Sinning and Suffering

Give 'em an inch, and they will take a mile.

Perusing the web this morning, I ran across an article by Robert Reich in the Guardian calling for Elon Musk to be hermetically sealed in a tin can because X is a free speech site where people say things Reich doesn’t like.

He calls it “disinformation”.

It is apparently that time of year when the New York Times feels the need to get rid of the Constitution, they have published another in a long lines of navel gazing pieces, this one titled “America’s Constitution is Sacred. Is It Also Dangerous?”

The Times is legit distraught there are things prohibited to government. We would be so much better off if the Constitution wasn’t in the way. As the president of the Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robinson, said at the DNC a couple of weeks ago, we must "reimagine" freedom and democracy beyond the Founders' "little piece of paper".

This is the kind of stuff Thomas Jefferson was talking about in his July 12, 1816 letter to Samuel Kercheval:

"A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, and to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia, which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."

The first sentence says it all. If we give an inch, your next ruler may as well be calibrated in miles - because that is what they will take.

There is no doubt the Constitution is dangerous to collectivists who believe nothing is off the table when considered in the light of what is by and for the state. One must remember, when any politician uses a subjective term, like “disinformation” or “dangerous”, someone is going to decide what that subjective term or idea means.

As Humpty Dumpty said about the meaning of words, “The question is, which is to be master - that’s all.”

And make no mistake, the global left aims to be the master.

Several years ago, I came to a significant realization - the fact that I have to be so concerned about which candidate for president wins because the aftermath is so important - from what kind of Supreme Court justices they will appoint to whether they will be used to cancel free speech - seems to indicate the federal government has far too much power over me, the average citizen.

Our governance has long left the constraints of the Constitution behind and become a Ponzi Scheme, a long con, where politicians reap millions in personal wealth from the public coffers - as they continue to kick the can down the road by increasing the burden on those they rule. They are incurring debt now that won't be paid by us or our children - or even our grandchildren - but will be borne by our grandchildren's children and grandchildren. That is how long the structural defect we are building into our system will last - unless the system collapses. It is generational theft.

We are automatons living the senseless existence of obedience as if we are characters in Fritz Lang's movie "Metropolis." The fictional worlds of Orwell, Wells, Huxley and Rand are no longer fiction. In any definition, we ALREADY ARE a democratic socialist society, complete with the indentured servitude brought forth by welfare dependence of the poor, wage slavery of the middle class and tax slavery for the more successful.

Just think about it - there is not a single minute of your day that isn't touched by a "fee", a tax, a law, a regulation or an action that could not be subjected to some sort of review if you are unlucky enough to find yourself in front of some governing bureaucracy or agency. You are subjected to surveillance without your knowledge or approval, you are tracked based on how you handle your cash or drive your car - and you even are told what days you can run the sprinklers in your yard.

The question is, which is to be the master - that’s all.

If one critically reads the US Constitution, one thing becomes clear - the Constitution is a document designed to become irrelevant. If the principles it contains are honored above all other human laws, there is no need to place "life or death" importance on who holds a particular national office because that power is vested in the individual and in smaller and smaller units of governance (that is the brilliance of federalism).

If there is any hope of reclaiming the liberty bequeathed us by a class of people who fought a war because they believed death was preferable to a life without liberty, we must find a way to contain role of government within constitutional limits.

Until we do, we must be concerned with which candidate for president is most likely to help us do just that.