Democracy in America is Dead.

by Tom Rhodes, 4/24/2014

I know, I know, I know, we live in a republic not a democracy, but the title sounds better in today’s world. As Rome fell, history shows that the representatives of the people, the senate, became irrelevant, the de facto system was rule by a single man and his minions who had the power to kill citizens without due process, create new laws, and ignore existing laws. Does this sound familiar. Today Obama orders the murder of citizens without due process, creates laws with the stroke of the pen, and simply ignores laws he doesn’t like.

Early in the Obama administration I was pilloried by people for claiming Obama was acting like a fascist dictator in my articles about him destroying the rule of law concerning the bankruptcy of GM, the BP Oil Spill, and failure to prosecute Black Panthers. The facts make it clear that I was right. Obama is acting like a two bit dictator. Concerning Obamacare, the President made it clear that regardless of the machinations of the Republicans, the ACA and it’s individual mandate is the “law of the land.” That same law contained very specific and unambiguous language and requirements on start dates, who was required to do what, etc. So, when that same law didn’t make him and his party look good, he simply ignores the “law of the land” and changes it with the stroke of a pen, and congress and the senate do nothing. Changing the ACA by decree is not “democracy.” Congress and the Senate are powerless, their laws are meaningless.

We are no longer a nation of laws, ruled by law, but are now a nation ruled by oligarchy who can dictate new law regardless of the input of the democratically elected representatives the people. This is a very dangerous development that fundamentally transforms the country in ways that will be chaotic. Obama did say he was going to “Fundamentally Change America.” You just didn’t realize it was to turn in from a nation of laws, to a statist tyranny.

We are starting to see massive amounts of Americans routinely ignore the law, to the point where armed citizens are standing up to the government. The BLM backed down in Nevada, they thought an overwhelming show of force would run Bundy off his families century old cattle ranch, instead they were met with an even more overwhelming armed militia, who were prepared to fight for their rights and heritage. Not at all what the government expected. This is what the second amendment is about. Notice that the people didn’t start shooting, but were prepared to fight the government if it choose to use tyrannical force against Bundy.

Rather than capitulate and meet the April 15 deadline, the good people of New York had parties, where they publicly defied NY’s law to register their sporting firearms, and burned their registration forms. Connecticut did the same. It appears that well over 90% of the people simply refuse to obey laws requiring them to register their “assault weapons” and get rid of their standard capacity (30rd) magazines. In Connecticut 2/3rds of law enforcement officers, privately own an assault weapon, and failed to register them as required. Who’s going to enforce the tyranny of the state?

In the USA the president and other elected officials are not royalty, and the people don’t consider them royalty, they are just citizens like the rest of us. So . . . the fact that if the rulers in DC don’t have to obey the law, or can make it up as they want, means the people can too. Without any law to justify his actions, Obama is imposing de facto amnesty on a huge number of illegal aliens through changing the deportation process. Try to illegally move to Mexico, Netherlands, or any number of countries, and you’ll be jailed for a time then deported faster than you can say “Taco.” But break the law and illegally enter the USA, and you get Do the same to the United States, and you get taxpayer-provided health care at the local emergency room, and your kids get in-state tuition, while Johnny from Iowa has to pay higher out of state tuition and is forced to buy overpriced insurance.

Think about it, if you’re from Iowa and you’re kid wants to go to USC, you’ll save tens of thousands of dollars if you renounce your citizenship and live illegally in the country instead of following the law. It’s not like they’ll deport you. If the ruling elite in Washington have their way as in illegal resident, you be able to vote.

Obama has set the example, his subordinates and the bureaucrats are doing the same. Note BLM’s claim that Bundy owes over $1Million dollars is not based on any law passed by congress, but on them creating law as they see fit, that’s why they don’t want to go to court. Each action, new “regulation” that carries the force of law but was not legislatively created, each choice to exclude the enforcement for those the like without any consequences for the ruling elite in dictating rather than serving the citizens of the USA harmed the fabric of our society.

Democracy is dead, the only thing stopping third world style tyranny is the Second amendment and the 80Million of us who choose to exercise and refuse to compromise our pre-existing right to keep and bear arms. BLM actions in Nevada were a trial balloon to see how/if the people will react. Hate to say it folks, but the Great Republic that was the USA is dead. This country is going to dissolve into pieces, the reason is clear. Too many of us are unwilling to give up our rights to the oligarchy in DC, and those in DC are too arrogant to see it. What’s more they don’t believe we’ll fight to keep our rights. Although it sounds like a trite paraphrase of Fore Fathers famous “Give me Liberty, or Give me Death!” our government is too stupid to realize that far too many people would rather “Live Free or Die.” Look at We The People’s actions in response to BLM tyranny in Nevada. This country was founded by people who rebelled against central authority and control, that rebel spirit lives.

Our Democracy is dead; the ruling elite have so limited and controlled the elections offering us two flavors of statists, Democrat and Republican, and now simply choose to ignore even those representatives; the people now have no moral or rational reason to respect any law. Once we were a republic ruled by law, and men who understood divided power, checks and balances, and limited government; now we are ruled by the whims of a statist despotic oligarchy who believe they have unlimited power. Free men can and will take up arms and will fight tyranny. Are you a free man? Are you willing to fight tyranny? Or are you a slave, who will cower at your master and hope to be allowed to keep enough to survive? Or are you a slave, who willing supports your master, thankfully trading your liberty for the “security” he promises. Or are you fooled by a tyrannical master, who gives you meager shabby food and shelter, proclaiming they are your “entitlements?”

Question of the Day

By Tom Rhodes, 4/26/2012

This week, Florida Rep. Alan West posed the following question:

As Americans, we must bring to the fore this fundamental discussion of what we want our country to be. Do we veer from our Founders’ vision of a constitutional republic that preserves and protects the individual sovereignty of its citizens, along with the free market and the rights of the several states, or do we continue to slide down this path of expanding the secular welfare state, nationalizing production and enforcing economic equality? ~ Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) - 04/24/12

Old labels of Conservative, Liberal, Progressive, or whatever, are no longer appropriate. Democrat and Republican are also meaningless. Consider the difference between the candidates for president both parties have offered us. The difference between Obama and Romney is one has more hair. Both parties offer us elitist snobs who graduated from prestigious New England schools. Both routinely support the exact same positions. ObamaCare and RomneyCare only vary in control point not in substance. On Guns both have supported; restrictions on hand guns, assault weapons ban, and restrictive background checks. Both support government bailouts of favored businesses. Both want a stronger executive branch with power like the Line Item Veto. Both support the idea that the President has the authority to assassinate any US citizen he wants without due process. Both support the FED and want to retain its current head. Both support indefinitely detaining US citizens on mere suspicion of terrorist support without judicial redress, due process, or basic constitutional rights. Both have and receive donations and support from the same money groups: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup. Both Obama and Romney firmly believe in big government over individual liberty and responsibility.

Let’s put a label that is meaningful and usable on parties and their soon to be nominated presidential candidates’ statists, men and parties who believe in statism. From Dictionary.com statism * noun, has 2 definitions:

1. the principle or policy of concentrating extensive economic, political, and related controls in the state at the cost of individual liberty.

2. support of or belief in the sovereignty of a state, usually a republic.

A less formal definition that fits well is that statism is the belief that government knows best – that it has the knowledge, ability and power not just understand people’s problems, but actually solve them as well. This is an absurd notion that was long ago described by Friedrich Hayek, as “fatal conceit.” The vast majority of our Washington ruling class believe that it the government’s right and duty, to dictate the people’s actions and choices in order gain results to advance the “common good.” They believe that because some people may make choices, like drinking raw milk, that they feel are not in an individual’s best interest, they have the government has the right to dictate the voluntary actions of each individual.

This clearly and accurately defines the position of the vast majority of our ruling class in Washington. It clearly flies in the face of the original positions of our founding fathers and the mission statement of our government as defined in our Declaration of Independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute 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.

Few in both of the major parties are willing to take up the debate and even address the fundamental question Re. West poses. West’s fellow representatives in the Congressional Progressive Caucus take “umbrage” with his equating their ideals with communism. They don’t even want it discussed because their ideas, are nearly identical with other Marxist ideals and have proven to be a failure wherever actually implemented. Current statists don’t want open and honest debate on fundamental ideas. Why can’t we discuss the fundamental basics to our government? It appears that there is a concerted effort to silence any basic question on individual freedom, movement from laws created by elected representatives to executive bureaucratic regulations, and questions on what fairness is. As Rep. West states:

We must be able to openly discuss how our fundamental freedoms are being slowly chipped away by an over-reaching nanny state that has bit by bit slipped its tentacles into every aspect of our lives, from the types of light bulbs we can use to the size of our toilet tanks.

We must be able to challenge the mandates being handed down by un-elected officials, which threaten our constitutional right to practice religion however we see fit.

We must be able to question tax policies predicated on “fairness” that punish job creators and do virtually nothing to reduce our spiraling debt and deficit.

Today those who claim to be “progressive” actively espouse Marxist ideology. They have taken over the progressive term after destroying the credibility of communist socialist and fascists. They are now doing the same to the term “progressive”. Progressive was the for runner of liberal, but since that term now has such a negative connotation these extreme statists have reverted back to progressive. At one time we had a Progressive political party. The Progressive Party of 1912 was formed by former President Theodore Roosevelt. It’s platform of 100 years ago was very similar to current Democrat platform with obvious differences associated with the times.



In the social sphere the platform called for

• A National Health Service to include all existing government medical agencies.
• Social insurance, to provide for the elderly, the unemployed, and the disabled
• Limited injunctions in strikes
• A minimum wage law for women
• An eight hour workday
• A federal securities commission
• Farm relief
• Workers' compensation for work-related injuries
• An inheritance tax
• A Constitutional amendment to allow a Federal income tax
• Women's suffrage
• Direct election of Senators
• Primary elections for state and federal nominations
• The recall election (citizens may remove an elected official before the end of his term)
• The referendum (citizens may decide on a law by popular vote)
• The initiative (citizens may propose a law by petition and enact it by popular vote)
• Judicial recall (when a court declares a law unconstitutional, the citizens may override that ruling by popular vote)

Many of the Progressive Party goals were reached, many of those goals were good and did protect individual liberty like workers’ comp., but most of the planks most were to strengthen centralized authority and actively replace our republic with direct democracy; a form of government our forefathers warned us against, because it historically leads to mob rule and suppression of individual liberty at the direction of the masses. Progressives now ignore the requisite of the people in our society as eloquently stated by Progressive Party Founder Teddy Roosevelt, "The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight." The mantra is now the repeatedly failed socialist idea of wealth redistribution.

Our government conceived in liberty has followed the path to tyranny as predicted by Thomas Jefferson; “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”

Why today’s progressives refuse to debate their positions, or even allow the recognition that their ideas are in fact socialist in nature is a question that must be addressed. With rare exceptions, the very idea of individual sovereignty is not even allowed to be a discussion point among the ruling class in Washington. Although I don’t agree with much of Rep. Alan West’s positions, his question does deserve merit and discussion.

Democrats not very Democratic

The Democrats made a big mistake when they thought that their election to power in both houses and the executive branch of the federal government was a mandate by the American people to be allowed to control our lives. Their win in 2008 was not a vote for Democrats, but a vote against Bush and the Republicans.

The actions of the Democrats since taking power in 2008 were not that of a party given a chance because the GOP blew theirs, but that of a child who is finds himself in charge. In General the Dems no longer rule using the principles of their name sake. They are very non-democratic.

Rather than rule by consensus, they generally prefer to rule by dictate. Their arrogance and disrespect for the voting public is palpable. When they don’t get their way their response to everything is always explained in terms of race, hate, and stupidity instead of ideas or principles. They would rather use a bureaucracy than create a law to get what they want done, or better yet create a new position that is unaccountable to the people, or in the case of Obama, and new Czar that need not be confirmed by the Senate.

The rise of the TEA Party and their historic lose of power in the 2010 election should be seen not as success of the GOP, but as a call to accountability by the people. The people want and demand equality, liberty, and the rule of law. They do not want some elitist snobs from either party telling them what to do and are trying to put the federal government back to the limited role it once had. Look at the number of new laws, law suits, and proclamations that the states are making based on the 10th Amendment. California pretty much thumbs it nose at the Federal Government concerning marijuana. Montana has made the agents enforcing some federal laws on intrastate commerce punishable by fines and imprisonments.

Obamacare with Its provisions that don’t allow elected officials to countermand the mandates of unelected bureaucrats is one of the straws that have broken the camel’s back. What neither of the old parties does is democracy. They lie to get into power, then use on courts and administrative mechanisms, institutions, treaties, etc. to mandate to the people what they should do insulating themselves from the actions the people don’t want through massive bureaucratic control.

What neither party seems willing to do is build a consensus for their policies and create laws to implement those policies. The Democrats are particularly evil about is not accepting that what they think is best even if the people don’t want it. They try to find some way around creating a consensus to get what they want, even if they can’t get the votes. If this country is to become united again both parties must go back to doing the painstaking work of building up a consensus and implementing laws. Politicians need to rely less on bureaucratic insulation from their actions like the EPA claiming authority to push through policies to deal with global warming. Both parties must stop legislation that is force-fed against obvious public disapproval. Creating laws that do not apply to themselves or their favored corporate backers has led the majority of the public not trusting either party.

The November 2010 election was a loss for the elitists in Washington and corporate America; elitists that the people resent. The people of this country don’t trust either party, and as long as they continue to mandate instead of legislate, exempt themselves and their cronies from what they impose on the populace, spend without regard to who pays for it, and ignore the plain language of the constitution, we can expect the country to remain very divided, very angry.

We used to have a system of checks and balances that kept our republic, free of too much government. The elitists have forgotten why the people instituted the government; they have forgotten that the people not the elitists in Washington are sovereign. Through the lack of vigilance of the people, our democratic institutions have become plutocratic. We need our legislature to legislate, not delegate their authority to bureaucrats. We need our administration to administer not legislate. We need our courts to judge not administer or legislate. Democrats need to become democratic in how they do things, and accept when the majority tells them no. The Republicans need to represent the people not the crony corporations who feed them. Because I do not believe either the socialist elites of the Democrats nor protectionist elites of the Republicans will condescend to actually do the will of the people, this may be a time for the people who want liberty, equality, rule of law, and opportunity to abandon the old elitist parties and look for a party of principle.

Democracy Denied

For details and better explanations, click on the chart

The Coming of Caesar

The Coming of Caesar
By Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
November 16, 2009

[Bloggers note: This is an article that I wish I could claim I wrote. I didn't, but I'm glad somebody did.]

We have a problem. This could be “the big one”—bigger than coping with the Ahmadinejads, Kims, and Chavezes of the world and bigger than our current economic woes. Our republic, our society, may be heading for a crackup. We are bankrupt, both financially and politically.

The source of the problem is democracy. Decades of so-called “progressive” thought have led us to abandon the limited-government, constitutional republic established by our founding fathers. In the name of putting more power into the hands of "the people," the government has arrogated sweeping powers.

There is a famous passage (possibly cobbled together from several separate statements and authors) that explains democracy’s fatal flaw, the inherently self-destructive element that caused our founding fathers to distrust democracy (google “James Madison on democracy” for more):

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

Crude, majoritarian democracy (as in, “there are more of us than there are of you, so we’re going to redistribute your wealth”) inevitably undermines the harmony of society. A free market, as competitive as it is, is based on peaceful, voluntary cooperation. When commerce is free and unfettered by government interference, both sides to a transaction normally gain, thereby promoting social harmony.

Democracy, by contrast, engenders social conflict. Money changes hands by force of the taxman and the threat of imprisonment, not voluntarily. Democracy pits citizens against each other in a sordid squabble whereby many strive to have the state confer benefits seized from their fellow citizens.

Today, Washington redistributes trillions of dollars annually, so the capital is swarmed by battalions of lobbyists, representing myriad special interests, each trying to secure more political rent from government than what government takes from them. As the late, great economist Hans Sennholz described it, the democratic "transfer society" resembles the absurd spectacle of a circle of people, each trying to pick his neighbor’s pocket. How can there be social harmony when everyone is trying to rip off someone else?

This process of using government to extract wealth from other citizens (dubbed “legal plunder” by the 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat in his brilliant essay, “The Law”) has reached the point where Uncle Sam is essentially bankrupt. (See “We’re Broke.”) With government spending and deficits soaring under the present administration, the day of reckoning approaches. If foreigners should decide to cut their losses and balk at financing any more of our debt, either interest rates will soar, collapsing the economy, or the Fed will monetize all the debt, collapsing the dollar and the economy.

Can that day of cataclysm be postponed? Perhaps the wealth-redistribution system can be kept on life support a while longer, if government can confiscate a much larger share of the middle class’ wealth (yes, the middle class, because there aren’t enough rich people to finance all of Uncle Sam’s promises) or by dramatically slashing benefits.

When that momentous day arrives, there will be a lot of angry Americans. One might say that the so-called “social contract” will be broken, but the problem is, there isn’t just one such “contract.” There are two, and they are fundamentally and irreconcilably opposed to each other.

One “contract” is the government’s long-standing promise to support those in need. Many Americans have been taught to believe that they are entitled to a share of other people’s property, even if they have contributed nothing of value to society themselves and have made poor choices. The other social “contract” is the traditional implicit promise of America: namely, that if you work hard, you are entitled to the fruits of your labor.

When a financial crackup occurs, those who have been taught to depend on government will demand continued government benefits. If government fails to provide them, those demands could turn violent. On the other hand, if government moves to confiscate a significant chunk of whatever wealth remains in the hands of an already-hurting middle class, then millions of peaceful, law-abiding, hard-working Americans may finally reach the breaking point and rebel, as our forebears did in the 1770s, against a government viewed as abusive and oppressive.

How bad could it get? If the social order breaks down, civil unrest could disrupt markets and shortages of essential goods could occur. The resulting chaos could trigger martial law. A strong leader—a Caesar—could institute some sort of command order. Millions would resent it, but it would be accepted, because the alternative—civil conflict, chronic disorder, and impending starvation—would be intolerable. In such a calamity, Caesar would be the lesser of two evils. The American Republic and Constitution would join earlier democracies in the ashbin of history.

God help us.

Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson is an adjunct faculty member, economist, and contributing scholar with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College.