Harold Myerson gazes upon our gridlocked government and asks, “Did the Founding Fathers Screw up?”
The short answer is, “No, you dimwit. They planned it this way!” I do feel ashamed lecturing my elders, but it is so true that there’s no fool like an old fool.
Scratch a progressive, and you will find a goose-stepping totalitarian just below the surface
The current impasse between the Republican House and the Democratic president and Senate has only highlighted what is a chronic—indeed, constitutional—condition: Just as the American people have a bias for action, the American government has a bias for stasis. […] Much of the developing world now sees China and its model of capitalist authoritarianism as more efficient than the creaky workings of democracy. (The American Prospect – Harold Myerson)That’s the way our government was designed to function, Harold. I know lefty statists like you look longingly towards China, admiring the virile collectivizing of their slave workers and making the trains run on time, but their per capita GDP barely ekes out Turkmenistan, with economic marvels Angola and The Cook Islands still outpacing them.
Bold action in the lives of the citizenry should spring from the citizenry, not a government politburo. This is America!
Meyerson bemoans the fact that “national consensus” is so difficult. Again, that is by design. Our founders set up a non-authoritarian government that was supposed to point itself outward, taking care of the big stuff and international issues so the states and the people could reign sovereign over their own lives. The federal government now bristles with horrible tools and instruments of opression pointed inward, demanding we march lock-step to its tune.
Those who look towards DC and shout “Do Something!” haven’t been paying attention. Look around you! And behold the Feral Government’s handiwork. They did a whole lot of somethings, tens of trillions worth, and they don’t have the money to pay for it.
“Do Nothing!” Should be the command. Or at least we should put DC in time out until each regulator, bureaucrat and politician has read the US Constitution and understands the concept of enumerated powers and limited government.
I thank God we have the constitutional bulwark of checks and balances. FDR breached them, after cousin Teddy, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson sapped the foundations, and we are worse off because of it. Progressive rats and cockroaches have weakened out constitution with a million nibbles and snarks, but it still survives, albeit in a weakened state.
If you think things are bad now, could you imagine the North Korean horror show this nation would now be if the progressives had their complete control to impose their twisted, liberty-hating will? We’d be living in crowded city centers eating arugula, our automobiles confiscated, while the cognoscenti continued to enjoy their country manors, large carbon footprints and jet-set lifestyles.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely executed for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." ~ C.S. Lewis
32 comments:
Our Founders deliberately designed our political process so that it would not run fast. They wanted our elected public servants to consider matters carefully. Can you imagine what they would have said to Nancy Pelosi's statement "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what's in it." I rather imagine that our Founders would have broken with their usually respectful language and called Pelosi what she is.
Indeed, our Founders delayed a long time before writing and signing the Declaration of Independence.
If the individual mandate of Obamacare is found to be constitutional, our form of American federalism is done and would bit and divide the nation even more to the point of where we haven't been in over 100 years.
Nice post. We have had Constitution-hater in this country for a long, long time, but only now are we realizing it.
When you read the stuff Col. House (the brains behind W. Wilson) wrote, it really shocks you. And when you follow him and his ilk through 20th century history, everything about how we got here starts to make more since.
“No, you dimwit. They planned it this way!”
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Well, once the slavery thing got taken care of.
Yeah, they saw the developments of two centuries all laid out and had the perfect plan to deal with it. Let fifteen or so states with a combined population less than New York City control 30% of the Senate PLUS a bonus in electoral votes. Freaking brilliant.
People still haven't figured ot the second amendment.
The hyperbole of comparing progressivism to North Korea is a piece of blatant stupidity. Someone should dig up C. S. Lewis and tell him that progressives desire the health of the organism for the benefit of all citizens and the robber baron NEVER sleeps.
“Do Nothing!” unless it means screwing the pooch for ten years and counting in Afghanistan and working up the proles so they piss themselves every time they see a Muslim or hear the letters "WMD".
Gotta keep those defense profits rolling. After all, defense and just moving bets around on Wall Street is the foundation of the economy.
The Founders saw at that, however.
Bore me later.
We’d be living in crowded city centers eating arugula, our automobiles confiscated, while the cognoscenti continued to enjoy their country manors, large carbon footprints and jet-set lifestyles.
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That;s called The Full Ayn Rand and its the logical outcome of unfettered Libertarianism. Remember, Ayn's philosophy, even down to her Soviet realism aesthetics, had a great deal in common with Marxism.
Ayn just changed the name of the Politburo.
So we just need more centralized government, right Ducky?
Gotta get those proles marching in lockstep!
Right?
And thank you for pointing up more big government failures due to ignoring the constitution:
Starting foreign wars and failing to impartially police the free market place are two huge areas where the bloated federales have proved themselves either incompetent or beholden to special interests instead of the American people.
Can you imagine a committee (government) deciding they could improve upon the "Mona Lisa". That's what the progressives have tried to do with our constitution.
@ Ducky: and the robber baron NEVER sleeps.
Yeah! Lowering the price of coal oil so poor people could light their modest homes at night sure was a dastardly deed.
Man, I had always been a huge fan of CS Lewis but never heard this quote....when the Left wakes up to their myriad forms of tyranny, maybe we'll be America again.
Impartially police the free market (LMFAO)?
That would be a benefit, we agree.
Of course what the political system is offering (there is no right/left any longer) is The Pizza Man who would have the regulatory boards staffed by the regulated industries. I don't know why Herman "Extra Cheese" thinks that isn't being done effectively now.
Ducky, I agree with you on Cain. The man scares me. However you argument that Libertarianism is another form tyranny is insane.
It always amazes me that liberals think that they are our moral superiors and "guardians" of the Constitution.
They are not our moral superiors. They are our inferiors.
As for the constitution, they would love to get rid of that inconvenient document.
These angry self styled progressives seem to want to live vicariosly through the exploits of the 60's radicals whom they've only read and heard about. It won't be until there is a complete cultral and social breakdown and they find themselves herded along with the rest of us into an intolerable existence. These very clods who protest the constitution which most certainly they have never read or studied but still want to burn it deserve what is coming down the pike. Surely they will cry the loudest while breaking rocks for their daily bread and watered down gruel with the hair lice that fell in while they scratched their heads trying to figure if it is better to eat the poops or die of starvation; a far cry from the food stamps and welfare they enjoy today. These fools will provide excellent cannon foddder for their socialist masters.
"they saw the developments of two centuries all laid out and had the perfect plan to deal with it."
Or you can look at this way. They lived a similar situation with King George and learn from the experience, to never repeat it in the future.
Problem here is, Obama and the Dems have not learned that social engineering of a free market society doesn’t work. History has proven it. But Obama failed history.
The founders were worried that our Nation would come to where we are today, and I am not sure what else could have been done. One of them suggested only the "propertied" should vote. Maybe it would have been a better idea.
Trestin, Ducky is who George Orwell was trying to warn you about.
Freedom through Servitude.
Silver,
You seriously oversimplified and misrepresented Myerson's pieces. It's a common conservative error. He's providing provocative thoughts, not espousing "Chinese Leninist capitalism." Did you read the whole piece? Did you understand it at all?
JMJ
Yes I did read it and yes I did understand it.
I will admit that is was a more scholarly article than I portrayed it.
Regardless, my charge stands. His point is that he his ilk are sick of the constitution standing in the way of what they consider right action.
"National consensus" is a collectivist urge, impossible to obtain in a free society. We are a diverse nation with diverse needs, which makes such notions not only ineffectual, but dangerous.
" ... Just as the American people have a bias for action, the American government has a bias for stasis ..."
I had to laugh when I saw that. It reminded me of James Thurber's famous qip:
"He who hesitates -- is sometimes SAVED.
I remember so well the Eisenhower years. D'Rats of the period constantly mocked him as "The Do-Nothing President." HAH!
How often I've thought since then how much better it is to do nothing than to make things worse by doing something rash, wicked -- or inept.
~ FreeThinke
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely executed for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
~ C.S. Lewis
Well, God bless C.S. Lewis for saying that with his customary eloquence. Truer words were never penned, although I disagree with his bland acceptance of the notion that the so-called "Robber Barons" were merely cruel and greedy. [We already had this out here a few days ago, as you may recall].
The contributions the early industrial titans made to the advancement of Civilization, to the strength and prestige of the USA abroad, and to the architectural enhancement of public parks, cityscapes and university campuses everywhere are incalculable. The private philanthropic organizations they funded were more effective in addressing the plight of the poor, the ill, and the truly needy than the socialistic monstrosities that have taken their place.
The notion that making a profit works to everyone's disadvantage but the owners and operators of Industry is a sick, twisted way of thinking insidiously thrust upon us by the agenda-driven influence of people like Samauel Gompers, Emma Goldman, Rosa Luxemboug, the Frankfurt School's Cultural Marxism in academia, by "Progressives" like John dewey and Roger Baldwin, and by quasi-hysterical reformers like Upton Sinclair who I am reasonably certain overstated his case in The Jungle -- as overzealous 'reformers' are so often wont to do.
~ FreeThinke
All politicians, but mostly, the liberal Democrats need to study and research the time and patience it took our forefathers to write the Constitution.
We could all learn from their example.
See AOW. You're a liar telling edited stories such as Pelosi's comment;
"...we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it..."
But you forget to mention that right after that rather clumsy sentence she said:
"...away from the fog of the controversy."
Silver,
Myerson's piece was just an academic exercise. It's one we've all had at one point or another. Would a parliamentary system be better for America? It's an interesting question, and fun to play around with, but it's not going to happen, no one expects it to happen, no one is actively trying to make it happen, and no one, or any group, can. Not. Going. To. Happen... No. One. Seriously. Trying.
Over and out.
JMJ
Bd, can you tell us just how that second phrase negates the meaning of Pelosi's first? thanks SO much :-)
Duck said: Bore me later.
And there we have the Left's view of the Constitution in a mere three words.
Jersey: Fine and good. I copy you loud and clear.
The fact still remains that progressives hate those constitutional roadblocks are are impatient for bold action from the federal government.
And there we have the Left's view of the Constitution in a mere three words
Good one AOW
Z...duh. She wasn't saying you have to see the bill before you know what was in it, it had been posted on line for weeks. She was pointing out the subtleties between the lies that had been reported and the facts.
Bd,
You are an idiot.
video
As for the bill having been posted online, the length of the bill prevented scrutiny.
The left hate your constitution along with true conservative Christianity because it stands it the way of their parasitical and destructive agenda.
And to be accurate, it's only your particular constitution they despise, out here they want similar protections, but ones that fit their particular form of tyranny, not real freedom and liberty.
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