America has converted from a nation of laws to a nation driven by politics. And the conversion, random and unplanned at first, is now calculated and deliberate.
America was founded as a republic, with the powers of government clearly enumerated in the Constitution, and its encroachment on our individual lives specifically limited to those powers:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people."
"The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
Could it be any clearer? Bred out of the tyranny of a monarchy, America was brilliantly conceived as a country of limited government that was restricted by constitutional principles and laws.
A few examples of America's conversion to a country ruled by political ideology:
* Should embryonic stem cells be used for medical research? The answer is a legal one: Does such research violate any person's right to life? Is an embryo a "person" within the meaning of the Constitution? That is a question to be answered by the law, and not by religious or personal beliefs.
* May the federal government implement a mandatory health care program on its citizens? The answer is a legal one: The only issues are whether the power to implement such a program is within the government's enumerated powers in the Constitution (it isn't), and whether that program violates a person's Constitutional right to liberty (it does). Politically-tilted discussions about whether Americans will be "better off" with such a program are totally irrelevant.
* May gays legally marry? Here's the law "(N)or shall any State deprive to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
* Notice that the President refuses to enforce our immigration laws, as the Constitution requires him to do. Notice that the President conducts war, and refers to it as such, without obeying the Constitutional requirement that he first obtain a Congressional declaration of war. Notice how the President spearheads a "progressive" movement that labels the Constitution as out-of-date and argues it must be interpreted to reflect "modern times"...that is, his political philosophy.
Bailouts, stimulus handouts, government encroachments into and takeover of energy, oil, auto, banking, automobile companies, are outside the government's Constitutionally enumerated powers, and illegal. Even those who are on the right side of those issues generally base their positions on personal political beliefs. We pretty much know how people will feel about an issue if we first ask them their political persuasion.
The very concern the Founders had of runaway government intrusion and control over our lives, is now the guiding principle of the Obama administration. It is intentional, devious and dangerous to our eroding freedom.
Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter: "Fragile as reason is and limited as law is as the institutionalized medium of reason, that's all we have standing between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled, undisciplined feeling."
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