The Crisis of American Self-Government

online.wsj.com ^ | 11/30/2012 | SOHRAB AHMARI

[RoosterRedux]

'We have now an American political party and a European one. Not all Americans who vote for the European party want to become Europeans. But it doesn't matter because that's what they're voting for. They're voting for dependency, for lack of ambition, and for insolvency."

Few have thought as hard, or as much, about how democracies can preserve individual liberty and national virtue as the eminent political scientist Harvey Mansfield. When it comes to assessing the state of the American experiment in self-government today, his diagnosis is grim, and he has never been one to mince words.

Mr. Mansfield sat for an interview on Thursday at the Harvard Faculty Club. This year marks his 50th as a teacher at the university. It isn't easy being the most visible conservative intellectual at an institution that has drifted ever further to the left for a half-century. "I live in a one-party state and very much more so a one-party university," says the 80-year-old professor with a sigh. "It's disgusting. I get along very well because everybody thinks the fact that I'm here means the things I say about Harvard can't be true. I am a kind of pet—a pet dissenter."

[cripplecreek]

The 16th and 17th amendments were a disaster for American freedom.

[IslamE]

I maintain that the civil war was not about slavery, it was about allegiance to Europe, also, I firmly believe the civil war was never lost nor won, it was simply a truce, the Confederates changed their name to the Democrats and they waited a hundred years to enslave all of humanity under a socialist yoke. The Democrats with the help of Odumba have sought to dismantle America for socialists to control, they hate America, the Democrats are traitors, and the Bush’s helped to create a new socialist world order!

[TheWryFederalist]

The country as it is currently constituted is done....finished.

Time to break it up and allow the American traditionalists and the American socialists along with the moochers who put them in power to go their separate ways

[Yardstick]

I’ll go one further and say that the West in general is still trying to figure out which was the superior revolution: the French or the American. Unfortunately I’d say the French is winning. We all seem to be converging on the social-democratic model. The United States lags the pack but is getting there. Maybe “slouching” is a better word than “converging”. What underpins the social-democratic model is a lack of confidence in the individual to govern himself. It is quite cynical. It also represents a failure of imagination, in that appreciating liberty is to appreciate possibilities that have yet to be realized or even thought of. Socialism is force and is very graspable in the here and now, which makes it an easier sell in some ways.

[oldbrowser]

"So Republicans need their cultural arguments to oppose the Democrats', to say that goodness or justice in our country is not merely the transfer of resources to the poor and vulnerable. We have to take measures to teach the poor and vulnerable to become a little more independent and to prize independence, and not just live for a government check. That means self-government within each self, and where are you going to get that except with morality, responsibility and religion?"

I believe this is the money quote.

Morality, responsibility and religion don't come from government. They don't come from the top down, they come from the bottom up.

All of this religious quackery and new age nonsense has happened because religion has devolved into a con game.

Sharpton, Bakker, Jackson, Swaggart, Haggart, & Wright, just to name a few off the top of my head are examples of religious "leaders" who have helped to decay the moral fiber of the country.

[andyk]

I think a lot of people underestimate the destructive power of the 17th amendment.

[cripplecreek]

I agree. Sadly many FReepers stated that its their constitutional right to vote for senators in a recent thread about the 17th amendment. Many seem to think that things are as the founders envisioned.

It was disastrous popular vote snake oil sold under the banner of “empowerment” and it did exactly the opposite of empowering the people. States like mine have the GOP in control of all 3 branches of state government and the majority of our representatives in the US house are GOP but Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Flint consistently elect Levin and Stabenow.

Here in Michigan the state legislature is doing a lot of good work at cutting taxes and regulation while in DC, Levin and Stabenow are going exactly the other way. That doesn’t sound like they represent us.

[C210N]

go their separate ways...

There is no peaceful going... it will be bloody.

Consider the logistics... every red state has a sizeable minority blue minority, every blue state has a sizeable red minority. There will be nothing unanimous about any secession. Then, consider how to handle the apportionment of assets and liabilities. If Texas secedes, what happens to the federal checks going into Texan retirees? What about a good portion of the working population with companies that span state lines?

Seems to me a mess, and the result will be a great deal of flames.... and then burning embers... rivers of blood...

[cripplecreek]

And lets not forget our troops. They’re from every state and based all over the world.

[marsh2]

The European form of government is alive and well in CA. In our area, the Dept of Fish and Game is at it forming a collaborative stakeholder group to reallocate water use currently owned under pre-1914 water use rights. Communitarianism - majority rules and to hell with individual rights is the name of the game.