Thread: What Rule of Law?

One of the most threatening deviations from the Constitution this nation has taken has been the fundamental break down of the rule of law. The Government seems relatively free to tax, regulate, meddle with, go to war, and pass laws without any restriction or due process. We all know what the rule of law means to us: it means that we do whatever the government says we have to do, or else we get in trouble. But what is the rule of law as it applies to the Federal Government? How is it possible that the Federal Government can do just about anything it wants to, without Constitutional justification.



It seems that the "General Welfare Clause", the "Commerce Clause", and the Sixteenth Amendment, have given unto the Federal Government nearly universal power. If the Congress and the President think that a law is good for us, then they are acting on behalf of the General Welfare. If the government wants to regulate something, it must only be bought and sold across state lines, and that is the only justification they need. Somehow, the 16th Amendment has empowered the government to apportion all kinds of arbitrary and direct taxes against its' citizens. Therefore, almost everything can be regulated and almost any law can be passed, without any objective prohibition on the part of a legal document.



We've been left with arbitrary governance and Democratic Rule. Whichever mobs, special interests, political parties, or political elites control a slight majority of our Government, they have an almost unlimited power over the American People. This is why Government is the biggest business in America. If an industry invests enough capital in influencing government, they can have their competition legislated against, they can have their industry subsidized, or foreign competitors punished, or any number of avenues that benefit them at other people's expense. As long as this is legal, perfectly moral and responsible business owners and industry leaders, too, must invest their capital to protect themselves against predatory interests lobbying against them.



This is no way to run a country. This is not "Rule of Law". This is "Mob Rule". This is arbitrary governance. This is government by whimsy, by force, by majority, by elites. Why do you think "the right" and "the left" fight so vigorously against each other? Because the stakes are so incredibly high! If you lose power, you completely lose your rights. If you gain power, then everyone has to lobby you, invest in you, listen to you, obey you. That is not the kind of free nation our forefathers came to this nation to create.

That's all true but it's really worse. Contracts are now subject to federal invalidation or pressure. When banks are required to grant loans to deadbeats what do you expect to happen? When bondholders have their General Motors bonds scrapped so the government can pay off the union, what's the incentive to buy bonds? And it isn't just corporations. ACORN, unions, really any group that promises to deliver votes get preferential, and illegal, treatment.



And we just had another first. The Kennedy family gets to go through Senator Ted Kennedy's papers before they go public and extract anything they find embarrassing.

[quote name='patrickt' date='13 April 2010 - 10:55 AM' timestamp='1271170545' post='139092']

That's all true but it's really worse. Contracts are now subject to federal invalidation or pressure. When banks are required to grant loans to deadbeats what do you expect to happen? When bondholders have their General Motors bonds scrapped so the government can pay off the union, what's the incentive to buy bonds? And it isn't just corporations. ACORN, unions, really any group that promises to deliver votes get preferential, and illegal, treatment.



And we just had another first. The Kennedy family gets to go through Senator Ted Kennedy's papers before they go public and extract anything they find embarrassing.

[/quote]



That's not surprising. This President has been as much of a nightmare as I thought he would be. And now all these idiots I know that voted for the guy are making excuses about how they didn't know he'd be like this and how they thought he was a moderate like Bill Clinton. Some people are just easily led sheep, period.

[quote name='Inkslinger' date='14 April 2010 - 07:13 AM' timestamp='1271243618' post='139388']

What about the quiet idiots that voted for Bush TWICE and sat back while Bush shit all over the constitution?

[/quote]



What about them? I'm willing to bet most of those people voted for McCain.

[quote name='Inkslinger' date='14 April 2010 - 07:28 AM' timestamp='1271244482' post='139395']

I guess my point is that how can anyone take a rightwing conservative's opinion as valid when they were obviously WRONG the past 8 years.

[/quote]



Wrong about what?

[quote name='Inkslinger' date='14 April 2010 - 07:30 AM' timestamp='1271244651' post='139398']

What a great president he was, how the war was righteous, how un-american people were that opposed him, you know, the stuff they pretend didn't happen today.[/quote]



And who do you think those people are? They don't contribute to the arena of ideas anyway, so what do they matter?



Some parts of the Patriot Act were disturbing and most of those parts have been overruled. Is it a bit scary that so many Republicans are against Gay Marriage, Gays in the military, Drugs, Prostitution, etc? Yes - these people who say they believe in liberty and all that, seem to be very uptight and tight-assed when it comes to social issues. They are all for the government laying down arbitrary laws when those laws targets "undesirables".



But for the most part, those aren't the people I see out there right now. I see people concerned with three issues:



1. Government Spending & Debt.

2. Taxes & Regulation.

3. A Lower Standard of Living for average Americans.

[quote name='Burning Giraffe' date='14 April 2010 - 08:14 AM' timestamp='1271247281' post='139414']

And who do you think those people are? They don't contribute to the arena of ideas anyway, so what do they matter?



Some parts of the Patriot Act were disturbing and most of those parts have been overruled. Is it a bit scary that so many Republicans are against Gay Marriage, Gays in the military, Drugs, Prostitution, etc? Yes - these people who say they believe in liberty and all that, seem to be very uptight and tight-assed when it comes to social issues. They are all for the government laying down arbitrary laws when those laws targets "undesirables".



But for the most part, those aren't the people I see out there right now. I see people concerned with three issues:



1. Government Spending & Debt.

2. Taxes & Regulation.

3. A Lower Standard of Living for average Americans.

[/quote]



You don't see them out there? Are you looking? Maybe not prostitution but every one of the others has made major news and done it recently. It's those social issues that DO mean one hell of alot to people and why many DO vote for the democrats. If the repubs would get their heads out of their asses and support civil liberties such as these do you realize how much support they would pick up?