Van Halen Meets Constitutional Restraint
A "great reset" is coming, maybe just not the one the left expects.
The idea that has done the most significant damage to the American experiment in individual freedom is the idea of "positive rights" - that our Constitution gives us rights.
It does not.
Our Constitution is simple in construction and purpose. It specifically enumerates what a federal government may NOT do to or for its people. It is a listing of negative rights. It is a document that outlines with the government may NOT do, not what a government is compelled to do FOR you.
The US Constitution is a document rivaling the Magna Carta in historical significance – and the reason it does is because of the unique curbs and limits it places on what the government can do to the individual citizen. The Constitution is like a national governmental speed limit.
I’ve used this illustration many times – imagine that it is midnight and you are on Interstate 80 in the middle of Wyoming – from experience, I can tell you that late at night, the stretch from Rawlings in the east to Rock Springs in the west is pretty darn lonely. Now assume that the speed limit has been set at 75 mph. You are driving along and your fuel injected, turbocharged, 577 horsepower Mercedes S63 AMG is running smooth, weather conditions are good and there isn't another set of headlights or taillights for as far as your eye can see. You just topped off the tank in Rawlings and you really want to get across the state as fast as possible. You reach down, between my legs, ease the seat back….
Wait – that’s Van Halen on SirisuXM, and the AMG doesn’t have manual seats…
What stops you from cranking the good old cruise control up to 85, 95 – or even 105 – and pointing the land rocket toward the last point where you saw the sun? Once you pass the legal limit of 75, what is the limit?
No law can stop you. A law enforcement officer can temporarily reduce your speed with an autograph session but once he is out of sight, you are free to go right back to speeding. Whether you fear punishment or not, the only thing that really can stop you is your respect for the law, a belief that adhering to the speed limit is the right thing to do. The fact is that once you break the 75 mph barrier, the functional limit is only what the AMG will do. If you believe it can outrun anything on the road, why not 150 mph? You have already broken the law, right?
The example is to propose that laws do little to restrain people or constrain government without the people in charge respecting those limits. I know that I have quoted it before but John Adams said:
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Obama was the first president since Wilson and FDR who did not believe speed limits apply to him – only to you. Biden is stumbling down that same path. The constraints of the Constitution do not limit them, they only use them to place limits on you.
But in truth, this process of erosion has been continuing under presidents of both parties as government pushes beyond the speed limits - but at least it appears that we have reached a tipping point. There is always a point where something contentious can go one way or the other.
The pushback of parents toward school boards pushing race-based instruction is something that gives me hope. One can't get much more grassroots than that.
There is a Great Reset coming, but maybe we have the opportunity to deliver a reset the Democrats do not see coming.