WHY THIS COUNTRY WILL NEVER BE FREE AGAIN
by Michael Gaddy, ©2015, blogging at Rebel Madman
(Dec. 3, 2015) — For the best part of 20 years now I have been writing the thoughts that keep spilling out of my head due to the frustration encountered as I watch people ignore the possibility of actually being free and their insane addiction to being ignorant but entertained and enslaved.
During those years I have used comments received from some who happen to read my Rants to see if there is still a faint pulse in the cadaver called Liberty that folks like Jefferson, Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry breathed life into some 220+ years ago. Judging from some of the comments received from my last article, it’s past time to shovel dirt in the face of that old lifeless form of individual rights and self determination.
I continue to be amazed at those who claim to be disciples of freedom who are more than willing to cast their lot with tyrannical government if that government will just use its power to crush those with whom they disagree. One reader in responding to my last Rant went into great detail to explain why the government should be putting everyone in prison for life who would dare partake of any substance our government has deemed inappropriate. I was not, however, surprised at all when this person referred to themselves as a “conservative.”
Many people refer to themselves as “conservatives” but in most cases are unable to explain that which they seek to conserve other than power over others. Not true you say? Conservatives look to and support our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Really? Of course the majority support the Second Amendment but most of them have a real problem with the 9th and 10th and completely ignore any constitutional restrictions on waging war and empire building.
Actually, “conservatives” do support the faction among our founders that referred to themselves as “federalists” but were in fact nationalists with strong support for a highly centralized government. What are the chances of finding a so-called conservative in America today that does not strongly support a large standing army, a huge militant police force and a regular recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance? “One Nation…indivisible” is a direct refutation of a confederated form of government and the 9th and 10th Amendments. The fact the pledge was written by an avowed Socialist doesn’t seem to bother good ole conservatives a bit.
The type of government supported by conservatives is much more like the government of King George III than it is the government fought for by the Sons of Liberty in 1775-1783. King George loved his large army of Redcoats and had the “federal sheriffs” we were warned about by Patrick Henry busy collecting taxes and duties throughout the colonies. The leading conservatives of today would have been in wholehearted support of King George, especially those currently seeking the republican nomination for president.
Our Declaration of Independence was not written by a conservative; it was written by a classic liberal, or in today’s parlance a “Libertarian.” The second paragraph of that document provides all the proof needed. Jefferson declared for a government of the people which acknowledged the rights of “Nature and Nature’s God” and a government operating under “consent of the governed.” He further stated,
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
The “Party of Lincoln” known also as the Republican Party, home of most everyone who calls themselves conservative, fomented a war in 1861 that killed over 800,000 people in order to prevent the South from doing exactly what Jefferson said a people had the right to do. So, conservatives are on the political side of King George III and opposed Jefferson’s Declaration as defined in paragraph two of that parchment. To simplify: the Colonists fought a war to free themselves from conservative principles and the conservatives of 1861 fought a deadly war to prevent the South from securing the rights prescribed by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.
The Libertarians among our founders established a form of government described in the Articles of Confederation, a form of government that represented Jefferson’s principle of “consent of the governed.” The Nationalists (conservatives) of that day were hellbent on destroying that form of government and establishing a form of government with a strong standing army, unlimited taxation, a bevy of federal sheriffs reporting to a strong centralized government which could exert its dominion and control over the state governments and the people. So illustrative of this point is the formation of a 15,000 man army by Washington and Hamilton to move into Western Pennsylvania to quell the actions of those people who resisted the Whiskey Tax less than two short years after the Constitution went into force. This strong central government of the new constitution raised a larger army to collect taxes than it had at several points during the War for Independence.
Read the rest here.