Thursday, August 23, 2012

Constitution 101: Constitutional Crisis


There are some very serious issues at stake in this year's election -- so many that some people may not be able to see the forest for the trees. Individual issues are the trees, but the forest is the future of America as we have known it. The America that has flourished for more than two centuries is being quietly but steadily dismantled by the Obama administration, during the process of dealing with particular issues. For example, the merits or demerits of President Obama's recent executive order, suspending legal liability for young people who are here illegally, presumably as a result of being brought here as children by their parents, can be debated pro and con. But such a debate overlooks the much more fundamental undermining of the whole American system of Constitutional government. The separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial branches of government is at the heart of the Constitution of the United States -- and the Constitution is at the heart of freedom for Americans.
We the People are facing a serious choice this election year. The major problems we face today are because those that operate OUR government over several decades have ignored or circumvented the Constitution of the United States and its amendments. The separation of powers is dissolving, and the Supreme Court legislates from the judicial bench. Supreme Court justices disregard their oath of office, relying upon foreign laws and political, special interest group in making their decisions. The justices make decisions upon what they perceive the articles of the Constitution implies, despite clear definitions. An example would be the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Tenth amendments. For decades, state governments have been allowed to deny Second Amendment rights to American citizens through state laws that are clearly unconstitutional. We the People are just as guilty as the politicians are because we have allowed them to manipulate us with the help of the media networks that use misinformation, bias and nonobjective information reporting. The people lost the freedom of choice via the media and politicians who do not limit the powers of government, as well as giving those choices away for promises of what government control can do.
Beginning with the FDR administration where F.D. Roosevelt stated hi his Commonwealth Club address:
The task of statesmanship has always been the redefinition of these rights in terms of a changing and growing social order.
“Social order” is a key phrase that comes from the philosophy of Karl Marx and to say that the Constitution must be “redefined” is an illusion, for the Founders were wise enough to create a constitution designed to apply to changes that occur as time progresses. In terms of social changes, the Founders knew that if society allowed the standards of family and social values, diluted and ignored, so then the Constitution is null and void. John Adams wrote in 1778:
The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families... In vain are Schools, Academies, and Universities instituted, if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children in their earliest years ... The vices and examples of the parents cannot be concealed from the children. How is it possible that children can have any just sense of the Sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their mothers live in habitual infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant infidelity to their mothers?
We the People are not in contract with our government to be afforded rights and liberties as FDR alluded, contradictory to the basis of the Declaration of Independence”
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
Whether or not one believes in Creationism or that life began in a primordial soup – the gist of this statement applies.
It took a civil war to exercise those words into literal common truth that all men are created equal, and the emancipation of slaves and women’s rights were established in lawful equality.
The word unalienable is not conducive to any “contract” – for rights and liberties fall under natural law of humanity. Those self-evident concepts are never changing. Alexander Hamilton wrote:
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of divinity itself …
F.D. Roosevelt claimed that the fundamental change was that you have property because the government allows it, which is not what the Founders established. BH Obama recently stated that if it were not for government aid businesses would exist. Both presidents, and some between, advocate Rule of the Mob instead of Rule of Law.
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves of its good disposition. Thomas Jefferson (1785)
Therefore, We the People have a definitive choice between two major political philosophies, of which both established political parties have transgressed against the system of the American republic, as well as the meaning and purpose of the Constitution of the United States and its amendments – based upon the principles of the Declaration of Independence. When during the Course of events means that truth applies anytime and anywhere.
This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Henry Lee, 1825

Our problems and issues we face today have accumulated over decades, and they are not resolved because those we elect continue making the same mistakes in different ways.
In the Constitution of the United States, the limitation of powers is clear, as well as the separation of those powers. The Fifth Amendment:
No person shall be …. deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
The articles of the Constitution place limitation upon government for important reasons – and those fundamental reasons NEVER are outdated, and those that state differently have ulterior motives or have been corrupted by other political philosophies.
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. --John Adams (1770)

Limitation of government is clear in the Declaration of Independence, which lists grievances that established the content of the articles of the Constitution. Sovereignty and individual liberties were established and governments, necessary for a nation to survive, are elected By the People to represent all citizens of the United States; and that sovereignty and those rights supersede any claims of foreign people and their governments. That includes the world-body organization called the United Nations.
James Madison, Federalist #51:
But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
Equality does not mean that all of us are physically equal in appearance or abilities; but equal in sense of the law, as well as rights and liberties – each of us having the freedom of choice as long as those choices do not transgress against the rights and liberties of others. Along with freedom of choice comes the responsibility to accept the consequences of those choices.
Members and supporters of the Democrat Party, as well as those who belong/support to the Republican Party use the word fairness often. Their concept of fairness is providing special interest groups and minorities, rights and liberties that supersede rights of others.
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801

This essay presents the foundation of making choices, and the choice between political philosophies that have divided our nation unified in the form of a republic that is now past the crossroad toward the political philosophy of democratic-socialism versus a constitutional republic. It is a choice between truth and illusion, individual freedom versus the illusion of fairness of collectivism. It is a battle between the natural law of standards that promote family unity, individual freedom, and civilized values with government control of every facet of an individual’s life and annulment of rights and liberties established by the founding Americans.
If you do not exercise your right to vote and do not vote in a free choice and responsible manner – you are subject to the whims of others who vote and those who side with those whose agenda is to destroy the American republic, Rule of Law, and natural law. Primary elections are an important process that determines who will campaign in the final election for office – yet not enough Americans participate. Those that do participate rely upon the media bias and misinformation in making their decisions, as well as the demand of the political establishment that is behind the issues and problems we continually face with no problems solved. One cannot expect change if We the People, and those we elect, continue on the same path that created those problems - making the same mistakes will not change anything.
Politicians gauge their effectiveness by how much legislation voted upon instead of the quality and constitutionality.
We the People must educate ourselves in the concept and workings of the Constitution and its related documentation in order to be responsible voters and keep tabs upon those elected. Government-controlled educational institutions cannot be relied upon to do this, for they are constantly changing the rules and weakening the basis of constitutional law. The Internet provides a great ability to achieve self-education, and it can be at no cost, just the time it takes to learn. Hillsdale College offers just such course programs, only asking for a $50 voluntary donation. Constitution 101 and Constitution 201 are available.
Too many legislators serving in Congress are not qualified in the respect of knowledge of constitutional law, its background and concepts.  Indeed, too often they do not read and analyze bills brought to the floor for vote, relying upon information from others or just support it because others of their political party do.
Thomas Jefferson and other founders, strongly believed that the People of any nation must be educated and knowledgeable, emphasizing the advantage of a classical education.
Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates ... to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them. John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776


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