Government 2.0

What Washington needs is adult supervision.
--Barry H. Obama

We can't change the way Washington works unless we first change how Congress works.
--Barry H. Obama

Most people who serve in Washington have been trained either as lawyers or as political operatives – professions that tend to place a premium on winning arguments rather than solving problems.
--Barry H. Obama

For a guy who railed against Washington through the whole campaign, Barry O sure fits in well with that bunch, doesn't he? One of the most remarkable things about him is not that he's usually wrong. It's that he is wrong on every issue. Every One. He's against freedom, property rights, family values, the economy. Pick any topic, and he's sure to be on the wrong side of it. Try it. What's his position? It's likely as not a bizarre freedom-sapping notion about what the government "must do", instead of recognition of it's restrictions.

You'd think a president who was merely incompetent would get it right half the time. George Bush got it right half the time. Why can't Obama?

One theory is that he gets it wrong because he simply does not believe in America. He has little regard or concern about true human nature, and flails around with non-natural policies. It is remarkable that a majority of congress follows him down this path. A second theory has it that Obama has a Cloward and Piven death wish for this society. Either way, we all lose.

Only when we get someone who gets it right every time can we hope to preserve our freedoms. Those presidents are harder to find than the ones who get it wrong every time. Over the last 20 years we are surely batting less than 50%. If we give up half our freedoms every 4 or 8 years, it won't be long before we have no freedoms left that are worth caring about.

I have concluded that the system does not and can not protect us from the dangers of these periodic forced reductions of life, liberty, and property. It is time to go for government 2.0.

Government 2.0 has two immediate goals. One is to have the states ratify a change to the constitution that requires that all federal money comes from the states. Federal taxes would be eliminated in favor of a tax on the states in proportion to their population. Instead of the federal government spending money regardless of income, the states could decide jointly to rein it in. This will force the federal government back to the proper size, with the real power allocated to the states and to the people. Wayne Root's book "The Conscience of a Libertarian" makes the case for this.

The second thing will be to repeal the commerce clause. The commerce clause is badly abused on a daily basis, is regularly cited as the constitutional basis for everything from health care to high finance; and is the cause of gross misappropriation of government resources. If we repeal the commerce claus, it won't be misconstrued any more.

Yes, Government 2.0. It is time to install the upgrade.

We Have A Constitution

Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy.
-- Ron Paul

Constitutionalism proclaims the desirability of the rule of law as opposed to rule by the arbitrary judgment or mere fiat of public officials. -- David Fellman

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. -- Oaths of Office For Federal Officials

In a prior post, I expressed my disbelief at the reaction of the Speaker of the House to a simple question. I've had a couple of months now to think about this, and to make sense of it in light of, well, the oath of office and the apparent disregard for the document. She's hardly alone. I am sure that very few congressmen can be shown to support the constitution. However, by blatantly discrediting the fundamental rule of law, there is little left to stand on.

Many persons, citizens and politicians alike view the constitution as this quaint historic document, and not the law of the land. Our forefathers sweated over this very thing for many years. History had proven, indeed many times by then, that a nation of men would always become corrupt and despotic. That the only way to avoid that same morass was to make it a nation of laws. That is what is important about the costitution. It is a great document precisely because it lays out that which is necessary to define a great country.

Obama was right to identify it as a collection of negative liberties. It could not, should not, and can not be anything else. What is remarkable is that he, too took the oath of office without so much as a hint of irony, and without any intent of upholding it. He wants it to remain an artifact of the past, and discount the application of its principles and provisions in today's society.

It's not that the constitution of the United States is outdated. If it was, we'd have to write a new one, wouldn't we? The constitution has within it not only the historical record of how this country became great, but also the principles by which we are governed today.

I believe you can name a federal government in 15 pages, which is what the constitution and all its amendments are comprised on. Everything the government must do is listed there. Everything else belongs to the states, or the people.

When you look at it that way, that the owners manual for the US government is only 15 pages, you wonder why so many of our government officials are unaware of its provisions. If they can't read and understand the first 15 pages, no other bill that follows has a chance of being constitutional.