Joseph Sobran: The Lesser Evil

Griffin Internet Syndicate ^ | November 24, 2001 | Joseph Sobran

[christine]

This is what he should be advocating because our constitutional republic has already been overthrown

so true. and so few people realize it. so sad....

[christine]

i bookmarked your website to look at later. it looks very interesting. :)

[SusanUSA]

"Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks -- no form of government can render us secure. To suppose liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.
-- James Madison, Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 20, 1788

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."
-- James Madison in The Federalist

[SusanUSA]

This is the familiar idea that the Constitution is a "living document," which is to say, a dead letter. How can it be "living" if it’s mere putty in the hands of the powerful? Really living things resist manipulation.

"The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
-- Thomas Jefferson

I think it is "we the people" who must realize that the Constitution is and will remain dead unless WE give it renewed life. It will only become a "living document" again if WE give it life.

[SusanUSA]

The Constitution that the Framers actually wrote provided the individual almost no protection from tyranny by the States.

Maybe they realized there was built in protection in the fact that a state that is tyrannical risks losing their population, i.e. source of income, due to the people abandoning that state for less tyrannical ones?

[SusanUSA]

And after your warning, too....tsk, tsk. ;)

I'm on ouro's bump list anyway, but thanks.

[Torie]

Under extreme duress in the privacy of an underground torture chamber, while I was on the rack, I might confess that I agree with you sentiment expressed.

[glf]

I have read "Radical Son". It will change your mind.

[glf]

What are you smoking ?? I WANT SOME !!!!

[Twodees]

I'm smoking a handmade Connecticut cigar. You'll have to get your own.

[Harrison Bergeron]

"Horowitz gives himself away in subtle ways. One of those is his insistence that the US is a democracy. Another is his Lincoln worhip.

My suspicions aren't quite as educated. I've always thought that his columns come off more like caricatures of conservatism than the real thing. Funny thing... I always thought the same thing about Ann Coulter's writing. Both she and Horowitz tend to limit themselves to left wing venues like Bill Maher's ridiculously named "politically Incorrect" and the Ivy League lecture circuit. It has a bad smell to it.

[Twodees]

That's a good observation. Both those kids seem to feel more at home being interviewed by liberals. The description of his writing as a sort of caricature of conservative writing is excellent. It's sort of a self concious parody of a conservative writer.

[VoodooEconomist]

BUMP to two true conservatives - Joseph Sobran and Congressman Ron Paul - men who oppose Big Government under all circumstances (not selectively, like many FReepers are wont to do).

[SEA]

Just read this. Thanks for posting this 99% great Sobran article, and here's to the violent restoration of the U.S. Constitution.