Restoring Freedom - part one

America didn't jump the tracks overnight. If the Republic's ever restored, that won't happen overnight either. The line of deviation from the Founders' intent has accelerated in recent decades. Now we have the fascade, not the substance, of 1776. This is the first in an intended series of posts on putting things back ON track.

Step one: Chaining the beast.

People now see government as a means to get what they want instead of ensuring the environment to seek their own fortune. Elected officials provide the bacon, since it serves their needs too: reelection. Self-seeking interests have always existed, so how did the Framers originally try to keep this trend in check? By limiting authority, and limiting revenue.

The Constitution used to be revered as a contract, giving government specific powers and specific boundaries. Within those limits Congress could take action for the national good, but couldn't unilaterally expand its sphere of influence. The theory worked until people saw Washington D.C. as a Golden Goose and clamored for all the eggs it could lay.

What most people today fail to realize is the Framers specifically prohibited the government from taxing income ('capitation') to provide a general fund. Tarriffs and user fees were deemed adequate to generate revenue to perform the specified functions of government. The 16th Amendment, however, opened the floodgates. A government powerful enough to grant all you want also has the power to take anything you have.

The Framers repeatedly expressed concern over direct democracy and its tendency toward demogoggery. Political scare ads over "catastrophic cuts to Social Security" or "School lunch programs" must have the Founders rolling in their graves. Americans are no longer one people; they're a mishmash of competitors for federal dollars never intended to be collected, much less spent. The more we modified our Republic to introduce direct democracy, the more certain this outcome became.

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." John Adams

Step one then, is: restore the force of the 10th Amendment and repeal the individual income tax, and it will be like removing the fuel and air from a raging fire.

Next time: "Avoiding entangling alliances..."