4th of July – A call to return to the simplicity of our Founding principles

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Despite July 2nd as the actual day the Continental Congress voted to approve a motion by the VA delegate Richard Henry Lee, calling for the colonies’ independence after a year of fighting with the British, July 4th became the official day, set aside to celebrate the birth of our nation. The leaders of that era boldly decided to embark upon one of the greatest, and most envied political experiments in history … a free nation where all men are created equal, where a central government could not dictate religious beliefs, and the bulk of governance was left to local jurisdiction.

The size of the central government was deliberately designed to be small, it’s intrusion into citizens’ lives was to be few, and what it was expected to “provide” to it’s citizens even fewer.

I doubt anyone disagrees that we have strayed far from the original intent 236 years later. It is the penchant of lawyers to tinker with contracts, viewing the simple, short and sweet as inadequate. What began with a formal document, signed by 56 delegates representing the colonies – followed by a carefully penned Constitution and 10 Amendments, called the Bill of Rights – has been expanded by 17 more Amendments (including one “oops” resulting in a repeal), and a US Code book of torts that is over 200,000 pages long…. And growing every day Congress is in session.

The federal tax code has been one of the fastest growing sections since the 1940s. It’s prolific growth was illustrated with a graphic on PoliticalCalculations blogspot last year, as part of a clever 4th of July challenge to guess the number of current pages. From a single book of 400 pages in 1913, it has grown to 72,536 pages by 2011… likely not including the latest tax increases attributed to O’healthcare. This coincides, unsurprisingly, with the ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913 which “clarified” Congressional powers of taxation.

View larger PDF version here.

We, The People, have frittered away the basics of our founding for generations by electing those to the hallowed halls of Congress who do not believe in the basic tenets of our founding – that of minimum intrusion, and small federal powers that left governing choices to local smaller and controllable governments.

Perhaps it’s the very idea that elected officials, who are there to make law, feel they are not doing their jobs if they don’t generate law after law to add to the code books. The idea of a full time Congressional session seems counter-intuitive to the founding principle of short, simple and non-intrusive. When the simple document that states a central government can only do that which is definitively stated, and no more, it defies logic that this induces a parade of legislation and resolutions by career politicians who never intend to return to the private sector.

It’s as simple as this… when you have your sculpture created, it’s not necessary to keep a sculptor on staff, full time, to monitor the sculpture. But if you do, that sculptor will find the need to justify himself as useful, perhaps by constant alterations to the original work. What began as a Rodin morphs into a hideous potpourri, destroying the beauty and integrity of the original piece.

Our obvious woes of a bloated beyond control central government are attributed not to a Judicial Branch, tasked with interpreting volumes of bad laws, nor an Administrative Branch that selectively picks and chooses which of those bad laws to enforce… but to the Legislative Branch that relentlessly churns out bad laws as a reason for their full time existence to thrive off the taxpayers nickel.

But in the simplicity of our system also lies the solution… for those tasked with control of Congress are We, The People. In order to return to our founding simplicity and principles, a re’education of the masses, and a societal reversal of an entitlement attitude, is integral. For no one voter or State of the Union can accomplish that without the help of all others.

So this 4th of July, in between your festivities of BBQs and fireworks, I invite you to take a cyber museum trip to The Charters of Freedom exhibit in our National Archives. Again read our founding documents and revel in their simplicity, then embark upon the small, but important task of educating your neighbors, friends and family to the solution that lies in our hands.

Four years ago, I penned a 4th of July post about the National Archives invitation to add your name to the signers of the Declaration of Independence. That offer from the National Archives still stands. And perhaps you might consider making it part of your personal celebration of this day… renewing that vow and pride in that original simplicity annually.

Enjoy your 4th of July. Take a moment to remember and honor our warriors who serve to protect our simple freedoms. And never forget our roots, firmly entrenched in limiting the powers of central government over our lives, and our wallets.

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Shame that they no longer teach this. Is this country going to lose what we once were before the herd shakes its self up?

Mata- Excellent post. Unfortunately as you point out, people have a tendency to take their freedoms for granted. Some want to use the government to force their belies onto others. To others, freedom is fhe right to free stuff. People are becoming more and more ignorant o out past because it is not emphasized in school because it would go against the left leaning beliefs of our “educators”. Freedom is just another word until you lose it.

Thank you Mata, you are a gem and we at FA are fortunate to have you.

We speak of entitlements and feel disgust with those who refuse to contribute and become perpetual wards of the state or those who take advantage of lucrative handouts, it’s true they are an anchor we all share in carrying, but the biggest anchor and the most entitled are the thieves and liars in Washington.

We now have his and hers Air Force jets for the first family, in case their schedules are thirty minutes off sync. It is this flagrant disregard for those struggling to stay afloat and indirectly keeping the country afloat that is the most damaging and disheartening. This sense of Entitlement is transferred on down the power structure until even the secret service feels they can act like fraternity brothers while in foreign nations with carnal delights for those who wish to partake. Consequently, the core is rotten ant the rot continues through the bark. If we are going to restore the republic and the Constitution it is imperative that we rid ourselves of the rot. And for those areas who want to continue to send us liars and thieves like Pelosi, Rangel and Waters, the representatives should be left out of everything possible until the constituencies get the idea, sloth, dishonesty, and corruption will no longer be tolerated.

Get rid of all of them and fire all bureaucrats.

@MataHarley: and Skook- Pretty soon we’ll be like the movie “Demolition Man” paying fines, taxes or whatever you want to call them, for violating the verbal morality code or eating meat! We are becoming a nation of complacent sheep.

@MataHarley: I liked your post until “The solution lies…with taking up education.” Really? We’ve already lost that battle already, I’m afraid. Ever read The Comprachicos by Ayn Rand?

MATA
YES A GREAT POST, VERY EDUCATIVE TOO, .
OBAMA IS THE ONE WHO RAISE THE NUMBERS THE MOST AND THE FASTEST ALSO,
72,500 PLUS WOW WHO WILL STUDY THOSE?
WHO WILL TEACH THOSE, THEY WONT, BECAUSE THEY ARE PROTECTED BY UNIONS, NOT TO WORK HARD.
so the children will never learn.
thank’s for that good that we have blog like this one
and the best one too.

@MataHarley: The Comprachicos is an essay, not a novel. I’m not throwing in the towel on education, but my daughter is a teacher so I hear first hand what public schools are like these days. How do you intend to change the current situation?

we need a MILITARY AS VP, ALLEN WEST, TO GET THINGS RIGHT WITH THE KARZEI, AND THE AMAGETIN, AND THE PAKISTAN WHAT’S HIS NAME AND IRAN, FOREIGN AFFAIR ALL OVER,,
CHINA, RUSSIA, ARABS AND OUR ALLIED WILL LOVE AND RESPECT HIM,
YES THAT IS A GOOD IDEA, I must have a word with MITT ROMNEY,
AND HERMAN CAIN, WITH HIS SMILE, NOBODY WILL SAY NO TO HIM EVER,
IT IS A WINNING PROPOSITION. AND RON PAUL ON THE FEDERAL MONEY,
THE MAGIC PAUL WILL TURN IT TO GOLD, NOW GINGRISH FOR THE SPACE EXPANSION,WITH ALL THE
NASA PEOPLE WHO WHERE THERE BEFORE,I MEAN THE BRAIN WHO SUCCEEDED
THE OLD SPACE PROGRAM,
MICHELLE BACKMAN IS VERY SMART ON A HIGH POSITION,
AND MITT, YOU PICK THE OTHERS, PLEASE DON’T FORGET MATA AND ME, AND OUR BASE FLOPPING ACES.
THEY WILL BE THE WATCHERS FOR YOU, AND IF YOU FORGET THE CONSERVATIVE CODE OF CONDUCT, THEY HERE WILL
LET YOU KNOW, VERY POLITE AND YOU WILL LISTEN,
BECAUSE CONSERVATIVES YOU CAN TRUST,

@ Mata,

What a great presentation. Brief, to the point, well thought and well written. Deserves reading on a day when we see so many hateful headlines fuelling the racial fires, and spreading ideological divides, countering the positive efforts to demonstrate pride and respect for the greatest Nation.

The heart of your presentation IMHO is “in the simplicity of our system also lies the solution…”, and yet it is that simplicity which is so hated and has been trampled by a majority of politicians, particularly through the past 25 years. Too much money has been the biggest corrupting factor.

And, yes, the solution is absolutely waiting in the educational environment, in a fixed educational system.

John Cooper
I got your answer, change it by using the anti these propaganda, to obliterate the present one, and include the GOD AND FLAG AND THE LEARNING OF AMERICAN HISTORY, FROM THE BEGINNING,
BACK
IN SCHOOL, and your daughter as a source to tell the problem
she is on the first row to know.
BYE

Mata, the answer is in the form of internet degrees. The same course can be taught by instructors for decades after they have passed on. Why pay a fortune for dubious degrees from prestigious universities who have become laughable because of their final product. Learn a marketable trade on the internet, pass your exams, and take your starting position in the real world.

Dump these pompous overpaid professors on their ass and let them teach basket weaving until the end of time. They might be able to teach two hundred students in a day, but by using these little machines, one instructor can effectively teach a million students. Soon the market place will have well educated graduates rather than personally connected kids from the Ivy Towers of Bull Shit. Sure we will need a few empty shirts like Obama, but not very many. Soon people will realize the advantage of hiring young people for what they can accomplish, instead of hiring third generation legacies.

I attended a nice parade on the 4th dedicated to Welcoming Home Iraq Vets from their service in ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’, afterwards they had a gathering and a pretty decent band at a nearby park…it was I though, very nice…the weather was very hot, but, considering what they had and have to endure daily, I could put up with the heat to support them..

I found this and I thought it was a great piece. This was written 27 years ago. I love finding things like this….I had to ask myself, has anything changed? [The more things change the more things stay the same?] But, it just seems to me things got much, much worse…

After reading it [ it’s a fast read ] – think about today…the President and the 545 people…the Unions, the Progressives, Liberals, Lobbyists [which were to be abandoned by this president], Rhino’s, Supreme Court Justices … and how the way ‘people vote’ is directly related to “what they want”…. “rather than what they don’t want” …The article should bother a lot of people….

….most importantly the perpetuation of “Problems” by these very people via the Con Game …. should bother a lot of people..

THE 545 PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL OF AMERICA’S WOES
By Charley Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?? Have you every wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don’t set fiscal policy. Congress does. You and I don’t control monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices – 545 human beings out of 235 million – are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank.

I exclude all of the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing! I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it.

No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

A CONFIDENCE CONSPIRACY

Don’t you see now the con game that is played on the people by the politicians? Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of Tip O’Neill, who stood up an criticized Ronald Regan for creating deficits.

The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating appropriations and taxes.

O’Neill is speaker of the House. He is the leader of the majority party. He and his fellow Democrats, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto.

REPLACE SCOUNDRELS

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 235 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted – by present facts – of incompetence and irresponsibility.

I can’t think of a single domestic problem, from an unfair tax code to defense overruns that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.

When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise complete power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in Lebanon, it’s because they want them in Lebanon.

There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose job they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take it.

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like ”the economy,” “inflation” or “politics” that prevent them form doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people and they alone are responsible. They and they alone have the power. They and they alone should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses – provided they have the gumption to manage their own employees.

This article was taken from the Orlando Sentinel Star newspaper dated: 1985
Link to: http://www.black-and-right.com/

FAITH7
YOU DID IT AGAIN, another jewel,
this FLOPPING ACES BLOG IS A GOLD TREASURE
thank you

Before we get too nostalgic, let’s remember the majority of Founders did not believe that “all men were created equal”—-slaves were not equal (in fact, if I remember correctly, they were only worth three-fifths of a free man or woman). Or, did that mean, that they were originally created as an equal, but, since they were now slaves, they had somehow become unequal. Or, as the Christian Fundamentalists of the day (and today) would say, “It must have been God’s will that they were slaves—and were being punished for sin”.

Mata, you hit the center of the bull’s eye with this one.

An education of the original intent of the Constitution is an important aspect of regaining control over our own lives, wresting it from an overgrown, bloated bureaucracy that seeks to input even more control over the average American’s lives. And it is exactly that education which is missing within our school system today.

As a father of two boys, one just out of public school and the other about to enter his last year, it is stupifying at times to hear what they have learned about our government and how it works. It is also maddening to know that there are millions more children, or young adults, who get the same, or similar, education on our government and Constitution, and that out of those millions the overwhelming majority of them receive no correction from parents or higher education on how wrong their public school teachers are.

And this is shown almost daily, here, by our resident liberal/progressive friends who believe in such contraptions as “social engineering” that has a purported goal of “equality”. They have learned, erroneously, that if you don’t like something in your locality, or state, that the solution is to go directly to the federal government for the “fix”. And ofttimes, this leads to more, unseen, unintended consequences that then need to be addressed by the same governmental body. It’s no wonder our federal government has become the beast that it has, with this line of reasoning by the liberal/progressives.

And their attitude towards “solutions”, that is, to make the solution so convoluted and complex so as to require another legion of lawyers on the street to interpret it, stems from the normal tendency of humans to complicate things more than they need to be. It also stems from an underlying evil that pervades our politicians. That is, to introduce more control over people’s lives, and stated, by them, as a means to “equality”. And control is the ultimate endgame of the professional politician. Whether that pol has an ‘R’ by their name, or a ‘D’, their desire for administering control over our lives should be seen as an evil endeavour by all citizens. Unfortunately, too many of ‘We, the People’ are ignorant by education or choice.

@Liberal1 (objectivity):

Ah, using the old argument that our founders were simpletons and were mistaken on many accounts. Next you will be arguing that our society today is too complicated for such a simple document.

You are part of the problem, Lib1. Your ignorance by choice has identified you as an impediment to freedom and liberty.

Before we get too nostalgic, let’s remember the majority of Founders did not believe that “all men were created equal”—-slaves were not equal (in fact, if I remember correctly, they were only worth three-fifths of a free man or woman).

There is no basis of truth for that thinking. In fact, if one reads the writings of the majority of our founders, one would learn that they were against slavery. As well, they would learn that anti-slavery was written into the first drafts of the Constitution and that only a desire for a “united” congregation of states struck it from the final copy. However, you make it seem as if slavery was accepted nearly wholesale during our founders’ time.

It should be noted that the Constitution does not label, or identify, ‘men’ as being of any race or heritage, but simply as men. As well, it isn’t ‘men’ in the male sense of the word that is used, either.

Or, as the Christian Fundamentalists of the day (and today) would say, “It must have been God’s will that they were slaves—and were being punished for sin”.

I’d love to see your research on those ‘Christian Fundamentalists’ of back then, and today, who say such a thing. You are more than welcome to back up your words with supporting documentation here.

@MataHarley:

As we are all too often reminded, common sense isn’t an inherent skill these days.

I prefer the phrase, “Common sense isn’t all that common”, but yours works just as well.

I firmly believe that some people are simply open, or predisposed, to having someone tell them exactly what they should do, either because it frees their conscience from the responsibility of thought, or because it frees them from complete responsibility over action. And because of that, they are more inclined to support the complexity of law. If something isn’t clear, and requires thought and action on their part, it must be made clear by ever intrusive law and governance, relieving them of responsibility. This is what the OWS was/is all about, and what Lib1 exemplifies by his statement above.

johngalt
I picked up a couple of thoughts from reading your smart educative comments,
one is of the fact which existed in the times of the FRAMERS LOOKING AT THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND ENVISIONING THE FUTURE OF AMERICA, THEY SAW BEAUTIFUL LAND MILES AND MILES OF IT,
WITH IT THEY SAW THE SPIRIT OF GOOD MEN AND WOMAN WORKING HARD AND NEVER COMPLAINING OF BEING SUBMIT TO HARD LABORS THEY ENDURED BECAUSE THEY SAW ALSO THE POTENTIAL OF THE FALLS LEAVES REWARDS AT THE END, THEY DID NOT HAD ALL SKILLS, they did not have all tools, but incredibly, they built their houses, they procreate children with their loving spirit to get them a better life, they came out with so much as time went on, and that was to benefit all their neighbors,
THE FRAMERS WHERE TOGETHER WRITING THE MOST IMPORTANT DECREE OF THIS NATION IN THAT TIME THEY LIVED,
THERE ALSO WHERE THE BOUNDARIES OF THIS NEW NATION, TO THINK OF,
THERE ALSO WHERE THE BLACK SLAVES MASTERS GOING AND COMING WITH EMACIATES AFRICAN SLAVES THEIR MASTER HAD ROUNDED UP TO SELL AS A PROFIT MAKING ONLY IN A BESTIAL WAY DUMPING THEM HUNGRY HALF DEAD AND HEART BROKEN TO HAVE BEEN STOLEN FROM THEIR WOMAN AND CHILDREN, ON THE SHORE OF THIS NEW AMERICA, WHERE ALL THE NEW IMMIGRANTS WHERE WORKING HARD AT THEIR LAND YOU COULD SEE REACHING THE ARISEN, SO BIG THEY WHERE,
THEY COULD NOT AFFORD NEW MOUTH TO FEED, BUT THEY SAW THOSE BLACKS TREATED BY THEIR BLACK MASTER LIKE ANIMALS. AND THE RANCHERS SAW A LOGIC TO GET THEM TO SHARE THEIR WORK AND BY THIS CALCULATION ALSO SHARE THE WEALTH WITH THEIR LABOR,,
BUT THEY HAD TO BUY THEM, SO THE WORD SLAVE ORIGINATED NOT IN AMERICA BUT IN AFRICA,
NO BLACK NOW SHOULD KEEP THEIR ANGER TOWARD THE WHITES BECAUSE THE WHITES HELP THEM BY TAKING THEM AWAY FROM BEASTLY BLACK LIKE THEM SLAVE MASTERS.
SO THE FRAMERS WROTE THEIR PAGES IN THAT TIME IN THE MINDSET OF THAT TIME.
BUT LOOK WHAT THE OBAMA AGENDA IS TRYING TO DO NOW WITH THAT HEALTHCARE, THAT IS PENALIZE SOME PEOPLE FOR THEIR STAND TO BE FREE FROM HIS HEALTHCARE LAW,
IS IN IT SOUND LIKE THE BLACKS SLAVES MASTERS WHICH PENALIZING THEIR SLAVES WHICH WHERE RUNNING AWAY TO KEEP THEIR AFRICA LAND OF THEIR BIRTH.
AND EVEN THAT JUDGE ROBERT SAID HIS HEALTHCARE WAS A TAX, HE IS FIGHTING IT MAINTAINING IT IS A PENALTY.
WHERE IN THE FRAMERS CONSTITUTION IS IT WRITTEN THE WORD PENALTY TO THE GOOD CITIZENS OF AMERICA?

@MataHarley: The problem you and I are having here is that I’m a former engineer and a practical sort of guy. When you say, “education is the battleground”, to me that’s like saying “I believe in world peace and the brotherhood of all mankind”. We *know* that kids are being brainwashed with liberal poison in the public schools, but just saying “we need to focus on education” does nothing to fix the problem.

Getting more conservatives to become teachers? I have to LOL at that one. In the first place, conservatives don’t *want* to be teachers. Who would in the current environment where you have put up with the liberal PC bullsh*t? In the second place, conservatives are weeded out early on by the unions and the professional bureaucrats.

I want to know what your plan is. How do we get from where we are, to a place where kids have an understanding of our Constitutional form of government and why it’s the only form of government where people can live together in peace. That’s all I’m asking.

@Skook:

Mata, the answer is in the form of internet degrees

That’s a great observation, and I would like to point out that even high schools offer online classes now. I know this because my grandson took some of his that way.

We have to remember, though, that the Jesuits had a point when they wrote: “Give me the child until he is seven and I care not who has him thereafter.” By the time they get to college, it’s probably too late.

This is discussed in my prior link to “The Comprachicos” (The buyers and sellers of Children).

@Liberal1 (objectivity):

The 3/5 compromise counted population specifically for the purpose of the Census and refers to persons “held in bondage.” The decennial Census is required by the Constitution — it determines the number of Congressmen that a state can have. Fewer people in the Census count for a state = less power for that state in Washington D.C.

When the Constitutiuon was being written, the anti-slavery Yankees wanted persons held in bondage to count for zero and thus cost slave-holding states political power. The slave-holding Southerners wanted persons held in bondage to count at 100% and thus get full congressional representation for persons not able to excercise the rights of citizens. The 3/5 compromise was the best deal the Yankees could get and still form a Federal government that included all the former colonies. ‘Progressive’ propagandists like Liberal-D (subjectivity) get this exactly backwards again and again.

The matter of ‘the peculiar institution’ was settled in blood eighty years later. No outcome other than war could ever have resulted from two such different cultures co-existing on the same continent. The current Federal government was the winner in that war and the government that represented the Southern racial supremacy culture was erased; and the remnants of that culture were finished off for good in the 1960s by the same victorious Federal government — another thing these leftist Nimrods want to pretend never happened.

There’s nobody left to blame, genius – the Constitution has been amended, the racial culture is gone and the original perpetrators are all dead.

Now there are other things to worry about.