Thus we see that our once severely limited federal government has taken into its hands three weapons which it has used unsparingly to change and distort the American Republic completely: (1) The income tax, (2) the vague, unlimited authority conferred on it by wholly new definitions of the "general welfare" and "interstate commerce" clauses of the constitution, and (3) a theory of endless borrowing and debt as a settled government policy. The machinery of our government was looked upon for 148 years as an agency of power to protect the people in their rights, but was also recognized as an instrument of power from which the people must be protected. This was done by recognizing the great powers of government residing in the state republics, while in the federal government the greatly limited powers delegated to it were divided among three independent instruments of government-the legislative, the executive and the judiCial. But that Republic has ceased to exist. At a superficial glance, it looks the same. The words in the Constitution, save in one case, are the same. The exception is the Income Tax Amendment giving the government unlimited authority to confiscate every man's income and spend it for him. But by a wholly lawless conspiracy between the President, the Congress and the Court, these words-clearly defined over and over for 148 years-have been endowed with wholly new meanings. The chief purpose of this has been to erect a massive central government possessing the power to plan and build and operate socialism in America. The vast and compulsive apparatus of government had been dismembered by our forefathers and its various parts entrusted to a variety of agencies, no one having in any dangerous degree sufficient power to oppress the citizen. Now that immense collection of machinery has been reassembled at the center, not by an amendment to the Constitution, but by the decisions of a group of judges who were put on the bench in a revolutionary maneuver to give to words in the Constitution wholly new meanings-meanings never dreamed of in the preceding 148 years. The great Republic of our fathers has ceased to exist at least for the time being. The state republics, indeed, remain. But the central government by a series of usurpations has assumed new and vast powers-so vast that the champions of this revolution insist that now the federal government has all the authority needed to organize and operate a socialist society.
From The Declione of the American Republic by John T. Flynn
Good read Dredd, thanks for the link. Nice reminder that 1.) the real socialization of America isn't a recent phenomenon, and 2.) both political parties have embraced it in varying degrees, albeit for apparently diametrically opposed reasons. My only reason for qualifying that remark is that it seems the Democrats have effectively surrendered their support of the weak and disenfranchised over the past 20 years, although they continue to still talk a good game.
I think its good to be reminded that socialism - in spite of all its kumbaya rhetoric, some of which is even truthful and well meaning - is just another (particularly effective) way for the powerful and well connected to further increase their stranglehold on public resources. Furthre, the fact that some or most of those powerful and well connected operate in the private sector for some or all of their careers makes the US brand of socialism no less corrosive than the Soviet Union's former version. To the contrary, the smoke screen thrown up by private sector interests openly operating as government agents makes it all the more effective for them, and all the more dangerous for the rest of us.
The looting of the Social Security "Trust Fund" is perhaps the most obvious example. Labeling it a trust fund in the first place was particularly ironic, since it was neither. Revenues were always merely a part of the US general fund, and went out the door immediately with all the rest, serving merely to minimize external borrowing for nearly all of the years it was collected. Now that the shell game has been revealed some 70 years later, and the eventual bankruptcy of both the trust funds and the US government itself have become apparent, wily politicians and appointees are already speaking in hushed tones of the eventual need for "entitlement reform," code word for complete or partial default on federal obligations. And to think, we thought the private sector was the only one playing these kinds of hijinks. As Stringer Bell said in The Wire,"Nicely done!"
Thus we see that our once severely limited federal government has taken into its hands three weapons which it has used unsparingly to change and distort the American Republic completely: (1) The income tax, (2) the vague, unlimited authority conferred on it by wholly new definitions of the "general welfare" and
ReplyDelete"interstate commerce" clauses of the constitution, and (3) a theory of endless borrowing and debt as a settled
government policy. The machinery of our government was looked upon for 148 years as an agency of power to protect the people in their rights, but was also recognized as an instrument of power from which the people must be protected. This was done by recognizing the great powers of government residing in the state republics, while in the federal government the greatly limited powers delegated
to it were divided among three independent instruments of government-the legislative, the executive and the judiCial. But that Republic has ceased to exist. At a superficial glance, it looks the same. The words in the Constitution, save in one case, are the same. The exception is the Income Tax Amendment giving the government unlimited authority to confiscate every man's income and spend it for him. But by a wholly lawless conspiracy
between the President, the Congress and the
Court, these words-clearly defined over and over for 148 years-have been endowed with wholly new meanings. The chief purpose of this has been to erect a massive central government possessing the power to plan and build and operate socialism in America. The vast
and compulsive apparatus of government had been dismembered by our forefathers and its various parts entrusted to a variety of agencies, no one having in any dangerous degree sufficient power to oppress the citizen.
Now that immense collection of machinery has
been reassembled at the center, not by an amendment to the Constitution, but by the decisions of a group of judges who were put on the bench in a revolutionary maneuver to give to words in the Constitution wholly
new meanings-meanings never dreamed of in the preceding 148 years. The great Republic of our fathers has ceased to exist at least for the time being. The state republics, indeed, remain. But the central government by
a series of usurpations has assumed new and vast powers-so vast that the champions of this revolution insist that now the federal government has all the authority needed to organize and operate a socialist society.
From The Declione of the American Republic by John T. Flynn
Comments next post.
Good read Dredd, thanks for the link. Nice reminder that 1.) the real socialization of America isn't a recent phenomenon, and 2.) both political parties have embraced it in varying degrees, albeit for apparently diametrically opposed reasons. My only reason for qualifying that remark is that it seems the Democrats have effectively surrendered their support of the weak and disenfranchised over the past 20 years, although they continue to still talk a good game.
ReplyDeleteI think its good to be reminded that socialism - in spite of all its kumbaya rhetoric, some of which is even truthful and well meaning - is just another (particularly effective) way for the powerful and well connected to further increase their stranglehold on public resources. Furthre, the fact that some or most of those powerful and well connected operate in the private sector for some or all of their careers makes the US brand of socialism no less corrosive than the Soviet Union's former version. To the contrary, the smoke screen thrown up by private sector interests openly operating as government agents makes it all the more effective for them, and all the more dangerous for the rest of us.
The looting of the Social Security "Trust Fund" is perhaps the most obvious example. Labeling it a trust fund in the first place was particularly ironic, since it was neither. Revenues were always merely a part of the US general fund, and went out the door immediately with all the rest, serving merely to minimize external borrowing for nearly all of the years it was collected. Now that the shell game has been revealed some 70 years later, and the eventual bankruptcy of both the trust funds and the US government itself have become apparent, wily politicians and appointees are already speaking in hushed tones of the eventual need for "entitlement reform," code word for complete or partial default on federal obligations. And to think, we thought the private sector was the only one playing these kinds of hijinks. As Stringer Bell said in The Wire,"Nicely done!"