The Lew Rockwell crowd you apparently disdain is an ally. It never ceases to amaze me how fractured people with the same philosophical goals can become.
"All of this legislation -- merely tips of an unconstitutional Big Government iceberg -- is so obviously in conflict with the plain words of the Constitution that one wonders how Congress gets away with it.
"Simple. We let them. And now the majority of the public is so ignorant of the basis and the workings of their own government, they don't know any better! They think it's supposed to BE THIS WAY!"
Most people consider themselves subjects rather than citizens. They don't know this. It is an unconscious attitude. Perhaps they haven't grown up enough to know that they, and not Papa, are in charge. Regardless of the cause, that is the fact. And subjects will allow government vast powers, because government is in charge, and will also expect to be taken care of by it, in loco parentis.
How are we supposed to stop them? We can't do it by voting for the ones who promise to stop the bribe money, because the ones who want the bribes will vote against them. And you think Vanderboegh is an idiot, so presumably you actually think the tar and feathers option is right out, too.
Should we have shot a few of them in 1815, just to make the point, so that we wouldn't have to now? Given that we didn't, and we clearly have the mess to clean up that our forefathers didn't, what do we do now?
I'm not attacking you, FWIW. I'm frustrated and yes, scared. I'm seeking ideas.
The case here was Wickard v. Filburn, and it represented the first really egregious abuse of the Commerce Clause.
Minor quibble - this was more the culmination than the beginning of New Deal litigation. It was incredibly disheartening to see Raich rely on it rather than overturn it. I wonder if the CC will ever have it's equivalent of Brown v. Board of Education.
One of the scariest things is that unlike FDR, Obama will not need to lay the groundwork. The machinery of leviathan is already in place. All if requires is someone willing to unleash it upon the country.
The issue is that Democrats whenever they get behind the wheel of car we ride in on the road to serfdom drive it down the road at high speed. When Republicans get behind the wheel, they pull over and stop the car. They need to be turning around and regaining as much freedom as they can while they have the power to do so. Instead, we see that Republicans in charge is really just a pause, a moment to enjoy whatever liberty is left at that particular point, before inevitably the Democrats come back and strip us of more and more of our basic liberties.
The machinery of leviathan may lie dormant at times, but it is always there. What we need is someone willing to dismantle it and cast the pieces to the four winds.
The machinery of leviathan may lie dormant at times, but it is always there. What we need is someone willing to dismantle it and cast the pieces to the four winds.
And for that, we first need an electorate with enough courage to embrace the idea of dismantling the leviathan - and willing to risk not having it around if/when we happen to need it again. You might call this the "pack rat theory" of politics, and it may be the biggest stumbling block of all to what Britt suggests.
In the interim, while we're figuring it out, stay as far the heck away from the road as you can manage.
Note:
All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost;
references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>
JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/11/archived-for-posterity.html (9 comments)
Tentative mapping of comments to original article, corrections solicited.
The Lew Rockwell crowd you apparently disdain is an ally. It never ceases to amaze me how fractured people with the same philosophical goals can become.
"All of this legislation -- merely tips of an unconstitutional Big Government iceberg -- is so obviously in conflict with the plain words of the Constitution that one wonders how Congress gets away with it.
"Simple. We let them. And now the majority of the public is so ignorant of the basis and the workings of their own government, they don't know any better! They think it's supposed to BE THIS WAY!"
Most people consider themselves subjects rather than citizens. They don't know this. It is an unconscious attitude. Perhaps they haven't grown up enough to know that they, and not Papa, are in charge. Regardless of the cause, that is the fact. And subjects will allow government vast powers, because government is in charge, and will also expect to be taken care of by it, in loco parentis.
How are we supposed to stop them? We can't do it by voting for the ones who promise to stop the bribe money, because the ones who want the bribes will vote against them. And you think Vanderboegh is an idiot, so presumably you actually think the tar and feathers option is right out, too.
Should we have shot a few of them in 1815, just to make the point, so that we wouldn't have to now? Given that we didn't, and we clearly have the mess to clean up that our forefathers didn't, what do we do now?
I'm not attacking you, FWIW. I'm frustrated and yes, scared. I'm seeking ideas.
The case here was Wickard v. Filburn, and it represented the first really egregious abuse of the Commerce Clause.
Minor quibble - this was more the culmination than the beginning of New Deal litigation. It was incredibly disheartening to see Raich rely on it rather than overturn it. I wonder if the CC will ever have it's equivalent of Brown v. Board of Education.
One of the scariest things is that unlike FDR, Obama will not need to lay the groundwork. The machinery of leviathan is already in place. All if requires is someone willing to unleash it upon the country.
The issue is that Democrats whenever they get behind the wheel of car we ride in on the road to serfdom drive it down the road at high speed. When Republicans get behind the wheel, they pull over and stop the car. They need to be turning around and regaining as much freedom as they can while they have the power to do so. Instead, we see that Republicans in charge is really just a pause, a moment to enjoy whatever liberty is left at that particular point, before inevitably the Democrats come back and strip us of more and more of our basic liberties.
The machinery of leviathan may lie dormant at times, but it is always there. What we need is someone willing to dismantle it and cast the pieces to the four winds.
When Republicans get behind the wheel, they pull over and stop the car.
Not recently. At best they've slowed down. A little.
When Republicans get behind the wheel, they pull over and stop the car.
WTF? From Jan 2001 through 2006 we careened down the road hell-bent for leather with a liquored-up teenage boy driving.
Hell, even Reagan didn't actually pull over - he just talked about driving more responsibly.
The machinery of leviathan may lie dormant at times, but it is always there. What we need is someone willing to dismantle it and cast the pieces to the four winds.
And for that, we first need an electorate with enough courage to embrace the idea of dismantling the leviathan - and willing to risk not having it around if/when we happen to need it again. You might call this the "pack rat theory" of politics, and it may be the biggest stumbling block of all to what Britt suggests.
In the interim, while we're figuring it out, stay as far the heck away from the road as you can manage.
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>