The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power. ~Daniel Webster
All of human history has been a battle. Most of these battles have been powerful, ambitious men fighting with other powerful, ambitious men over who gets the right to rule over the rest of us, exploiting us for their own personal gain. They lure us into fighting for them. ..supporting them in their quest for glory & dreams of power. They don't promise oppression, but that's what they deliver. They promise freedom. They promise easy living. They promise anything, to get the common people to work, kill, & die for their delusions of grandeur & vain pursuit of historical significance.
Once upon a time, there was a group of altruistic men. They came up with a plan to provide checks & balances for these aggressive, ambitious men. They got us to fight for our own freedom, & set up a system of governance where WE THE PEOPLE were in charge. It was a govt of, by & for US! Citizen representatives, not a ruling elite, were to make the collective decisions for the nation.
Unfortunately, grasping men of ambition are still among us. They worm their way into power, once again promising freedom & easy living if we will follow them & their edicts. They promise us affluence, if we go backward, & let the rule of executive power supercede the rule of Law.
Humans want justice. We want protection from aggressive, violent people. It does not matter if those people are common thieves, or dressed in flowing robes. One of the cornerstone victories for humanity was the concept of due process. You cannot be imprisoned or punished for a crime without it. We have the RIGHT, under due process, to face out accuser, be tried by a jury of our peers, NOT be detained without evidence, & NOT be punished or killed unless convicted for a crime. Justice was made into an orderly system, instead of a whimsical notion by a ruling elite. In america, our governance is based on due process. Even actions of war must have the majority of congress acting as the jury, determining the guilt of the accused, based on the evidence. FDR did not declare war himself, but the congress did, after the japanese attacked pearl harbor.
But now, progressives & statists want to suspend due process so they can bomb whomever they please, kill american citizens without a trial or any due process, & bypass any congressional or constitutional balance. This is a step backward for humanity. We are allowing the grasping delusions of ambitious men to supercede what has taken us centuries to arrive at. Basic human rights have been revoked in favor of executive power.
1. Rule of Law. LAW is the central factor in america. We are a republic.. a nation ruled by law, not the whimsical edicts of an emperor. But now we have had increasing suppression of Law, & increasing statist growth of executive power. Our congress & courts do not seem inclined to force a balance, or chasten the executive branch, so they continue with overreaches, ignoring laws they are bound to uphold, & dictating laws they have no right to enforce. These overreaches have been increasing in extent & impact for the last 100 yrs. If this continues, there will be no resemblance to a nation of separation of powers & limited govt.
2. Due Process. As mentioned above, the most basic rights of the individual are being nullified by executive overreach. American citizens are labeled 'terrorists', without due process. No trial. No jury of peers. No facing their accuser. The executive power acts as judge, jury, & executioner. This is anti american, anti human, & the most basic violation of human rights. All of the executive 'police actions' where the american military is used to intimidate, protect business interests, or prop up some crony dictator is anti american & anti human, too. The american military is used WITHOUT due process.. wars are fought, americans killed, taxpayer resources wasted for the ambitions of men, not anything resembling justice. The congress did not declare war, yet the executive branch makes war.
3. Destruction of the currency. The creation of the federal reserve bank was the beginning of the destruction of the currency. America's hard currency was replaced with fiat.. or 'declared' value. Ever since, the value of our money has slowly & steadily been stripped & diluted by executive power. Law is set aside, & more overreaches made. This is one of the most insidious methods of fleecing the people. They still get money for their labors, it is just diluted secretly, & the value stolen by the money shuffling cronies of politicians, who see Law as an instrument of plunder.
4. Protecting the citizenry. If the borders are not secure, & a flood of illegal immigration is allowed, it is a destructive force on the citizens. It strains the infrastructure, the safety net, encourages lawlessness, depresses wages, & robs the citizens of jobs. It is the duty of the executive branch to enforce immigration laws, & they have reneged on their duty for political reasons.
There are more examples of executive overreaches.. the IRS scandal, spying on the media, benghazi coverup, foreign aid to corrupt dictators, corruption & spoils politics, rewarding campaign donors with cushy govt appointments.. these are all symptoms of a grasping, overreaching, corrupt, statist system that we have struggled for millennia to escape.
What can we do to fix this?
1. Citizen involvement. This is our fault. We have sat idly by & watched as generations of corrupt, self serving individuals have flocked to the public treasury to exploit us for their own personal gain. We now need a vocal, defiant, & angry citizenry to turn it around.
2. Term limits. The current system builds a ruling elite. They rise in the power structure, which has NOTHING to do with the people. We need to limit the time representatives are in power to limit the corrupting influence of power.
3. Balanced budget. Politicians can buy votes or make wars if the people do not feel the pinch in their wallets. If the politicians had to actually PAY for their 'programs', the citizens would revolt for the taxation. But they borrow, instead, from future generations. This should anger the citizens, who see their children & grandchildren being exploited for the ambitions of men.
There is more, but this is a good start. It is up to us to choose the future we want. Do we want to continue in a direction of freedom & individual rights, or do we want to go backward, letting ambitious men of power rule over us, exploiting us for their own agendas?
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. ~Louis D. Brandeis
“Law and arbitrary power are at eternal enmity” ~Edmund Burke
"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants." ~Albert Camus
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