can’t rely on it now.
My congressman has been there since he left college and is now retirement age. This should have never been allowed to happen. It must stop.
Air power, AWACS, armor, artillery, snipers that practice hours every day, ability to track and shut down all communications and transportation, armed drones, AC-130 Spooky gunship, new automatic weapons, grenades of all sorts...
Reserves, National Guard, various alphabet agencies, state police, city police, UN, foreign militaries...
They’ll look at it as “servicing targets.” Doesn’t matter if they’re veterans. Look at what happened to the Bonus Army. Chased by their own brothers in arms, and killed in some cases.
They’re trained to follow orders. As I’ve said before, the term “illegal order” will be twisted beyond recognition. Those that have serviced targets before won’t see it any different, even if they’re from the same country, state, or town.
Anybody who hated The Won [Again] two hundred years before he was born MUST be racist!
Look at Vietnam and Iraq, we never did really have control.....Afghan either. Now try to occupy a US State in rebellion of ex military and highly motivated patriots. The Army doesn't stand a chance.
“Very little time remains to save our republic. It is way beyond time for an Article V amendment convention.”
Not a good idea, my FRiend. Given that ‘the masses’ have become ‘them asses’ thanks to four generations of commie educators, such a conventio would hardly create anything even vaguely approaching the wisdon of teh present Constitution.
Perhaps it may be time to simply call for a total reset of governments back to teh bounds defined in the Constitution.
How one deals with the demands of the “GibsMeDat” part of America is an issue.
However, as the “GibsMeDat”s are essentially thieves using government to steal for them, there may be no other solution than cutting all such government transfers and dealing with any violence that may spill out of their Urban Feral kraals.
No faction is worth the Republic.
“Fear Not An Article V Amendment Convention.”
No offense meant, but circular logic is not responsive to what I posted.
It helps to read beyond titles. Try it.
Thanks for the ping.
“It helps to read beyond titles. Try it.”
Looks like the famous “naked circularity” ......
On the other hand, “Blessed are those who go round in circles, for they shall be known as ‘wheels’.”
If a valid reason for changing the Constitution has been penned, it should be posted here on FR.
Looks off in distance . . . . .
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