That Government is Best which Governs Least (Part 1)
as published: http://www.scadvocate.com/2013/12/10/editorial-keith-a-patterson/
While it remains unclear which Founding Father originated the above truism, its insight, wisdom, and sheer reality are self-evident. Sitting among the ashes and discarded refuse of what was once the greatest society in world history, the adage seems quite an understatement. That’s because destruction of the American republic from within itself (without a shot fired, as long predicted by America’s enemies) is nearing completion largely due to this precept being ignored – ignored both by the governed and by those doing the so-called governing.
As destructive and deadly as the President’s annihilation of the world’s best ever health care system is, Obamacare is merely the latest in a long line of un-American, power grabbing, freedom crushing, tyrannical, people enslaving, UNCONSTITUTIONAL government initiatives. Even if all “grand schemes” of the past century were born of good intentions (most are documented otherwise), they would still incontrovertibly demonstrate the above maxim. None perform as they were sold to the public. All cost many times what Americans were told they would. Each is fraught with costly waste, fraud, and abuse. The detrimental unintended consequences (or intended?) usually far outweigh the propounded benefit. Clearly, government isn’t the solution of first resort, cannot effectively do most of what it undertakes, and is best limited to its constitutionally authorized or mandated functions and services.
The relentless push toward committing national suicide through Comprehensive Immigration Reform (code for creating 30-50 million new left wing voters), rather than the Federal Government doing its actual job, securing our borders under existing statutes, vividly illustrates the problem. Is 7-10 million small business employees already having lost their healthcare insurance under Obamacare frightening? Let’s see what hits the fan when the estimated additional 150 million employees of medium and large companies soon experience the same.
Of course that’s all by design and is the intent of Obamacare. At that point Washington will pronounce that “Single Payer is the only answer! We must enact it now, before this broken system, destroyed by Capitalism, collapses, leaving the American people without healthcare!” Code for “Washington now owns you, controls you completely, and if you ever become seriously ill, it is Washington’s decision alone whether you live or die.” The left wing media mocked Sarah Palin for coining the expression “death panel”. Folks, it exists (Independent Payment Advisory Board – IPAB), it’s 15 people, has already issued death sentences, and we’ve not even reached the goal of Single Payer yet!!
Yes, “that government IS best which governs least”, because all this misery and mayhem (and much more) directly result from America’s 100+ years of infatuation with the antithesis of that proverb. During that century, the governed have allowed Progressives and Statists to replace the liberty of our Constitutional Republic with servitude under the all-powerful centralized federal behemoth in Washington today. Broad abuses of the commerce and takings clauses and of the borrowing, spending, and taxing authority, plus judicial legislating and congressional delegating (to unelected regulatory bureaucracies) are a few of the illegal practices by which the overthrow has been perpetrated. The three branches sometimes usurp one another in their insatiable thirst for increased extra-constitutional power and, at times, have colluded to broaden the oppressive powers of their kingdom as a whole.
The Founders feared out-of-control centralized government, and its threat to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for the governed, which we’re living today. They fought literally for years over precise wording to enshrine in our Constitution safeguards against it. In part two, we’ll visit that struggle and the resulting Constitutional language that has been ignored for a century. We’ll look at proposed remedies and means to potentially restore the Constitutional Republic that once existed in North America. Until then, I recommend that patriot readers of this column grow by educating yourselves regarding the Article 5 Convention constitutional amendment process and “nullification”, plus visiting http://CPOTN.com to begin YOUR contribution to the restoration movement.
Keith A. Patterson Burns
