Death of a Republic
A republic
is a form of government that is characterized by adherence to foundational law
regardless of popular opinion. In a republic, there is a difference between democratic
law that can change depending on the simple-majority mood of the people or even
just a few politicians who decide to do whatever they want and foundational law
that is based on a super-majority of widely held core beliefs.
In the
United States of America, those core beliefs were instituted into the
foundational law of the republic through the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights. The Constitution provided the basic structure for our system of
government and the Bill of Rights provided guarantees to safeguard our liberties
and limit the power and growth of government.
After the
structure of the Constitution was drafted it was sent to the states for approval
because each state was independent and sovereign. The Constitution was not
imposed on the states; it was agreed to by the states. Before the states agreed
to adopt the Constitution they demanded a top ten list of basic protections
against tyranny. The Bill of Rights was that list and again was not imposed on
the states, but was a list of demands from the states for agreeing to the
Constitution. The Bill of Rights was specifically written to protect individual
people from tyranny and the Tenth Amendment specifically was written to protect
the sovereignty of the states. The states and the people came first, not the
federal government. That was the foundation of our republic.
In keeping
with the super-majority aspect of what was republic law, the requirement for
adopting the Constitution for the United States and our very union required
three fourths of the legislatures of the states to agree. Any future changes to
that foundational republic law required not only the same three fourths
ratification from the states, but two thirds of each branch of congress and or
the states just to open up an official constitutional convention to even begin
the process. That is how broad-based and widely accepted, and hard to change
that our foundational republic law was.
In keeping
with the simplicity of republic law, the entire Constitution was only about 8
pages (in a modern size 10 font) and some of the amendments in the Bill of
Rights were only one or two sentences long. That was the elegant fundamental
simplicity of basic God given rights and the reason why a republic form of
government was superior to all others. Almost anyone could understand and agree
to the old republic law.
That was then.
Today, politicians and their circus
performers in the media appeal not to the old republic laws, but to simply-majority
popularity to garner votes from a gullible public that has forgotten why our forefathers
declared their independence in the first place. Today’s democratic laws are not
vetted against the old republic laws and do not require the same standards of
wide acceptance to become law. A simple majority of 51% is all it takes. As a
result, it is much easier to pass new democratic laws. Today the government and
it’s lickspittles in the media pump the public for support of what they want
and pit once unified groups against each other. It is a brilliant way for the
government to manipulate the people and get what they want while at the same
time fooling the voting public into to thinking they have control over the government.
A special benefit here and a crisis there provide all the excuse needed to hit
the public up to vote for politicians who promise to “fix” things by way of more
laws that result in more authority for the government and less freedom for the
people.
Compare the
old republic law to the new health care law for example. It is over 2000 pages
(that is just one law folks). It is written in a language only lawyers
understand. It did not originate in the House as all revenue-generating (tax)
bills are constitutionally required. To top it off, all polls the entire year
it was being rammed through congress showed that the overwhelming majority of
people were opposed to it and more than half the states immediately sued the
federal government to stop it. The public’s opposition came too late. The bill was
passed in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve when congress was supposed
to have already gone home, but was forced to remain in session to pass the bill
before the newly elected congressman who opposed it could stop the foul thing. The
difference between the old foundational republic law requiring a super-majority
of support and that unconstitutional, politically-corrupt, simple-majority democratic
law is the difference between a secured freedom and tyranny.
That is where we are today. Now, one
bad law, even a blatantly unconstitutional one, doesn’t topple a healthy republic.
There were many bad and plainly unconstitutional democratic laws over the years.
This one though was the crowning achievement of politically-corrupt simple-majority
democratic law over the old republic because even the Supreme Court abandoned
the Constitution to place its official stamp of approval on that wicked law. There
are no checks and balances any more. The federal government has totally
abandoned republic law and the people voted for the politicians who made that
happen believing all the while that they were in control.
What developed in the United States of
America that sounded the death knell for the republic was apathy over what were
considered minor inconveniences by a population whose standards of living were
the highest in the world. No one cared when their liberties were infringed on
minor levels, because they had so much excess of freedom and wealth that they
barely noticed. Most people didn’t even realize they were losing their freedoms
with every little encroachment. They bought into the lie of a benevolent
government that only wanted to provide for their security or to help some poor
soul who was down on his luck, or to make the world fair by taking more money
from mean old rich people who didn’t need it anyway in their eyes. Worse, the people
stopped teaching their children about the old republic laws and why those
simple old beliefs were so important to the very fabric of society and their
future as well. Instead, they let simple-majority democracy and an arrogant sense
of entitlement sweep over the land and into law upon law upon unconstitutional
law.
Here are just a few recent examples of
the rise and triumph of simple-majority democratic laws over the old
foundational republic laws.
2005 – Supreme Court case 545 U.S. 469
Kelo vs. New London, CT
Verdict: The government, even a small
city government can condemn the land that has been in your family for
generations, seize it, and doesn’t even have to pay you fair market value for
it for no other reason than it wants the higher tax revenue it could get from
it were zoned for commercial use. Nothing you own is safe from government
seizure. The 5th amendment is now irrelevant.
2008/10 – Supreme Court case 554 U.S.
___ and 561 U.S. __ District of Columbia vs. Heller and McDonald vs. Chicago,
IL.
Verdict: You have the right to own a
gun to defend yourself… by a 5/4 margin. We are one judge away from losing the 2nd
amendment.
2010 – Supreme Court case 558 U.S. ___
Citizens United v.
Federal Election Commission
Verdict: You have the right to buy
advertising, publish a book, or just print a little political flyer to
distribute even within 60 days of an election… by a 5/4 margin. We are one
judge away from losing the first amendment.
2012 – Supreme Court case 567 U.S. ___
National Federation of Independent Businesses ET AL Petitioners vs. Kathleen
Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, ET AL (and several other
related cases)
Verdict: The government can force
private individuals to buy a private product or service from a private business
under penalty of IRS fines for non-compliance. The Chief Justice’ explanation
for allowing this tyranny was to take it upon himself to change the wording of
the law from penalty to tax. Your money is not your money and you have no
choice in how it is spent if the government says so and simply calls a penalty
a tax.
Ongoing: The TSA violates the 4th
amendment every day in cities all over the country by denying the right not to
be unreasonably searched or have your property seized without a warrant.
Ongoing: The National Defense
Authorization Act of 2012 authorizes (unconstitutionally of course) the
military to apprehend and detain any American citizen without charge, or access
to legal counsel indefinitely. The claim of national security is the excuse
that is used and we all want to get bad guys, but without requiring a warrant,
criminal charge, access to legal counsel, or any limit on how long they can
detain you, the government could literally come to your house and take you away
in the night without any explanation and no one would know what happened to
you. You have no expectation of freedom.
There are more examples, but the point
is that at the highest levels of government, old republic laws that were based
on wide acceptance and once even called divine rights from the Creator that had
stood for over two centuries became irrelevant. Simple-majority democracy took over
with each election cycle appealing to the smallest simple majority instead of the
highest and the government took advantage of this by increasing its power and
reducing individual freedoms on all fronts.
In 2008 America elected a person whose
own books describe how he chose to study under and associate himself with
Marxist professors. In 2008 America elected a man who chose to spend nearly 20
years attending a church where the political doctrine called Black Liberation
Theology Marxism was taught by a man he publically called his “spiritual mentor”.
In 2008 the American people elected a self proclaimed “community organizer” who
taught his ACORN workers to emulate the communist political tactics from Saul
Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals”. Now, after 4 years of Obama’s unconstitutional
executive orders, appointments of self proclaimed Socialist and even
Communists, and unconstitutional laws that have chillingly Orwellian implications,
the American public just re-elected him by a margin of 50.5% of the simple
majority popular vote. If the old republic has not completely died, it is surely
gasping for its last breaths.
We were warned about this in the early
1800’s by a French political historian who wrote a book called “Democracy in
America”. Consider the quotes below from it. Consider reading it. The only
solution now is to re-learn what we have forgotten and teach a new generation
how to revive a dead republic.
“The
American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the
people with their own money.” - Alexis
de Tocqueville
“A democracy
cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the
voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public
treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates
promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a
democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a
dictatorship." - Alexis de
Tocqueville
May God have mercy on us all.
