Vanity: Free Republic Priority One: Defending the Constitution

Free Republic | June 10, 2003 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

One thing I've learned during the last six years or so of hanging around Free Republic is that politics is a dirty game. It may qualify as a runner-up for the understatement of the year, but it seems to me that one of the worst things about politics is that it is made up of politicians. These guys seem to be desperate to get into office and once they've had a taste of power they're even more desperate to hang onto it. Doesn't matter what the Founders had in mind for our Republic and or what they wrote into the Constitution, if the elected politicians feel that they can create or expand another give-away program or cater to the demands of one special interest group or another, and it will help them get re-elected next time, well, why not? Constitution be damned.

The House represents the people. Sure, the Congressmen are supposed to be sensitive to the wants, needs, desires and demands of their constituents and they are and should be swayed by popular opinion and they should be passionate in their representation of the people. That's the name of the game and that's what the Founders intended. But when the people demand more than the Constitution allows, then what? Well, for one, you've got to get by the Senate. Then by the President, and perhaps by any Supreme Court challenges.

It's my understanding, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Founders established the Senate as the senior body of the bicameral legislature and set higher qualifications, higher standards and longer terms for its members. The Senators were to be experienced, wizened senior statesmen, insulated from swaying popular opinion, and the Senate as a body was to serve as a check on the hotheads in the House.

I also believe that one of the primary responsibilities of the Senate was to defend the Constitution and to guard over the longevity and continuity of the Republic. To this end, the Senate was designed to confirm judicial and high level executive appointments, ratify treaties and conduct impeachment trials--all highly essential elements to the maintenance of our constitutional republic, our national sovereignty and our Liberty.

To ensure that the Senators were truly insulated from swaying public opinion the Founders intended them to be appointed by the state legislatures rather than elected by the populace. It was hoped that only the very best statesmen, men of unimpeachable personal character, would rise to the top of the state legislatures and be considered to serve as U.S. Senators. Hmmmm... Hillary Clinton? Well, so much for high hopes.

I also understand that the three branches of the federal government were established as co-equal partners, with checks and balances designed so that no branch could control another and none could subvert the Constitution. The terms of the members of each branch were varied and staggered and the methods of election or appointment were different for each branch. The only members elected by the populace were to be the members of the House of Representatives. The Senators were to be appointed by the state legislatures, the President elected by the Electoral College and the Judiciary and high officers appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The members of the House serve for two years, the President four years, the Senators six years and the Judiciary for life. The number of representatives for each state is determined by the number of people in each state, each state was guaranteed representation by two senators, and the number of electoral college members for each state determined by the number of congressional representatives, etc.

The state governments were intended to remain sovereign and all rights and powers not expressly delegated by the Constitution were to be left to the states and to the people. The central government was restricted to only about a dozen and a half enumerated powers and functions and was never intended to be the absolute ruling authority over the states or the people that it is today.

The primary functions of the federal government was to defend our national borders, maintain the federal judiciary, run the post office, the weights and standards office, the patent office, etc., and to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and our individual rights.

Well, we all know that this is not how it ended up. What went wrong? For one thing, the balance of power was upset with the ratification of the seventeenth amendment. This amendment allowed for the popular election of the Senators instead of having them appointed by the state legislatures. At first glance, this looks like it would be more democratic. In fact, it is. However, as we conservatives love to point out, our Founders did not establish a democracy, they established a Republic.

With the popular election of both the House and the Senate, we are now one step closer to being a democracy where the mob rules rather than the rule of law. Also, the states essentially lost their representatives to the federal government and now, four-score and some odd years later, the result is that most of their states rights and powers have been eroded away. And we're now seeing where the democrats are wanting to do away with the electoral college. Al Gore won the popular vote in the last election, due mostly to the large highly populated liberal states, but President Bush obviously won in the electoral college. Thank God for the wisdom of the Founding Fathers! If Hillary and her mob have their way, the electoral college is history and so is the Republic. That's what happens when you allow mob rule and we're only one amendment and one step away from that sorry end now.

The liberals rule the land. They control the education systems. They control the media. They control the judiciary. Regardless of the party in executive or legislative power, the career liberals control the more or less permanent bureaucracy, the regulatory agencies and the courts. In defending the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic, I count the liberals (lumping in the greenies, the socialists, the anarchists, and other assorted un-American types, etc.) as our primary domestic enemy number one. I count the left-leaning moderates and RINOs as domestic enemy number two.

Pretty basic and simple so far, but here's where it gets tricky. Like it or not, we have a two party system. Our good friends, the Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Reformers, Buchananites, paleocons, and other right-wingers, etc., may have some pretty good ideas about constitutionality, freedom, Liberty, etc., however, they are weak numerically, and will probably never get much stronger. Let's face it. The general populace has been indoctrinated for decades (make that several generations) by the liberal state controlled education system, brain-washed by the liberal controlled media and conditioned by the liberal controlled judiciary to accept whatever mushy touchy-feely liberal policy or concept that comes down the pike.

Where are the libertarian, reformist or strict constructionist parties ever going to find enough voters to overcome the Democrats and Republicans? Answer is they can't. It's an impossibility. Perhaps they can draw from the conservatives or Republicans, but they can hope to draw almost no liberal or Democrat voters. So, even if they can draw away from the conservative parties, it will only serve to strengthen the liberals and we will only reinstall Democrats to the majority. Happens every time. We flop back and forth between the Democrats and the Republicans and we continue to make zero progress, but the head-long slide into socialism continues on.

My conclusion is we will never, ever regain constitutional government until we completely demolish the liberal stranglehold on the bureaucracy, the education institutions, the media and especially, the judiciary. How do we do that? The most straightforward way, IMHO, is to vote out the Democrats. Ensure that we maintain as large a Republican majority as we possibly can. Ensure that the most conservative judges as can be found are appointed by the Republican president and confirmed by the Republican Senate. Why do you think Daschle and the Democrats are fighting so hard to block Bush's judicial appointments? They see the handwriting on the wall. As we begin replacing the liberal judiciary. the socialist welfare state is going to fall. The socialist bureaucracy will begin to crumble. We will withdraw from the U.N. and begin rescinding international treaties not in our best interests. We will be defending America and America's interests first.

Who knows? We may even get to the point we can overturn Roe vs Wade, repeal the 16th and 17th amendments, abolish the slave tax, privatize social security and medicare, repeal the unconstitutional gun control laws, dismantle the welfare state and reestablish the American Republic. These are my dreams, my goals and my reasons for Free Republic. If sometimes my actions seem a bit odd, please remember that my ultimate goals are to restore constitutional government and I see the total destruction of the Democrat Party and liberalism in general as the only possible solution to the problem. I don't care if people call me a neo-con, a bushbot, a blind Republican, a statist or whatever. I've asked many times but there has been no Libertarian or Buchananite or Reformer or Rockwellian or paleocon who has documented and presented a better plan or one that has any prayer of success, so I'm committed to this one.

As we move forward into the next election cycle, the FR battle cry will be: Restore the Republic! Vote out the RATs!

See you at the Free Republic George Bush Second Inaugural Ball in January '05!

Jim

[TheRightGuy]

US,
Leadership Institute conducted a super-condensed-intense version of their Activism 101 course at FRIVA last summer. It was awesome. i can only hope to enroll in the 1 week bootcamp for candidates and campaign staff at their headquarters. I understand lodging, bread, and water is furnished but don't know the cost of the course.

[potlatch]

Hey unspun!! Last time we 'talked' we were having great fun! Jim's comment; the FR battle cry will be: Restore the Republic! Vote out the RATs! will be our goal! Thanks for the ping!

[unspun]

Leadership Institute

Sounds very tempting, but "lodging, bread & water?" Are they preparing people for being apprehended as dissidents? ;-)

Here's their schedule for the rest of the year:

June
6 Effective Television Techniques Workshop - Level I
7-8 Broadcast Journalism School
7-8 Grassroots Activist School
20 Effective Television Techniques Workshop - Level II
27-28 Grassroots Activist School - Portland, OR
28 Grassroots Communication Workshop - Sacramento, CA
28 Student Publications Workshop - Irvine, CA

July
4 Fourth of July Soiree (FREE)
11 Public Speaking Workshop
12-13 Youth Leadership School
25 Advanced Public Speaking Workshop
28-1 Candidate Development School

August
1 Effective Television Techniques Workshop - Level 1
2-3 Broadcast Journalism School
11-14 Public Relations School

September
4 Grassroots GOTV Workshop
7-13 Campaign Leadership School
12 Effective Television Techniques Workshop - Level 2
13 Grassroots Comm. Workshop—Los Angeles, CA
16-19 Capitol Hill Staff Training School
20 Capitol Hill Writing Workshop
26 Effective Television Techniques Workshop - Level 1
27-28 Grassroots Activist School - Harrisonburg, VA
27-28 Broadcast Journalism School

October
4 Internet Leadership Workshop
4-5 Youth Leadership School - Lincoln, NE
4-5 Grassroots Activist School - Orange County, CA
31 Effective Television Techniques Workshop - Level I

November
1-2 Broadcast Journalism School
14 Public Speaking Workshop
20 Effective Television Techniques Workshop - Level I
21 Advanced Public Speaking Workshop

December
6-7 Grassroots Activist School
8-11Public Relations School
11 Effective Television Techniques Workshop - Level II

Who was the fellow taking our names at the Chicago Conservative Conference who wanted to get LI in IL?

[unspun]

Restoring the republic is fun!

[potlatch]

Restoring the republic is fun!

That's SERIES fun! Fun-fun is a silly thread!!

[billbears]

See, that’s the sort of thinking that that will appeal to the average voter: abolish the Interstate Highway system

Hmmmm, don't think I said that. Not at all. The establishment of the Interstate Highway system was unconservative, however what to do with it now? Turn it over to the states and allow them to maintain it with no 'grants' from the national government? Or continue to keep the separate and sovereign states in subservience to the bureaucratic machine in Washington

And as I see you chose to ignore the other comments so that tells me pretty much all I need to know. From your statement, you're not actually for returning to a Federal Constitutional Republic as much as maintaining the status quo and having the 'conservative' party to stay in power to continue passing unconstitutional bills such as healthcare, more federal police powers on the domestic front, and a 'kinder, gentler' social security, eh? Or did I misunderstand your version of what a conservative should be?

[afraidfortherepublic]

I did not know that. I do know he seems virtually alone when he consistently advocates strict Constitutional interpretations on almost any topic imaginable.

I lived in Ron's district and campaigned for him during his first term in congress back in the early 1980's. He is an obstetrician in "real life" and has 5 children (I think) of his own. He is a very nice, very conservative, and a very sincere fellow. He went to DC the about the same time Tom DeLay was first elected to the Texas State Assembly (also my district). At the time I would have bet on Ron Paul to be the more successful of the two.

One of the best PR stunts Ron ever pulled was to park his little Chevette next to Tip O'Neil's limo in the House garage and have a picture taken of the two cars, side by side. Then he wrote a guest editorial about Government waste and sent it off to the newspaper with the picture of the cars. Priceless!

[RockyMtnMan]

As I said, I probably will continue to vote for Republicans for another election or so before I fully am assimilated into that horrible dead end of third partyism...

That's where I'm headed as well. I've said it before on other threads and I'll say it again. If the republicans gain enough power to affect a significant change in government and fail to make a change, they will lose their base completely. Disenfranchised voters tend to look for a new franchise. They could end up helping the liberals more than the liberals could ever dream of helping themselves.

[Brian Allen]

<< I will repeat my question for the third time:

Bottom line: is the situation today as dire as the situation in 1775? YES or NO, no intellectual masturbation allowed. >>

On reading it for the first time and strictly a knee-jerk response?

As dire?

Absolutely not.

In 1775 America had only one enemy: England's insane George III whose exercise of the limited powers available to him, post Magna Charta, forced our Founders into the War Of American Independence.

Today every federal court has anointed itself with more ruling power than that even available to, let alone ever exercised by crazy George and Our Republic's potential enemies must perforce effectively include every American who takes a Godfather's Cent from the abjectly-corrupted and corrupting federal government and its agents.

Post 1775 the mobbed-up traitor, Roosevelt -- and his henchmen [While forcing through the measures that guaranteed the length and severity of the Roosevelt Depression] -- drove the wedge that effected conversion of Our Nation from a Constitutional Republic Ruled Of Law to a socialist state ruled by law and by men.

Post-Roosevelt we have seen the consequential relentless letter-by-letter, line-by-line, inflection-by-inflection, phrase-by-phrase assault on Our Founding Law by the un-and-anti-American alphabet soup [ACLU, ABA, NEA, Trial Liars, AARP, DNC, et al] that make up the bastard offspring of the Communist Party of America.

Whose numbers, least we forget -- and with which the Roosevelt and Truman administrations were deep in bed -- included the still loathsome and still fearsome State Department's Soviet agents and traitors, Alger Hiss and Lawrence Duggan [Who obeyed their masters and oversaw the handing into murder and slavery of all of Eastern Europe and all of the states, territories, nations and peoples of what is now called "China" -- and on Moscow's evil empire's orders and in its image, saw to the creation of the United Nations] -- and included the Soviet agents and traitors Harry Dexter White and William Remington and Judith Coplon and Armand Hammer and Albert Gore Senior.

Post Roosevelt/Truman/Johnson we have seen the creation and stacking with political activists of scores of unconstitutional, unlawful and illegal federal government departments and agencies [Including more than sixty with unconstitutional, illegal and unlawful Federal- Police powers!] and the rule-by-fiat activist stacking of the federal courts.

And we have seen eight years of a wanker's, looters' and co-serial-rapists' RICO-racketeering "administration" which saw to the looting, loss or debasement of Trillions of Dollars of America's wealth and to the supplying of our most precious nuclear, rocketery, computer and military secrets to our enemies -- and almost culminated in America's most dangerous dullard conducting what was most certainly intended to be America's first coup. Had that been pulled off the fate of American Liberty would inevitably and irretrivably have been sealed and ballot rigging and judicial corruption on a scale too awful to contemplate would have become the norm.

Post Roosevelt, post-Truman, post-Johnson, post-Carter -- and post-the Dixie Mafia -- the [For-a-while Albert Gore Junior-led] "Democratic" Party has mutated into the nihilistic criminal organization that today loathes and detests America and Americans and that has only contempt for the United States Constitution which it sees -- if it sees it at all -- as a dead white man's peace of paper.

Today's effectively dictatorial, fascisocialist, senate Democrats have arrogated the power of the President.

Hard-core Democrats clearly do not believe the Republican Party has a right to exist, do not believe in the Constitution of the United States, do not believe Americans should have any right to choose. They appear to be awfully close to the Middle East's barbarians in that their every action is motivated by envy and driven by visceral hatred and by their pathological desire to divide. Their basic strategy: divide and destroy.

Post the awful eight years of the wanker's, looters' and co-serial-rapists' "administration" and post September 11 2003 hatred and malice define America's left and the battle, of which Josef Stalin's man in America, Armand Hammer's anointed heir, Albert Gore Junior, was for a few weeks the central figure, is no longer but a contest between a silly king and colonists with only different visions for America's future governance.

It is absolutely the opposite of that. We Americans are now engaged in a struggle to the death between evil manifest in those that want to destroy the country, the symbols, the tenets and the institutions they so pathologically hate -- and those of US who wish to preserve Our Beloved FRaternal Republic.

Seventeen-seventy-five?

That was chicken feed by comparison with the dire peril with which America is faced today!

The Second War of American Independence is at hand!

Best ones -- Brian

[Fred Mertz]

I don't know what the tax rate was back then, but the Boston Tea Party was a significant turning point.

I believe we all pay about 40-50% of our earnings in taxes (all taxes). The serfs never had it so bad.

[RabidBartender]

The truth is written.

Step 1. Get the Senate majority. Done.
Step 2. Get a wider majority. In progress.
Step 3. Get to work. I cannot wait.

[JohnHuang2]

Superb, simply superb, Jim. Thanks for the forum, thanks for all you do. God bless you and yours.

[Brian Allen]

<< I believe we all pay about 40-50% of our earnings in taxes (all taxes). The serfs never had it so bad. >>

When the taxes on the taxes are factored in and the compulsory everything taken into account, ours is an at best November-December year.

We are, by any measure, not least by the distance we have been hustled from the protection guaranteed us by the Constitution's Second Amendment, in dire straits!

[maui_hawaii]

mega BUMP

[RockyMtnMan]

Wow, someone with a more pessimistic view than me! It does beg the question of: Which is worse a sudden violent jerk or a slow removal of the bandage?

[RockyMtnMan]

I believe we all pay about 40-50% of our earnings in taxes (all taxes). The serfs never had it so bad.

Don't forget that before Reagan the top marginal tax rate was 70%.

[Kudsman]

Thanks for the ping. Great vanity by Jim Rob. The problem I have is voting for something I can't stand. Amo Houghton was one of my US Representatives for years before my recent move. Even though he always ran as a Republican many of his votes on the house floor were (and still are) very liberal. The main one that sticks out in my memory was his opposition to the Barton admendment of the Balanced Budget bill back when Newt was trying to straighten the runaway Federal spending. I could never vote for a person that I totally disagreed with on many issues just because of his party registration. If anything I say shame on the Republican party for even endorsing such liberals in the first place. Let the liberal endorsements remain with the Democrats. It helps to distinguish the difference between choices IMO. In an election where both major party candidates have routinely endorsed liberal goals and ideology I willingly vote for a conservative or RTL third party candidate if one is offered. If that aids a Democrat in getting elected once again I say shame on the Republicans then for not fielding an alternative to liberalism.

[maestro]

Founding Fathers Republic.......a Constitutional.....BTTT

[unspun]

In an election where both major party candidates have routinely endorsed liberal goals and ideology I willingly vote for a conservative or RTL third party candidate if one is offered. If that aids a Democrat in getting elected once again I say shame on the Republicans then for not fielding an alternative to liberalism.

My sentiments are with you there. If RINO's broker the power and know they'll automatically get our votes, there's no reason for them to nominate conservatives. But we need to use our people power to organize within and/or outside of party operations and beat them in primaries. Also, in districts that are outside of the GOP's reach, I have no problem with a reasonable attempt in the 'rat primary. I've heard Morton Blackwell say he thinks so to, btw.

[Kudsman]

I've heard Morton Blackwell say he thinks so to, btw.

Yeah thanks for that link earlier also. I skipped out of FR for a while to check it out. So far I am definitely interested. I think there is alot there to learn from and much I can use as I become more actively involved. Heck just the advice to keep reading and the list of recommended Periodicals and Books is good for anyone not already familiar with some. The only thing I'm a little weary about is the recommending Atlas Shrugged as a top 25 while omitting The New American Bible. LOL.