Posted on 03/12/2014 4:07:05 AM PDT by Kaslin
What kind of rules should govern our lives? I'd argue that the best rules are those that we'd be satisfied with if our very worst enemy were in charge of decision-making. The foundation for such rules was laid out by my mother. Let's look at it.
My mother worked as a domestic servant. That meant that my younger sister and I often lunched at home by ourselves during our preteen years. Being bigger and stronger than my sister, I seldom divided the food evenly, especially the desserts. After a tiring day at work, Mom would be greeted by sob stories from my sister about my lunchtime injustices. Mom finally became fed up with the sibling hassles. She didn't admonish me to be more caring, fair, sensitive and considerate. She just made a rule: Whoever cuts the cake (pie, bread, meat, etc.) allows the other the first selection. With that new rule in place, you can bet that when either my sister or I divided food, it was divided equally.
You say, "That's a nice story, Williams, but what's the point?" The point is that the principle underlying Mom's rule is precisely the kind that is necessary for rules to promote fairness. In general, the rules that we should want are those that promote fairness, whether it's our best friend or it's our worst enemy who's the decision-maker. In the case of Mom's rule, it didn't make any difference whether I hated my sister's guts that day or she hated mine or whether my sister was doing the cutting or I was; there was a just division of the food.
Think for a moment about rules in sports, say basketball. One team loses, and the other wins, but they and their fans leave the stadium peacefully and most often as friends. Why? The game's outcome is seen as fair because there are fixed, known, neutral rules evenly applied by the referees. The referees' job is to apply the rules -- not determine the game's outcome. Imagine the chaos and animosity among players and fans if one team paid referees to help it win or the referees were trying to promote some kind of equality among teams.
Billions of dollars and billions of hours are spent campaigning for this or that candidate in our national elections. You can bet that people are not making those expenditures so that politicians will uphold and defend the Constitution; they're looking for favors. The Constitution's framers gave us reasonably fair and neutral rules of the game. If our government acted, as the framers intended, as a referee or night watchman, how much difference would it make to any of us who occupies the White House or Congress? It would make little difference, if any. It would be just like our basketball game example. Any government official who knew and enforced the rules would do. But increasingly, who's in office is making a difference, because government has abandoned its referee and night watchman function and gotten into the business of determining winners and losers. Unfortunately, for our nation, that's what most Americans want.
Thomas Paine said, "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil." Our Bill of Rights is an explicit recognition of the Founding Fathers' distrust of Congress. Just look at its language, with phrases such as "Congress shall not abridge," "shall not infringe," "shall not deny," "disparage" and "violate." If the framers did not believe that Congress would abuse our God-given, or natural, rights, they would not have used such language. If, after we die, we see anything like the Bill of Rights at our next destination, we'll know that we're in hell. To demand such protections in heaven would be the same as saying we can't trust God.
What difference does this matter.
After the abdication of the EXEMPT, hated Congress,
the undocumented Tyrant from Indonesian became
KING and EMPEROR.
The only rights that are fully respected is the prohibition of quartering troops in private homes, and the right to defense counsel.
The 2A is kinda, sorta respected. Why? It isn't because congress doesn't wish to relieve us of our guns.
The 2A is grudgingly accepted because there are organizations that will make electoral life uncomfortable for our congressional dirtbags.
My larger point is that written constitutional rules, like local speeding laws are but “parchment barriers,” (James Madison) and worthless unless there are institutions to enforce them.
Prior to 1913, a senate of the states provided this security. There is zero chance we'll possibly see freedom's restoration until the horrible 17th Amendment is repealed.
^^^^ Roger that. ^^^^
This is really great. Thanks for posting it.
Yup.
“What difference does this matter.
After the abdication of the EXEMPT, hated Congress,
the undocumented Tyrant from Indonesian became
KING and EMPEROR.”......
“Looks like Kaslin’s got that covered”.
Walter Williams is a treasure!
America is the first country in the world to be founded on the concept of Rule of Law vs. Rule of Man.
That concept has been under vicious attack by those who prefer the Rule of Man since before the Constitution was signed.
Essentially, the Founding Fathers spit in the eye of 5,000 years of world history — at the time of the US founding, there were ZERO, ZIP NADA countries that were not monarchies; ALL of them were governed by the Monarchs who believed in the Rule of Man.
America had to be destroyed, because Rule of Law renders null and void the prevalent governments of the world Rule of Man practices.
IMHO, Ophonybama is doing the work of the Rule of Man tyrants in turning America into a country ruled by man.
I urge you to read “The 5000 Year Leap” by W. Cleon Skousen for a full discussion.
Many Americans HAD hope for EXEMPT Issa’s committee
and EXEMPT SCOTUS, but like the EXEMPT US Congress,
they abdicated their Oaths to crime and their love
for the adoring spotlight of the State-run-MSM.
How many have NEEDLESSLY been hurt, robbed, raped or killed
by the Tyrant, his party, the supporting RINOs,
and the RINOs’ own similar self-serving statism??
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