Since government is so busy chasing its own tail, how do we go about breaking that cycle? The legislators overstep their bounds by passing laws that regulate our lives in intricate, complex ways. The they realize there are unforeseen consequences to those legal regulations and so they pass more legal regulations to correct the problems with the first set. Then they realize there were unforeseen consequences for those laws and so they have to pass some more laws to correct for those consequences and then they realize...... You get the picture. How do we stop this foolishness?
We don't. This is what government is all about. That is why we have to strip government down to the bare bones because if we don't we will suffocate under the weight of all those legal regulations, all those laws. Government MUST be restrained and contained or it is going to kill us socially and even personally. That is why the Constitution was written to RESTRICT government, not to AUTHORIZE government. The founding fathers knew very well how burdensome to the private sector government can become. And so they wrote the Constitution to restrain and contain government. The Constitution was not written to restrain or even to authorize the citizens. The citizens did not need the Constitution to authorize them to have their rights. The rights we have are God-given, natural. We have them because we are born with them. The Constitution had one object in mind: restrict, restrain, contain government. The Constitution was written to prevent government from becoming so overwhelming that it would smother the private sector and the rights that we have by virtue of our birth.
Does this sound familiar? Sounds like what is happening today, doesn't it? Why is it happening? It is happening because so many of our elected officials despise the Constitution. So many of our elected officials, and even our appointed officials, consider the Constitution something to be stomped on and ridiculed. And as a result, those officials, elected and appointed, end up getting themselves all tied up in knots trying to figure out how they can correct the unforeseen consequences of the legal regulations they have created. They end up chasing their tails and get so dizzy they don't even know what is coming next.
That is why James Madison wrote: "It will not be denied, that power is of an encroaching nature, and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." (The Federalist Papers; Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay; Bantam Dell, 2003; p 301) Power is encroaching; power just grows without encouragement. And so it must be restrained, contained, restricted.
But "(w)ill it be sufficient to mark with precision the boundaries of these departments in the Constitution of the government, and to trust to these parchment barriers against the encroaching spirit of power?...experience assures us, that the efficacy of the provision has been greatly over-rated." (ibid, p 301) James Madison realized that just having a piece of paper that lays out the restrictions on government is not sufficient. That efficacy is over-rated. As it should be. After all, a piece of paper does nothing to stop anything. It needs to have enforcement. But what enforcement?
"(T)he people are the only legitimate fountain of power....it is from them that the constitutional charter...is derived." (ibid, p 307) The enforcement comes from WE THE PEOPLE. The buck stops here, not at WDC, the state houses, the county courthouses, or the city halls. The buck stops with WE THE PEOPLE.
That is why it is such a shame that any official would state in any way that elections should be postponed or canceled. That is pure revolution. That is treason, even if stated in a joking manner. To state this even in a joking manner is like shouting "FIRE" in a crowded theater. To even entertain such a thought is pure revolt against the legitimate fountain of power.
And so we the people must start taking our responsibility seriously. We have the task of managing the employees of this country, the elected and appointed officials. One reason we have gotten into such a burdensome place is because we the people have not carried out our responsibility. And so our government has chased its tail until the hole has gotten so deep it will take years, decades and many elections to remove ourselves. We have only ourselves to blame for all the work we now have before us.
But what do we do? We can't get rid of government. Government is a necessity. The founding fathers called it a "necessary evil." So what do we do?
We MANAGE the government. That means that we do NOT destroy our government. God forbid! For even though, as Winston Churchill said, "Democracy is a terrible form of government, but I have found nothing better." We have the best form of government. So we do NOT want to destroy our government. We MANAGE it. We supervise, govern, direct our government. We keep it within its limits. That is what the Constitution gives us guidance in doing. We manage our government by making sure it remains within the limits that the Constitution has laid out so that our government does kill our freedoms and society and country.
And so, government being government, will continue to chase its own tail, but as long as it does this within certain limits it causes much less damage/evil than if we just let it run rampant over the Constitution, the country and us.
The problem for us now is to get it back to its limits. We have let this slip so long that we have a task that will last for years, decades, and many elections. But then, what would we expect? The buck stops here. This task is REALLY a daily task, a life-long task, for everyone, IF we want to remain free. As Benjamin Franklin answered the woman who asked him what kind of government the convention had given the citizens: "A republic, ma'am, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT." IF YOU CAN KEEP IT. Keeping a republic is a constant task. What we need to do is pass this concept onto those that come after us in this life. We, they, MUST work daily to keep the republic. That is the responsibility of we the people.
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