Forwarded for Crestonave:
The Arrogance of Power
from Sovereign Society
Dear A-Letter Reader:
In 1945, when I was eight years old, my mother, ("Flossie" her siblings called
her), died after a prolonged battle with cancer. My father remarried and I,
disciplinary problem that I had become, was promptly sentenced to three years
at Fork Union Military Academy in deepest rural Virginia. It was an unexpected
Godsend, teaching me a small degree of self-control, self-reliance, how to
shine my own shoes and make my own bed -- and a lot about Virginia history.
In fact, in the 5th grade we were taught a whole semester of Virginia history.
I even visited nearby Thomas Jefferson's beautiful Monticello and have returned
several times since. Later I made a point of going to Montpelier in Orange,
Virginia, the home of James Madison, the fourth President of the United States
(1809-1817), where he and his beloved Dolley are buried. At 5'4", Madison was
the shortest president, (3 inches shorter than me), but he undeniably had one
of the best brains to ever grace the American presidency. (Where are such
leaders these days?!)
Madison, rightly called the "architect of the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights," also was one of the authors of the Federalist Papers. My friend, David
Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute
(http://www.cato.org<http://www.cato.org/> ) and author of Libertarianism: A
Primer , last year described Madison as " the principal author of the US
Constitution who sought to establish a limited federal government. In arguing
for its ratification, he promised Americans, 'The powers delegated by the
proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.' A few
years later, faced with a bill appropriating $15,000 for the relief of French
refugees, Congressman Madison rose on the floor of the US House to say that he
could not 'undertake to lay [his] finger on that article in the Federal
Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of
benevolence, the money of their constituents.'"
Ignoring that very principle of limited government is why the Republicans will
probably lose control of Congress in the 2006 elections. As David Boaz noted:
"For years, Republicans argued that the Democratic majority in Congress was
intruding the federal government into more and more matters best left to the
states, the local communities, or the private sector. After 10 years in power,
however, the Republicans have seen the Democrats' intrusiveness and raised
them."
As David observed, "Republicans have come down with a serious case of Potomac
Fever. They believe that their every passing thought is a proper subject for
federal legislation. They hold three-ring-circus hearings on steroids in
baseball. They sharply increase the fines for alleged indecency on television.
They hold hearings on whether college textbooks are too expensive. They vote
for a federal investigation of the video game 'Grand Theft Auto.'" Not to
mention the billions in national debt, an unfunded expansion of Medicare that
will costs more billions, and the most serious curtailment of our civil
liberties since the Civil War.
As David says, many of these legislative gambits do target real annoyances and
even real problems. But in a free society citizens don't turn to the national
government to solve every problem. Indeed, a free society is measured by the
amount of life that remains outside the control of government. We may all be
tempted from time to time to say "There oughta be a law!" when we're angry or
frustrated. That's why James Madison and the other Founding Fathers gave us a
Constitution -- to protect us from our own temptations to turn our exasperation
into laws, and to protect us from our fellow citizens yielding to the same
temptation.
Republicans took control of Congress in 1994 by declaring that Democrats had
given us "government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the
public's money." Now, intoxicated with their own power, they have forgotten
those words. They too use the powers of the federal government to lavish money
on favored constituents, summon us before congressional hearings to explain
ourselves, and intrude into our most local and personal decisions.
So much for Madison's hopeful promise that those powers "delegated by the
proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined." I would
hope this great president lies at rest at Montpelier, but if the old cliché is
true, he may be "spinning in his grave."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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