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moving the last piece
Princeton Prof: ‘Common Misunderstanding’ of Constitution Has Led to ‘Serious Erosion’ of Freedom
5:33 Minutes
Why we are losing our liberty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIfgD6_hofI
This professor sounds like he gets it.
It was the later amendments that gave the federal government near limitless power, especially the ones forced upon the nation by force after the civil war.
Add to the mix the concept of judicial review, which was invented out of whole cloth by the Marshall Court.
The Supreme Court itself has crippled freedom, writing laws by 5-4 votes of unelected Supreme Court justices who have lifetime tenure. That was a huge mistake by the Founders, who probably thought generations of Americans would never allow such a thing to happen (though Jefferson warned against a dictatorial Court). They underestimated what a nation of placid cows we have become, standing behind fences while the federal government milks us dry.
If it has its defects, it is said, they can be best amended when they are experienced. But remember, when the people once part with power, they can seldom or never resume it again but by force. Many instances can be produced in which the people have voluntarily increased the powers of their rulers; but few, if any, in which rulers have willingly abridged their authority. This is a sufficient reason to induce you to be careful, in the first instance, how you deposit the powers of government.
How far the clause in the 8th section of the 1st article may operate to do away all idea of confederated states, and to effect an entire consolidation of the whole into one general government, it is impossible to say. The powers given by this article are very general and comprehensive, and it may receive a construction to justify the passing almost any law. A power to make all laws, which shall be necessary and proper, for carrying into execution, all powers vested by the constitution in the government of the United States, or any department or officer thereof, is a power very comprehensive and definite [indefinite?], and may, for ought I know, be exercised in a such manner as entirely to abolish the state legislatures. Suppose the legislature of a state should pass a law to raise money to support their government and pay the state debt, may the Congress repeal this law, because it may prevent the collection of a tax which they may think proper and necessary to lay, to provide for the general welfare of the United States? For all laws made, in pursuance of this constitution, are the supreme lay of the land, and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of the different states to the contrary notwithstanding. — By such a law, the government of a particular state might be overturned at one stroke, and thereby be deprived of every means of its support.
It is not meant, by stating this case, to insinuate that the constitution would warrant a law of this kind; or unnecessarily to alarm the fears of the people, by suggesting, that the federal legislature would be more likely to pass the limits assigned them by the constitution, than that of an individual state, further than they are less responsible to the people. But what is meant is, that the legislature of the United States are vested with the great and uncontroulable powers, of laying and collecting taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; of regulating trade, raising and supporting armies, organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, instituting courts, and other general powers. And are by this clause invested with the power of making all laws, proper and necessary, for carrying all these into execution; and they may so exercise this power as entirely to annihilate all the state governments, and reduce this country to one single government. And if they may do it, it is pretty certain they will; for it will be found that the power retained by individual states, small as it is, will be a clog upon the wheels of the government of the United States; the latter therefore will be naturally inclined to remove it out of the way. Besides, it is a truth confirmed by the unerring experience of ages, that every man, and every body of men, invested with power, are ever disposed to increase it, and to acquire a superiority over every thing that stands in their way. This disposition, which is implanted in human nature, will operate in the federal legislature to lessen and ultimately to subvert the state authority, and having such advantages, will most certainly succeed, if the federal government succeeds at all. It must be very evident then, that what this constitution wants of being a complete consolidation of the several parts of the union into one complete government, possessed of perfect legislative, judicial, and executive powers, to all intents and purposes, it will necessarily acquire in its exercise and operation.
Let us now proceed to enquire, as I at first proposed, whether it be best the thirteen United States should be reduced to one great republic, or not? It is here taken for granted, that all agree in this, that whatever government we adopt, it ought to be a free one; that it should be so framed as to secure the liberty of the citizens of America, and such an one as to admit of a full, fair, and equal representation of the people. The question then will be, whether a government thus constituted, and founded on such principles, is practicable, and can be exercised over the whole United States, reduced into one state?
Anti-federalist: Brutus #1
I sure hope this guy has tenure, because the ultra flaming lib "professors" there, which is everyone else, will demand his head!
Good message.
Any way to preempt Entertainment TV, BET, Univision, and ESPN with this video looped about 72 hours so the Low Information crowd might learn something?
How did these radical fundamentals ever slip into other than the mathematics department at Princeton?
If I were advising president Cruz on Supreme Court nominations, respect for the Enumerated Powers and all ten articles in the Bill of Rights would be absolute requirements.
You can thank the 14th amendment for that expanded judicial reach into all aspects of American life.
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'Common Misteaching’ of Constitution Has Led to ‘Serious Erosion’ of Freedom
There. Fixed it.
‘Communists manhanding’ of Constitution Has Led to ‘Serious Erosion’ of Freedom
Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons, and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim — when he defends himself — as a criminal.
You would use the law to oppose socialism? But it is upon the law that socialism itself relies. Socialists desire to practice legal plunder, not illegal plunder. Socialists, like all other monopolists, desire to make the law their own weapon. And when once the law is on the side of socialism, how can it be used against socialism? For when plunder is abetted by the law, it does not fear your courts, your gendarmes, and your prisons. Rather, it may call upon them for help.
The Law - Bastiat
There were two arguments over the inclusion of the bill of rights. The Federalists argued against their inclusion, believing that by adding them to the Constitution, we would come to believe that only those rights enumerated were retained by the people (this is massively simplified, of course). Time has proven their arguments correct, in that you'll even find people here on Free Republic that don't believe there is such a fundamental right as personal privacy.
The Anti-Federalists whose side was taken up in the Federal Farmer argued that without listing some rights specifically the government would come to trample upon those rights without restriction. Time has also proven them correct. Does anyone seriously believe the government would accept a right to keep and bear arms without it having been called out specifically by the founders?
“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in men but bind them down from mischief with the chains of the Constitution” Thomas Jefferson
“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6,000 years may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.” Daniel Webster
“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in men but bind them down from mischief with the chains of the Constitution” Thomas Jefferson
“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6,000 years may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.” Daniel Webster
“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in men but bind them down from mischief with the chains of the Constitution” Thomas Jefferson
“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6,000 years may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.” Daniel Webster
for later