Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Top ten reasons the Founding Fathers would do it over again today

From Matt Bianco's blog, The Bound Dragon:

Some of the same reasons Thomas Jefferson enumerated in his Declaration of Independence and for which the Founding Fathers who signed it declared independence from Great Britain and King George III’s rule in 1776 apply today to the current United States Government. And for these, the Founding Fathers would again declare independence, they are: [The Declaration of Independence is shown in roman, Matt's comments in italic.]



1. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. The U.S. government has forbidden the States to govern as their citizens demand by withholding Federal funding which was unnecessarily taken from the States to begin with.

2. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. It passes the laws it wants, against the desires of the people and the mandates of the Constitution, and it does so by promising money to specific bodies of people at the expense of the rest.

3. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. It has attempted to manipulate the employment market by preventing Foreigners from migrating hither and competing for jobs; thereby preventing Employers, in the employment of their private property, from freely entering into contract with Employees as they choose. [I partially disagree with Matt here. Society has the right to protect its institutions from cultural change resulting from immigration of persons having contrary values].


4. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. We have a multitude of Offices that are unconstitutional and used to harass our people, including but not limited to the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, and the Internal Revenue Service.


5. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. Standing Armies are a natural part of our society since World War II, and the result, predicted by the Founding Fathers, is that we have troops stationed in over 150 countries without the Consent of their legislatures in some, and have been involved in numerous wars, conflicts, nation-building projects, and peacekeeping missions since then.

6. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation. We find ourselves subject to the whims of the United Nations, NATO, and a variety of other treaties; not yet among them but coming soon: Copenhagen.

7. For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world. American free trade is hampered, not helped, by treaties like GATT and NAFTA; additionally, we find our government furthering harming our trade with protective tariffs against items like sugar and Chinese tires.


8. For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent. Taxes aren’t just imposed on us without our consent, like the up and coming Cap and Trade tax, but hidden from us through inflation and raised without our consent.


9. For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury. This is especially true as the Writ of Habeas Corpus has been suspended, and not only foreigners but Americans with them have been held without a trial in the name of national defense.


10. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Americans, upset with the current course of his nation, have petitioned our government through signatures, rallies, protests, telephone communications, e-mails, faxes, and most recently through their own state legislatures with the passage of tenth amendment resolutions only to be answered by repeated injury: acts which define a Tyrant.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks for re-posting my blog.

Re: [I partially disagree with Matt here. Society has the right to protect its institutions from cultural change resulting from immigration of persons having contrary values].

That is exactly what King George III believed and it led to secession. By limiting immigration, the government is basically violating my property rights and my right to freely contract with the persons of my choosing, in this case, immigrants.

The real problem with immigration is the fact that they come and take advantage of our socialist system: welfare, medicaid, education, etc.

The fix is to rid society of those plagues, not to prevent more people from taking advantage of them by violating my rights (noted above).

At any rate, I love your blog, Harold, keep up the good work! And, Happy Thanksgiving!