Big Government 2.0

Bill Clinton isn't often wrong when it comes to politics, but his assertion in his 1996 State of the Union Address that "the era of big government is over" was a bit premature. In light of President Obama's Second Inaugural Address, the era of big government has just begun.

The reliably liberal columnist Dana Milbank of The Washington Post exhibited refreshing honesty when he wrote of Obama's speech, "...it failed to rise to the moment."

The president's address was more campaign rhetoric than visionary. He even lowered himself to reference Mitt Romney's inelegant remark about "takers" versus makers. Obama's comment was petty and beneath the grandeur of the moment.

There were many inconsistencies. The president quoted the Declaration of Independence, which reads all are "...created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life..." Apparently the president, who supports abortion, doesn't believe those rights extend to the unborn, not even those in the third trimester of life.

He declared again the false choice between caring for the elderly and needy and making necessary reforms in entitlement programs, but then it's not his money he's borrowing and spending, it's ours, or China's.

He spoke of America as being "one," but delivered little more than divisive rhetoric, pushing instead the left's extreme agenda on "green jobs," asserting that "global warming" is settled science, which it is not .

In response to his elevation of same-sex marriage as a civil right, Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, a nonprofit political organization working against same-sex marriage legalization, said, "Gay and lesbian people are already treated equally under the law. They have the same civil rights as anyone else; they have the right to live as they wish and love whom they choose. What they don't have is the right to redefine marriage for all of society. In fact, six federal courts have rejected the idea that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court in a summary decision in 1972. Furthermore, that vast majority of states have codified the commonsense view held for thousands of years that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. The president is profoundly wrong to imply that those who have acted to protect marriage have denied anyone's rights by doing so."

The president said, "A decade of war is now ending." You wouldn't know it by looking at the terrorist attacks in Algeria, Mali or Benghazi. Terrorists don't think war is ending. Wars don't end with a unilateral declaration. Someone has to surrender.

There was little about individualism, only the "collective." Ayn Rand warned against collectivism in the January 1944 issue of Reader's Digest: "Collectivism means the subjugation of the individual to a group -- whether to a race, class or state does not matter. Collectivism holds that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called 'the common good.'"

It will be tough for Republicans to counter the president's apparent march toward collectivism, but it can be done if they stiffen their spines.

They might watch "American Idol" -- the TV show, not the president. On a recent broadcast, 24-year-old Curtis Finch Jr. of St. Louis auditioned. Finch is a tutor at a charter school. Before singing he said, "I'm a hard worker. I believe in perfecting my craft and I believe anything is possible no matter where you're from and no matter what you've been through." He then sang a Gospel song, "God is Able," and won a unanimous vote from the judges, which sent him through to the next round.

Someone in the Republican Party should call Finch and invite him to speak to Republican members of Congress. He has the right attitude. It is the supremacy of the individual not government that has made America the "idol" of the world.

Thomas quotes Rand on "collective" thought and its implications for American citizens. The following quotations from both the founding generation and others, including Lincoln, might be food for thought, considering the current state of the Republic:

1. "The first grand right is that of the people having a share in their own government by their representatives chosen by themselves, and...of being ruled by laws which they themselves approve, not by edicts of men over whom they have no controul...." - John Adams
2. "The next great right is that of trial by jury. This provides that neither life, liberty nor property can be taken from the possessor, until twelve of his...countrymen...shall pass their sentence upon oath against him."- John Adams
3. Adams called these two "popular powers...the heart and lungs...and without them," he said, "the body must die...the government must become arbitrary."
4. "Government is instituted to protect property of every sort....This being the end of government, that is NOT a just government,...nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has...is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest." - James Madison
5. "The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God...anarchy and tyranny commence. PROPERTY MUST BE SECURED OR LIBERTY CANNOT EXIST." - John Adams
6. "The first grand right is that of the people having a share in their own government by their representatives chosen by themselves, and...of being ruled by laws which they themselves approve....This is a bulwark surrounding and defining their property, which by their...labours they have acquired, so that no portions of it can be legally taken away from them but with their full and free consent." - Adopted by the Continental Congress-1774
7. "Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions." - James Madison-1792
8. "A right to property is founded in our natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings." - Thomas Jefferson-1816
9. "That a People should be taxed at the Will of another, whether of one Man or many, without their own Consent in Person or by Representative, is rank Slavery. For if their Superior sees fit, they may be deprived of their whole Property, upon any frivolous Pretext, or without any Pretext at all. And a People without Property, or in the precarious Possession of it, are in no better State than Slaves; for Liberty, or even Life itself, without the Enjoyment of them flowing from Property, are of no Value." - Boston Gazette-1765
10. "Property is the fruit of labor. Property is desirable, is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently to build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence....I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to acquire property as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. I don't believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good." - Abraham Lincoln
11. "No man would become a member of a community in which he could not enjoy the fruits of his honest labor and industry. The preservation of property, then, is a primary object of the social compact....The legislature, therefore, had no authority to make an act divesting one citizen of his freehold, and vesting it in another, without a just compensation. It is inconsistent with the principles of reason, justice, and moral rectitude; it is incompatible with the comfort, peace and happiness of mankind; it is contrary to the principles of social alliance in every free government; and lastly, it is contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution. - "Supreme Court-1795
12. " 'To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States': that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare.' For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. Congress are not to levy taxes, ad libitum, for any purpose they please: but only to pay the debts, or provide for the welfare of the union. In like manner, they are not to do any thing they please, to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase, not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they pleased. It is an established rule of construction [interpretation], where a phrase will bear either of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some meaning to the other parts of the instrument, and not that which will render all the others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straitly within the enumerated powers, and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect." - (Emphasis added) Thomas Jefferson-1791
13. "If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature...." - Thomas Jefferson-1787
14. "To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association--the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it." - Thomas Jefferson-1816
15. "There is not, of necessity, any such thing as the free hired labourer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men everywhere in these states, a few years back in their lives, were hired labourers. The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself; then labours on his own account for another while, and at length, hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just, and generous, and prosperous system which opens the way to all-- gives hope to all--and consequent energy, and progress, and improvement of condition to all." - Abraham Lincoln-1861
16. "I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people....' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition. The incorporators of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States, by the Constitution." - Thomas Jefferson-1791
17. "It has been urged and echoed, that the power 'to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States,' amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defence or general welfare...But what color can the objection have, when a specification of the objects alluded to by these general terms immediately follows, and is not even separated by a longer pause than a semicolon?...For what purpose could the enumeration of particular powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general power? Nothing is more natural nor more common than first to use a general phrase, and then to explain and qualify it by a recital of particulars. But the idea of an enumeration of particulars which neither explain nor qualify the general meaning, and can have no other effect than to confound and mislead, is an absurdity, which...we must take the liberty of supposing had not its origin (with the authors of the Constitution)." -James Madison-Federalist No. 41
18. "If we can prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy." - Thomas Jefferson
19. "The Utopian schemes of leveling [redistribution of wealth] and a community of goods [common ownership], are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the Crown. [These ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional." - Samuel Adams

Wouldn't it be great if some aspiring leader in the Republican Party could, and would, assert these basic principles which underlie the American Constitution as clearly and concisely as did these lovers of liberty?

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