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by Jon Airheart
Dr. Phil intro:
Today in America, too many people are worried about the person next to them and fail to notice anything about themselves anymore. We love laws that tell our neighbor how to live, who they can live with, and what they can or can’t do. As a nation, we have forgotten that there is no such thing as a victimless crime. Reclaiming control of our lives and our government is dependent on this notion. The Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the right to pursue happiness. If your neighbor’s way of life angers you, deal with it. Until they infringe on your rights, they are living the American dream too. Exercising force through laws is not the answer. Some law may soon apply to you because of your other neighbor that disagrees with your lifestyle.
There are already over 6 million laws in existence. No one can be expected to read or remember them all. Unfortunately, criminals will always exist. By definition, only law-abiding citizens obey laws. The criminals we want to obey laws aren’t going to because, surprise, they’re criminals! As a result, there is less and less freedom in America today. Are we so ignorant to think all criminals and terrorists can be rid of with X amount of laws? It hasn’t happened yet. There are over 20,000 gun laws on the books in spite of the second amendment. Is 21,000 the magic number for no crime?
The four cities with the highest crime in America are Chicago, L.A., New York, and Washington, D.C. I bet you don’t know what they have in common other than being famous cities with large populations. All four have banned the possession of firearms. Who does the ban help: law-abiding citizens or criminals? Apparently we’ve outlawed evolution because outlaws are evolving. First there were witches on land and pirates at sea, then came tyrants, communists, and serial killers. And now its terrorists and snipers. We keep fighting and they keep evolving. Perhaps even more interesting is that we just write them off as kooks and never even attempt to analyze or question their motives to help us in our perpetual combat. Perhaps it is time for less control and laws, and more freedom and accountability. Or has that stubborn free spirit this nation was founded on been traded for a false sense of security and less tangible responsibility?
There is a misconception of where power comes from in the U.S. We the people have managed to go from the top of the totem pole when we INVENTED the U.S. government to the very bottom some 228 years later. We have forgotten our sovereignty. We are gum on the President’s shoe and, even worse, we don’t seem to care. 285 million people can’t (or don’t want to) control 535 Congressmen and Senators.
The people have rights and the government has privileges. Those privileges are granted by us and whenever we have the courage to, we can take them away. The same cannot be said of our rights, unless we elect people who think otherwise. Art. 1, Sec. 1 of the Constitution says, “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” Why then is the Justice Department – which is supposed to be enforcing and adjudicating laws – devising new ones? Checks and balances are all but gone. 21 federal agencies have been consolidated under the Department of Homeland Security, which is headed by Tom Ridge, who was appointed, not elected. The power to declare war was given to Congress, not the President. They do not have the authority to transfer that power. Why then, have they not declared war since WWII? We’ve certainly had “wars.”
There is a sincere lack of trust and personal responsibility right now in America. Trust is in reference to your neighbor. The common mentality is that the government knows best what to do today because your neighbor cannot be trusted. Personal responsibility is in reference to ourselves. We’re nosy and worried about everyone else. Too much has been made of community “rights,” which do not exist. Communities are abstract. They are always made up of individuals and individual rights always remain the same regardless of association. Community rights exist in a democracy and herein lies the danger. We are not a democracy; we are a constitutional republic. In a democracy, we vote on everything, and the majority wins. All rights, power and property are subject to negotiation. Not so in a constitutional republic. Rights and property are supreme. They simply cannot be voted away. The individual is the source of all political power and government exists solely to protect individual rights and property. This concept has been forgotten and perverted in America today. Accountability is apparently arbitrary and a strong case can be made that we are now working for OUR government. In the feudal system of England that we left, one third of everything belonged to the King. In some states today, the tax rate is significantly greater than that. And where is the outrage? Why should government change if no one is mad?
We, as a country, are either too busy or too lazy to pay attention to our servant government. What is the name of your state representative in Congress and name one thing he has voted on this year? Why should they work for an absentee boss? There is no incentive. If no one is around to enforce the rules and hold you accountable, why should you care about the rules? And that is what has happened. The rules have been rewritten and reinterpreted by the employee! The kids have tied up the babysitter. When, if ever, will the parents come home?
The situation has arisen due to a number of reasons. A fundamental change in our sovereign mentality occurred after the Great Depression. FDR came along and essentially told the public that they were too stupid to save for their own retirement. Americans, by this time, were questioning the old order in the wake of failure. Pride and determination were absent in Depression-era America. Who could offer an explanation and a solution? We were led to believe that the very concept of the wheel was flawed. Reinventing the wheel was not only welcome but desired. FDR stepped right in with a new version of socialism and bigger government. Father no longer knew best – the government did. The free market spirit of America had failed us… or had it?
What is so free market about the Federal Reserve, a private bank given a monopoly to inflate and manage the efforts of your labor? What’s free market about concentrated power and influence held by one unelected man, Alan Greenspan? We were the most prosperous nation in the world for 137 years without the Federal Reserve. The money supply changed hands under the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which was signed 2 days before Christmas. We remain the most prosperous nation in the world for only 16 years under the Federal Reserve System. As a nation, we forgot about the 137 years because the last 16 were fresh on our mind. The Federal Reserve Bank is unconstitutional itself because Art. 1, Sec. 8 gives Congress the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof – it does not give them the authority to give that power away to a private entity. Let’s say you hire a babysitter to watch your kids while you and your spouse go see a movie, and you come back to find a different babysitter you’ve never seen before. Are you going to be okay with this? We didn’t hire the Federal Reserve! We hired Congress. The 1913 dollar is worth 4 cents in today’s economy. This is only possible because of inflation. The Fed steals your buying power without actually stealing your physical money. But 4 years after the 1929 crash, instead of abolishing the Federal Reserve like we probably should have, FDR confiscated all privately owned gold. No one thought twice about it or spoke out despite the fact that government confiscation of anything is completely antithetical to the Constitution. FDR rewarded the Fed rather than respecting a Constitutional gold standard. An ounce of gold bought you a suit of clothes in 1900 and it still buys you a suit of clothes today, despite its different value in dollars. It is inflation-proof currency because there is a finite amount of it in the world.
The independent spirit of America was broken and FDR’s ideas of dependence on government were the wrong alternative at the right time. Where in the Constitution does it say that it’s the government’s responsibility to take care of the people? No where! The concept of Social Security was invented by Otto von Bismark, Hitler’s accountant.
The proverbial “ball” just kept on rolling. The government got bigger, the Department of Education was created, wars kept happening, executive orders were issued, a draft was instituted, the dollar became worth less and less, the tax burden gradually rose and a minor revolution took place in the 60s. It was not a successful revolution, politically speaking. People desired individual freedom once again but had lost faith in the traditional processes of political change. A new political party arose from this newfound spirit: The Libertarian Party. Right around this time, government proved that it did not know best when it came to the Vietnam War.
We have clearly abdicated much personal responsibility and political power to those we put in power. We are seemingly content to work for them. It is to the point where we couldn’t really take an interest if we wanted to. Families are working more and more to save against a rapidly inflating dollar and to keep up with incremental tax hikes. When we finally get a rare break, politics sure aren’t on our mind. Living life is on our mind. It’s either time to relax and do nothing or time to go on vacation with the family. Then back to work. We never stop to ask how we got into the situation. Sometimes we get mad but most of the time we are just used to it. How is change going to come about when the poor are still poor, the rich are generally happy with the status quo (because they were smart enough to beat the odds) and the affected middle class just barely scrapes by paycheck to paycheck? The inefficient bureaucracy we have created costs us so much that there is no money left to mount a financial opposition. “Power of the purse” applies to Congress, not us. They have all the money. All we have left is the vote.
Despite the preceding case made for socialism running rampant in the country, people refer to the free market and, once again, mistakenly blame the Constitution for the ills of today. The “free” market is suffocating under government regulations. Just ask any small business owner. Meanwhile, McDonald’s and WAL-MART get tax breaks and subsidies from the government. Few know this and those who do love to blame the corporations instead of the government sanctions. Airlines get bailouts all the time when business is down, now and prior to 9/11. No one asks why they are being rewarded for failure.
The fabric of our very lives is extremely burdened and we may seek another alternative soon. It is imperative to keep an eye out for the next FDR and beware of empty rhetoric from those we have given the blank check to. The GOOD news is that you cannot repeal the first ten amendments. Technically, they can, but do those rights go away? The rights didn’t come from a piece of paper, so burning or altering it doesn’t matter. The proof is in the Declaration of Independence that talks about rights endowed by their creator being unalienable. The BAD news is that the “chains” of the Constitution are worthless without a lock on the chain. Well, who or what represents the lock? Once again it’s we the people. The chain is failing because the lock is missing.
You cannot protect your rights unless you know what they are. Ignorance really is bliss. We are not mad because very few realize how bad it is. Very few know what rights of theirs are being violated. We have traded our rights for government privileges. Everyone knows what a driver’s license is. Everyone knows what a marriage license is. Everyone knows what a concealed carry permit is. Everyone knows what a metal detector is. But who knows what the second and fourth amendment say? The ninth or tenth? Since the majority doesn’t care about its rights, why should the government? The oath they take on the Constitution is a mere formality. Why should they abide by an unenforced oath? What repercussions are there for violating the Constitution? We have to cross our fingers for the Supreme Court to come through because we the people no longer know the Constitution that WE WROTE!