Posted on 03/22/2002 11:06:32 AM PST by Clemenza
Liberals want power. To get power they need votes.
It's quite simple really. First they get 51% of the public dependent on some type of "goodies".
Then all they need to do is to convince 51% of the public that they must vote for the liberal (Dem) or their goodies will be taken away.
Terribly simple.
Essentially, Burnham contends the function of liberalism is to be a painkiller while the Western world is destroyed by three forces: criminality/terrorism within, Communist aggression without and Third World radicalization within and without.
Liberalism's function is to enable its believer to say with a straight face that it does not matter that control of the Suez canal was grabbed by Egypt from England or that crime is rampant or that some country is threatened by a communist takeover or in a modern context that Palestinian suicide bombers are attacking Israel daily. Every loss is explained as essentially being the Western world's fault for supporting colonialism, racism, oppression, reactionary regimes, etc., etc.
Still worth a read, though in the modern context the Communist nations seem to have simply become Third World radicals.
Liberty and Reason are the only two political magazines worth reading these days.
It has been pointed out ("Rule by Law", R.P. George and R. Ponnuru,pp. 54-55, 68, in Nat. Rev., Feb. 26, 1996) that Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The lesser federal courts, being established under authority of Congress can also be similarly limited. Without needing to pass a constitutional amendment, Congress can and should forbid federal courts from banning any practice or overruling any law that does not involve a violation of the exact letter of the Constitution or the common law as it existed at the time of the establishment of the Constitution. By this one act judicial imperialism can be eliminated - and without the long and difficult process of constitutional amendment - if only our representatives in Congress have enough spine to act. It also advances the goal of many conservatives - it cuts the ground out from under Row v. Wade, the prime example of judicial imperialism.This seems to address some of our discussion on the Supreme Court's power grab.The second course of action is admittedly far more difficult. It was once an accepted premise of constitutional law that the legislative authority of Congress cannot be delegated. But as the liberals grew in influence during this century, they persuaded America to accept just that - the delegation of legislative authority to the federal bureaucracy. It has become accepted practice for Congress to pass laws that establish general goals, and leave it up to federal departments to write regulations to implement these. In fact, unelected bureaucrats use this as a loophole to write new laws that have little to do with the original legislation passed by Congress. It is acceptable for federal departments to write regulations that govern internal practices and procedures of those departments, but it is totally unacceptable, and unconstitutional, for American citizens to be prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned for violating these regulations. While conservatives have long recognized that if unelected bureaucrats and unelected judges make laws we no longer rule ourselves, nothing has been done another consequence of conservatism being divided into small groups that pursue small issues.
I agree
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