Posted by
Libertus on Saturday, April 25, 2009 6:10:59 PM
The sorry state of our affairs with oppressive Federalism is all Lincoln’s fault. When the CSA wanted out, he should have billed them for infrastructure, agreed to return property and kissed them goodbye. Lincoln is no hero to me and no other president has bent the Constitution as much as he did. 650,000 people died to preserve a Union. Few Americans were spared the pain of lost family members over an “idea”. Slavery would have died eventually because even in 1860 it was clear to slaveholders that the expense of slave holding was no longer economically viable. The CSA would have either developed a more industrial base using free labor or they would have perished as a separate nation. If they had failed, I suspect they would have been welcomed back into the Union because they were quality people with the same belief in the almighty as the northerners. If they had succeeded, the competition would have benefitted north and south. Certainly more issues unite us than divide us. I believe in a loose confederation of states with limited federal power united only by the Constitution and each able to be as independent as they can afford.
The Declaration of Independence includes four references to God, but the founders failed to include Jesus or God in the Constitution on purpose. Most of the founders believed in God or a Creator but purposefully omitted any reference to any religious cult in the document they so patiently constructed. George Washington in his letter to the Touro Synagogue chided them for intolerance and encouraged them to practice charity, humility and peacefulness which are qualities of Jesus. To promote or denigrate religious beliefs under the umbrella of government violates First Amendment Rights. Obama’s religious beliefs are none of my business or anyone elses. Religion is religion and should be labeled as such. Obama says he believes in God. You say you believe in God and I know I do. However it isn’t any of our business how the other one believes. Better an agnostic lead us rather than a self proclaimed Christian who considers the 9th Commandment a mere suggestion.
The Constitution does not mention abortion, marriage, homosexuality, education, health care & capital punishment, therefore these issues are left up to the states and the people. The founders didn’t envision the government having anything to do with crime or punishment and was only concerned with cruel and unusual punishment. In my background reading I found nothing that would suggest that the founders would have condoned torture before or after conviction.
The founders did not trust the standing army either. Our current standing army is only a little over the size envisioned by Sam Adams. Then .76% of population, today 1% of population and more country to protect. Returning control of the National Guard to the states would reduce the standing army. Our friends and neighbors who serve in our National Guard do so to assist us in time of need such as national disasters, border enforcement, and as a first line of defense against enemies foreign and domestic. They are NOT militia. When the Guard is called to serve under the president the states lose their militia and are left to fend for ourselves. In my view the militia is us and it is no accident that the founders creat4ed a special amendment just for that purpose. The right to bear arms for personal protection and as a safeguard against liberty is not new. The first was in 1285. 700 billion spent on our military and a vet can’t get decent health care or proper armament in war zones tells me that something is wrong with our military procurement system and that throwing money at a problem has not worked well. More of our guys and gals have been killed by IEDs triggered by cell phones than any other weapon in Iraq. There is a lesson there, and I’ll allow you to come to your own conclusion about our own defense against an oppressor.
I’ve lived under 12 presidents all of whom needed poking. Each successive president gradually increased Federal power that upsets the balance called for in the Constitution, while the Congress sat on their collective glutus maximai and sucked up lobby dollars like surreal human vacuum cleaners. With all its flaws, there is no better place on earth to live…and I’ve been to a lot of places.
"It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men" John Adams
God bless America and God bless you.