Fifteen years before the Bill of Rights was added to the U.S. Constitution in 1791, the foundation of the American Republic was built on the most
radical idea in human history – that government exists to serve people - not
the other way around. This idea was brilliantly stated in the Declaration of
Independence on July 4th, 1776:
Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed
CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED are the four most important words
in American History. Although other governments have paid lip service to the people,
none has been formed from scratch, without the remnants of monarchy or other
old tyrannies, based on this principle. Unfortunately, the principle of consent
has been so widely confused and corrupted that today, it is no longer believed to be required by many Americans. This lack of
explicit consent by citizens is one reason why government today
is so large and invasive, regulating virtually every aspect of human behavior,
as an abusive parent dominates his children.
America’s Forgotten Courage
On July 4th, 1776, a handful of brave men openly
committed high treason to pledge - in their words ...our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor
to the cause of liberty. The Declaration of Independence was the
most important and unique political document in human history. It did not form
a new government, but simply rejected an existing one. 56 Americans signed the
Declaration of Independence. It is rumored that John Hancock, first to sign,
used a large, sweeping script so King George III could read it …without
his spectacles.
According to the Founders Almanac (Heritage Foundation,
2002), seventeen of the signers served in the military, five were captured by
the British during the war, some were killed, several had to move their
families repeatedly, many donated large sums of money never repaid and eleven
had homes and property destroyed. THESE, my friends, were patriots -
unlike the Red and Blue demagogues who pimp
for your votes today.
Remnants of Liberty’s Past
American governments today promise to give their most favored citizens - and others - almost anything, for “free.” Of course, government largesse is not really free.
Someone else has to pay for every dollar you receive from government – after it
skims half for itself. Gullible voters
continue to participate in the charade of political elections, in which candidates
selected by powerful elites compete to see how much of other people's money (forced by threat of imprisonment)
they can promise to their constituents, which now don't even have to be citizens. The most honest word for this is plunder.
Political elections pretend to demonstrate control of
government by the people, but one vote in 60 million or so every few years is
trivial compared to the daily influence that lobbyists and other power brokers
have on legislators and other government officials. Government by the people
today is actually government by special interests, whose private wants are
sold to a gullible public as needs. All you have to do is say
your private want is in the public interest, and politicians of
every stripe will stampede to sponsor a bill in your behalf. The trouble is,
this also works for every petty tyrant who wants to control every aspect of
your life, or force you to pay for his failures. After an income tax was
declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1894, the Constitution was amended
in 1913 to allow it (16th Amendment).
The Big “D”
The word democracy comes from the Greek demos, meaning
people, and kratien, meaning rule. Literally, democracy means people rule.
Today, however, democracy is a smokescreen to perpetuate the false idea that
citizens control government. To the chagrin of thinking and productive people
everywhere, the most democratic governments in the world today are controlled
by self-absorbed special interests, who successfully manipulate public servants
into believing their selfish agendas are somehow in the public interest. As a
card-carrying member of the American Communist Party told me in 1985,
communists believe the PUBLIC should own the means of production. No clearer
statement of the reality of modern politics in so-called democratic states
was ever made. It is not citizens who control today’s governments, but
lobbyists, who seduce your favorite politicians and
their minions for the 364 days in the year you are NOT voting. The idea that
pulling a lever in a voting booth once every two, four, or six years by one out
of five people to elect a public servant is citizen control of government is preposterous. BUT,
it is widely believed and promoted by those educated in government schools to
conform, not think.
It’s not democracy that creates prosperity, but freedom's productive
commerce.
The false promises of democratic government today are prosperity
without effort, freedom without responsibility and security
without risk. America, the cradle of liberty, has become the most
shining current example of lynch-mob collectives, led by dictatorial demagogues
from the Roosevelts, to Nixon, to Obama. It was Republican President Nixon (my Commander-in-Chief) who unconstitutionally - without serious
challenge - removed the last bit of gold backing from the dollar in 1971.
Galt's Gulch?
John Galt, the heroic figure in Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas
Shrugged,” figured the producers, workers and thinkers of the world could bring
governments, tyrants and agencies to a halt by simply withholding their
services. As America continues its destructive path of seemingly endless
consumption while inhibiting production, this may soon
be more realistic than you ever imagined.
Until Americans and other hard-working, independent and
productive people of the world can legally say “NO!” to the funding of
government, they will not be free, independent or “democratic.” In case you
were educated in government schools like most of us, you may not realize that America's
founding was not based on democracy, except for the House of
Representatives. The Constitutional Republic founded in 1787, modified by its
Bill of Rights in 1791, was a Republic, not a Democracy. This means
government limited to certain listed powers granted to it by the sovereign
people, who retain all rights not granted to government by the U.S. Constitution. This concept was
lost long before your grandparents were born, though it is still right there,
unchanged, in the Bill or Rights... especially Amendments IX (nine) and X (ten). Not
one word of the Bill of Rights (first ten Amendments) has ever been
changed.
Today, it is the height of arrogance, duplicity and insanity
that the President and every member of Congress, plus all other
federal and state officials, take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, while they implement unconstitutional programs faster than ever before.
It would be funny, if it were not so ironic - and tragic.
As the unfunded liabilities of the federal
government continue to bankrupt it, the Founding Fathers' vision of the
American Republic has been almost completely lost. About 40% of every dollar spent by the federal government today is borrowed. America transformed itself from the world's largest creditor, to the world's largest debtor, in a few decades.
Only by returning to government with limited powers focused on protecting its citizens instead of plundering them, will the productive spirit of the American Revolution return to its rightful place in history... and posterity. Until then, the worst among us will continue to abuse the U.S. Constitution, produce more and more unconstitutional laws, ignore the rule of law and continue America's century-long march down the road to fascism, toward its cousin socialism.
Only by returning to government with limited powers focused on protecting its citizens instead of plundering them, will the productive spirit of the American Revolution return to its rightful place in history... and posterity. Until then, the worst among us will continue to abuse the U.S. Constitution, produce more and more unconstitutional laws, ignore the rule of law and continue America's century-long march down the road to fascism, toward its cousin socialism.
In 1850, one of my favorite freedom thinkers in history -
Frenchman Frederic Bastiat, published a little book called THE LAW. I have said many
times, and continue to believe - that American government today is hopelessly
corrupt, violent and oppressive, because it has lost the original vision of its
Founders.
I hope you will read THE LAW to better understand the
point at which a government - like the one begun in America more than two centuries ago - goes beyond its legitimate purpose (to protect people
and property), to turn precious liberty into tyranny, as it has today.
This happens once the government and a minority of its citizens discover
that it is cheaper and easier to petition government for special favors
(Always at the expense of others by force), instead of promoting policies that
either benefit all, or are left to the private sector which produces ALL wealth.
“Make government what it ought to be, and it
will support itself.”
-Thomas Paine
