The Consent of the Governed

Knowing that the 111th Democrat-Progressive ruled Congress is indeed tyrannical in its endeavors to ram through ObamaCare, the Left continuously touts that the American people want this bill. Now, I have seen the polls and so have you, and so have the Democrats, including Obama, and they clearly know that they American people are vehemently against this healthcare takeover.

This leads me to my next point. I search through our Founder’s words in the Declaration of Independence. I’m searching for guidance, for the Founders must have known there would be tyranny lurking at every corner to deconstruct the nation that they had instituted. So many of us read the founding documents today, dusting them off, reading every word, clinging to every word. And there it is:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. emphasis mine

What’s missing is the how. We have the Right. But, does it go further?  An obligation, perhaps? Do the Founders leave the door open to any effective means? The people have the Right to abolish an oppressive form of government. Because we do not consent, we have the Right to institute a new government–to abolish all that exists and start new. All the entitlements, bribes, kickbacks, deals, unfair taxation–everything.  They give Americans the Right, directive, and ability to dissolve the current tyrannical government.  They knew this would happen.  That is why they give us the “Right” to guard this great nation against future tyranny.

In addition, our Founders, as only Fathers could to, give us the directive in the Declaration of Independence:

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. emphasis mine

It is our duty to ”throw off such government.” Not optional.  An obligation.

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Tags: Anita Dunn, Blue dogs, Cass Sunstein, consent of the governed, executive power
Posted Mar 15th 2010 at 1:21 pm in Uncategorized | 89050234 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2010/03/15/the-consent-of-the-governed/The+Consent+of+the+Governed2010-03-15+20%3A21%3A54SusanAnne+++Hiller

Our Time for Choosing

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.  We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

Ronald Reagan spoke these words some forty-six years ago in his famous “A Time for Choosing” speech.  Tragically, today in America it appears the time for choosing is fast passing. As each day goes by our debt grows more untenable; our security more imperiled; our economy more shackled; our government more tyrannical.

These are symptoms of an America that has chosen the wrong path.  We lost our way on the road to civilization, veering onto the road to serfdom. Our plight is the result of a hundred-plus year campaign by the socialist sophists to slowly but surely undermine the bedrock principles on which we had built our strength.

While the ends of a nation are peace, prosperity and culture, from our founding there was a dichotomy of opinion as to how best to achieve these ends.  It was not merely a matter of state versus federal or small versus big government.  Rather, at its core the split rested and continues to rest upon embracing liberty or embracing tyranny.

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Tags: Cold War, Constitution, founding fathers, Frédéric Bastiat, Islamism
Posted Feb 15th 2010 at 5:51 am in Congress, Culture, Featured Story, History, Justice/Legal, Politics, Tea Party, federal spending | 74866151 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amellon/2010/02/15/our-time-for-choosing/Our+Time+for+Choosing2010-02-15+13%3A51%3A50Andrew+Mellon

Is the GOP Worthy of Governance?

The Democrat Party’s “40 year majority” will come to a close 38 years early. The unbearable trinity of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama has managed to alienate a nation desperate to support new leadership. They accomplished this by an insistence on unwanted quasi-Socialist policies and an irritating propensity to lead with their chin in foreign policy. The era of Obama is over, even as his Health Care proposal will likely pass. But does this mean a new era of Republican leadership is about to begin? This remains to be seen.

Peggy Noonan, a former Reagan speechwriter who supported Obama, has views similar to many who consider themselves centrist. She now realizes her support for Barack Obama was misguided. Yet she is tempted to take a “pox on both your houses” approach. She remains skeptical of the Republican Party, as I imagine many voters do. In her recent opinion essay in the Wall Street Journal she states:

“The question isn’t whether they’ll win seats in the House and Senate this year, and the question isn’t even how many. The question is whether the party will be worthy of victory, whether it learned from its losses in 2006 and ‘08, whether it deserves leadership. Whether Republicans are a worthy alternative. Whether, in short, they are serious.”

I had grown weary of many of Ms. Noonan’s commentaries. Her support for Obama was predicated on an obvious misunderstanding of his politics, nature, and ideology. But her implicit challenge to the GOP is spot on. While the critique premised in her comment is not completely fair, without question Republicans are viewed with skepticism. After all, it was a Republican administration which brought us bailouts, supported expansionary and unsustainable housing policies, expanded domestic spending, proposed an immigration policy as unpopular as the Democrat’s current Health Care Bill and made “earmarks” a household name. Worst of all, the party seemed to lose any sense of foundational principles. Just what do Republicans stand for?

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Tags: Barack Obama, first principles, founding fathers, founding principles, Harry Reid
Posted Jan 18th 2010 at 1:16 pm in Obama, Politics | 61430236 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mrulle/2010/01/18/is-the-gop-worthy-of-governance/Is+the+GOP+Worthy+of+Governance%3F+2010-01-18+21%3A16%3A27Michael+S.+Rulle+Jr.

Fall of the Wall: The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance

Twenty years ago today, a figurative and literal tear appeared in the once seemingly impenetrable Iron Curtain–the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.  Soon after, millions of East Germans and others under Soviet domination would rise up and demand their freedom.

That day, November 9, 1989, will be remembered forever as one of the greatest in the history of human liberty.  Throughout the East Bloc, communism would begin to fall.  Millions would begin to experience political and social freedom for the first time. Families, separated for nearly 30 years would be reunited. And, throughout Eastern Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall would create an opportunity to expose communism’s violent and merciless legacy.

In the United States, though, the anniversary will pass with barely a mention.  With a few noteworthy exceptions (see here and here), the American media has treated the event as an opportunity to praise Mikhail Gorbachev, condemn the West, and lament the coming of crony capitalism in Russia.

Not wanting to let the opportunity pass, some of my colleagues at the Competitive Enterprise Institute have produced a short video commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall .

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Tags: Berlin Wall, east berlin, eastern europe, freedom fighters, Iron Curtain
Posted Nov 9th 2009 at 12:37 pm in Culture, History | 2765814 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/gconko/2009/11/09/the-price-of-liberty-is-eternal-vigilance/Fall+of+the+Wall%3A+The+Price+of+Liberty+is+Eternal+Vigilance2009-11-09+19%3A37%3A04Gregory++Conko

The Fall of the Wall Didn’t Kill the Left: They’re Back and Attacking Us Again

From the Daily Mail:

The collapse of communism was actually a slow-burning process. Its moral and political bankruptcy became obvious decades before that glorious Berlin day in November 1989

Twenty years ago today, supporters of freedom and human rights cheered and wept for joy as the Berlin Wall was torn down by jubilant young Germans.

To so many, that heady day seemed to herald the emergence of a better world. The spectre of communism had finally been laid to rest. Liberty had triumphed over tyranny.

The end of the Cold War even led some to proclaim that this was ‘the end of history’  -  which was to say that liberal democracy was now the dominant and unchallengeable force in the world.

However, the 9/11 attacks on America tragically proved this to be absurdly over-optimistic. The eruption of radical Islamism revealed that, while the West may have been rid of one enemy in the Soviet Union, another deadly foe had risen to take its place. So much is, sadly, all too evident. (more…)

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Tags: 9/11, Berlin Wall, communism, liberty, Soviet Union
Posted Nov 8th 2009 at 11:50 pm in Politics | 2756619 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/11/08/daily-mail-we-were-fools-to-think-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-had-killed-off-the-far-left-theyre-back-and-attacking-us-from-within/The+Fall+of+the+Wall+Didn%27t+Kill+the+Left%3A+They%27re+Back+and+Attacking+Us+Again2009-11-09+06%3A50%3A01Publius