"Will Our Constitution Stand?" - Rep. Tom McClintock

We have an Imperial President

"This President has increasingly asserted sweeping powers to unilaterally nullify laws that he dislikes, to pick and choose who must obey the law and who need not, and even to impose entirely new laws that Congress has explicitly refused to enact." 
- - Tom McClintock

By Rep. Tom McClintock
Constitutional Federalist Republican
California

Last week the House Judiciary Committee raised the overarching question of our generation: will the American Constitution stand?

All the laws passed under that Constitution have well-developed and well-armed agencies to enforce them, but the Constitution itself has no such protections. It was designed to be internally self-enforcing, with the powers of government clearly divided among three separate and equal branches, each checking the others.

But this self-enforcement mechanism can only work when the powers are clearly delineated and evenly divided; when the officials who exercise those powers are devoted to the Constitution; and when the people insist on the fidelity of those officials to it.

This is the great question for which our generation is deeply answerable.

The Constitution makes it very clear that only Congress may make laws. The principal responsibility of the executive is to take care that those laws be faithfully executed. Yet this President has increasingly asserted sweeping powers to unilaterally nullify laws that he dislikes, to pick and choose who must obey the law and who need not, and even to impose entirely new laws that Congress has explicitly refused to enact.

James Madison, the father of the Constitution, said that its single most important feature was giving the legislative and not the executive branch the decision of war and peace. Yet this President asserts the authority to attack other nations without Congressional authorization.

The Bill of Rights protects all Americans from retribution for expressing their political beliefs; it protects a free press from intimidation; it protects the free and open expression of religious beliefs; it protects individuals from having their records searched or their property seized without due process of law. And yet, these fundamental rights have been made a mockery by the agents of this administration, from the IRS to the Justice Department to the NSA.

These trends may have predated the current administration, but under this President they are approaching the dimensions of a constitutional crisis.

The justification, of course, is the common good, whether conducting warrantless searches in the name of security or ad hoc changes in Obamacare in the name of, well, Obamacare. But the Constitution protects something far more important: the rule of law, which is what divides democracy from despotism.

Ours wouldn’t be the first civilization to succumb to the siren song of a benevolent and all-powerful government. But every society that has fallen for this lie has awakened one morning to discover that the benevolence is gone and the all-powerful government is still there.

"Corruptus in Extremis"

For 225 years, the Constitution has protected us from that fate and, in turn, has been the fountain of American prosperity, happiness, strength and exceptionalism. As the structure of the Constitution is allowed to decay, so too have the blessings it once bestowed upon the nation.

The form is still there—the institutions continue to function—but they no longer serve their principal role to protect the rule of law and the liberty of the people.

The fate of the world’s first republic should be a warning to its greatest Republic. The Roman senate survived its fall for another 400 years, but its nature and purpose had been lost.

Surveying the wreckage of Rome, Edward Gibbon noted that “the principles of a free constitution are irrevocably lost, when the legislative power is dominated by the executive.”

That is precisely what is happening today.

The institutions of our American Republic continue to operate, but the structures within it are rapidly degrading. In this condition, our Constitution is becoming like a rotting porch: we can still discern its form and purpose, but the structure that gave it strength and support is hollowing out through years of abuse and neglect.

The House Judiciary Committee hearing last week was the first step by the Congress to assess the harm already done and to begin reversing that damage before it is too late. But in its current, divided condition, Congress cannot do so alone. Ultimately, it will require the active assistance of the rightful owners of the Constitution, the American people.

For Tom's full article go to Breitbart.com

 

Julius Caesar's speech to the Senate

The Republic dies as the Senate votes their power away to Caesar.  From HBO's Rome,

it gives a good cinematic depiction of the oratory skills of Cicero and Brutus.

The Death of the Republic
The Senate of the Rome killed the Republic when they voted away their legislative and constitutional powers to Caesar.  With the Emperors now exercising both legislative and executive power, the Senate gradually lost their constitutional role until Emperors became supreme and unquestioned God Kings.  Over time the Emperors simply packed the Senate with subservient and obedient lackeys.
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In the U.S. today we are seeing a centralization of power in the Imperial capital of Washington D.C.   Increasingly Senators and Congressmen do not represent their states and districts, but instead they act as agents for the D.C. money machine that elected them to office.  When a President seizes more power his party members often bow down in fear and allow it because the Imperial Executive controls the corrupt centralized campaign money machine. 
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Congress values their jobs and lining their pockets with cold hard special interest cash more than they value the Constitution. 

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is
hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against
the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well,
but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
Daniel Webster
Federalist Party
New Hampshire Congressman
Massachusetts Congressman
U.S. Senator
Secretary of State