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I always get a smile when philosophical types reminisce the ancient Greek and Roman republics. Both of these had numerous faults severely attacking liberty. The most obvious was slavery; next was the fact that women in Athens were not citizens, and they fared only a little better in Rome. Senatus y Populus Que Romanus: S.P.Q.R., the Roman banner, made it clear who was intended to benefit from the republic. That is, or course, if you were a citizen of the republic. If you weren’t, too bad.

In 94, he observes that a large legislative body would be unable to pass laws quickly. If only that was the case. Knee-jerk legislative responses are the norm and Saul Alinsky wrote of exploiting the practice. Never let a crisis go to waste. Laws passed during a crisis have far reaching effects that were not considered in the heat of hte moment. In the past few years, we’ve had to force the government to retard the debates on immigration, cap and trade, and health insurance. A government with that much power should not act quickly.

The federal courts supported the people here for over a century, until they were able to revise the needs of the people from liberty to welfare. It wasn’t the power of taxation that did it. It was the commerce clause. Nobody saw that one coming.

People have certainly fought back, and won. Right to carry laws and castle doctrine laws are becoming the norm after decades of oppression. The Freedom of Information Act is often viewed as a liberal cause, but it isn’t. Government had to be forced to disclose its methods. I hope that in my lifetime, the feds will be put in their place. It’s happening very slowly, but it is happening. The inertia of such a vast country resists change. We’ll just have to push harder.