Posted on 07/21/2007 5:10:41 PM PDT by neverdem
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury.”
Actually, this is only half right. The flip side of the argument is that “Democracy can only exist until government discovers that it can vote itself unlimited power.”
The US Constitution was a brilliant idea in its time, among other reasons, because it sought to enumerate everything that government was *allowed* to do. It tried to further limit government by specifically listing things that the government was *never* permitted to do, the Bill of Rights.
And finally, it created a process for making new laws that was intentionally difficult, to *stop* government from easily making new laws and taking more power.
But its fatal flaw was in not creating a mechanism within the Constitution, whose purpose was to eliminate existing laws, to take MORE power AWAY from government, and to intentionally DEVOLVE power from the federal government, to the individual States, and to the people.
The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution demonstrates that the idea, in basic form, did cross their minds. But from the very beginning the Tenth Amendment was ignored by the federal government, and has seldom, if ever, been enforced.
They did hope, and made provision for it, that periodically the States would undertake a Constitutional Convention, to refine, update and improve the Constitution. But it has always been feared, and with some justification, that such a convention would destroy the brilliant character of the founding doctrines with crude pragmatism, self-interest and greed. The stakes were always too high.
So what we are left with is an ever expanding federal government, with no real self-control, ability, process or desire to limit itself. And unfortunately again, the ordinary processes to redeem ourselves are incapable of reducing the immensity of what the government has become.
But eventually there will be a chance. Coming on the heels of a great and abiding disaster, whatever it may be, most likely with great and terrible loss of life and destruction, the President will be much like a dictator in his efforts to help the nation recover.
If he is blessed with a friendly Congress, for an altogether too brief a time, he might, with the strokes of a pen, eliminate vast amounts of government bloat whose creation was never the intent of the founders. Agency after agency can be erased, deleted and removed from the power of the federal government forever.
Look on its might at this website, and imagine how much of this should never have been created in the first place. How it was never the role of the federal government, how it has taken from the individual States and the people so much of our prosperity:
http://www.thebudgetgraph.com/poster/
And while both the President and Congress might wipe the slate clean, there will still be endless intellectual bloat that afflicts the judiciary, mostly in the form of precedents to rationalize the endless takings from the States and the people. That, too, should be erased, but how it might come about I do not know.
Somehow the judiciary must be told that much of its old and honored, or worshiped history, should instead be ignored, because its cumulative effect was disastrous to our nation.
Well said!
What are you talking about? The discussion was Paul voting against congress talking tough to Iran. I pointed out that foreign policy was the job of the executive branch. You posted the gibberish above.
Yes he did speak, and with his shoes off as a show of deep respect. And he made his female aids were hajibs, too.
She was dead.
This country screwed the pooch with that 17th Amendment, too. Giving the vote to the parasites was also a bad idea. And they should never have eliminated literacy tests. At least test to see if they know who their State Representative is before letting them near a polling booth.
I’d vote for him if he showed some sense on Iraq.
After I was done with her. But she still liked it.
I do not agree with W’s border - amnesty views.
I live 20 miles north of the busiest and largest border crossing the world.
I was part of those who countered 50,000 Mexicans here at a march and rally.
don’t tell me about this situation.
This is ground zero.
Will you candidate (Hunter) close the border?
Tell it however you want, psycho. No jury would believe you.
There is a huge difference when it comes to national security. Liberals are cowards and should never be trusted with our security. I bet Bin Laden has a bumper sticker on his camels ass that says “Hillary 08”
I don't know the answer to that, I do know he voted for the Medicare bill, and has been against all the efforts to end pork. But that's ok, as long as he is for the current direction in the war in Iraq.
Hunter is the only candidate who has sent years on the border issue.
He is the author of the border fence bill that was passed and financed. The first part was earlier built east of here and Hunter went to the White House a few months ago and asked Bush why this is not getting done.
No. Maybe the fantasy of the North American Union. The prior link has a decent discussion about nationalism.
I would have thought September 11, 2001 would have settled the matter of illegal immigration. The politicians have done just about everything they should have not done, and very little of what they should, thanks to the neoCOMs and their demand for the 911 Commission.
LOL
http://www.house.gov/hunter/index.shtml
Go to Hunter’s site and see what he has done through out the years re illegals, border, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Hunter better than any of the other Republican candidates, except for Ron Paul.
Fair enough.
Pet man had a whole brownie and now he can’t tell Wylers from Koolaid.
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