The words presidential immunity are not in the Constitution. What is in Article II is the required presidential oath to “faithfully execute the Office of President” and “to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” This with, “he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” make the president the custodian of the Constitution. Section 4, of the same Article identifies the major intolerable threats to the executive branch as “Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes,” but requires removal “from Office on Impeachment for and conviction of.” Only the Senate could do the conviction part and it voted to acquit President Trump. A person tried twice for the same crime, which Democrats are now doing to Trump, is forbidden by Amendment 5. Have these crimes become so prevalent that presidential immunity should not protect them? Yes!
Nothing is more powerful than confession!! We can not allow Biden’s potential use of presidential immunity to hide this or his classified documents crimes as a U.S. Senator or Vice president, nor his crimes of the last three years as president.
For 234 years, from the dawn of this Republic until now, no current or former president has ever been criminally prosecuted for official acts committed while serving. Trial (impeachment) and Senate conviction was seen as sufficient for any bad actors. This was unbroken tradition through 44 presidents—but none of these were accused of treason or bribery which now can be hidden behind presidential immunity.
Separation of powers is a major tenet of the Constitution with none of the three branches of government, executive, judicial or legislative having controlling power over the other two. Presidential immunity “flows directly from the exclusive, vesting clause of Article II. In 1803 Chief Justice John Marshall endorsed it, writing in Marbury v Madison that a president’s official acts “can never be examinable by the courts.” President Trump’s public statements and tweets about alleged fraud and irregularity in the federal election fall within the outer perimeter of presidential duty, to which, communicating with the public on matters of election concern is absolutely central” (X22 Reports, not cited hereafter, Ep. 3243b, Dec. 26, 2023, 39:47).
With respect to the attempt to influence the election, Trump says: “Remember, I was not campaigning – the 2020 election was LONG OVER. What I was doing, is bringing to light the fact that the election was without question Rigged and Stolen. As president and Commander-in- Chief, it was my duty to do so! If I did not do this, I would have been in violation of my oath of office, and take Care Clause, which requires the president to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ Therefore I am entitled to total immunity, because that is exactly what I was doing— Taking Care of our country, and guarding it from Rigged and Stolen Elections (EP. 3248B, January 2, 2024, 54:21). He was the president January 6, why would he revolt against himself?
Did Joe Biden admit that he cheated in the Presidential Election of 2020? Some think he did in the following five video taped statements filmed in various settings and times throughout the campaign. 1) “We have put together the most extensive and inclusive, voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.” 2)“Folks we’ve got a lot of work to do. I don’t need you to get me elected. I need you once I am elected.” 3) “It’s no longer just who gets to vote or making it easier for eligible people to vote. It’s about who gets to count the vote or whether your vote counts at all.” 4) “It’s about who gets to count the votes and whether they should count at all.” 5) “It’s about who gets to count the vote, count the vote, count the vote. It’s about election diversion not just whether or not people get to vote. Who counts the votes.” Deep State media outlets censored the above (Assembled by Kanekoathegreat, Ep. 3248B, January 2, 2024,. 57:00). Biden is absolutely right whether these are counted by locals behind walls or in China electronically, the 2020 election was determined by who counted the votes (Ibid. 57:00).
So if presidential immunity allows the judicial branch to go after the executive branch (Trump) can he in turn, once back in office, use it on Biden, even Barack Obama, and others who actually committed treason by overthrowing the government? These wanted his taxes believing that there had to be a hidden crime in them, but found nothing. But it legitimized the Congress Oversight Committee in getting Biden’s also. How do you think we found out about Biden’s 20-plus shell companies and his receiving millions from China, Russia and Ukraine in selling influence and state secrets? This, once the Supreme Court ruled that they could have Trump’s taxes.
After more than three years of time, there is no forensic audit or study document that proves Biden won the presidential election of 2020 but there are dozens that prove that Trump won.
Trump tells Biden if I don’t get immunity neither do you. “You don’t indict your political opponent because he opposes the corrupt election which you know was corrupt. Everybody knows it was corrupt. The American people knows it was corrupt. You do not indict your political opponent.” (Ep. 3254b, January 9, 2024, 53:34). In 3 years and 3 months there has been no evidence produced that Biden won 2020 other than the cheating of that one night and before. All new evidence since, dozens of other studies and reports, documents Trump won.
The Deep State is now going after presidential immunity to get Trump. Once removed and exonerated, Trump can go after previous presidents, more fully exposing the Deep State. Trump has done nothing illegal. Removing presidential immunity is the best way to reveal the crimes of the Deep State actors more fully. In addition to overthrowing the government, Biden could be prosecuted for many actual crimes, “including illegally receiving massive amounts of money from foreign countries, including China, Ukraine, and Russia, paying off Ukraine to fire an unfriendly prosecutor, allowing millions of people to illegally enter and destroy our country, surrendering in Afghanistan, with hundreds dead, many Americans left behind, and handing over millions of dollars worth of the best military equipment anywhere on earth, the dissemination of American wealth through the green, New Scam [Deal]…” (EP. 3248B, January 2, 2024, 48:08).
Maybe if presidential immunity were removed it would end the endless Deep State wars (the industrial military complex) that President Eisenhower warned about. Perhaps fearing future lawsuits because of secret combinations for wealth and power would serve as the deterrent.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org Column # 751
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On March 15, 2021, Joe Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act . Not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted in favor of this legislation, as only 9% of which had anything to do with the Wuhan China Virus. This in light of the fact that a trillion dollars was not yet spent from the money previously allotted for COVID relief.
Prior to this the first spending package for the virus was last year March 27, 2020, when Congress added $2.5 trillion to the national debt with the The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) giving most adults $1,200. Most were jubilant to receive a stimulus check but to pay this single stimulus back today would cost each taxpayer $18,863 since about 50% of adults pay no income taxes (Compare U.S. Debt Clocks Nov. 2019 with April 2020). I would rather not have the $1200 stimulus if it costs me $18,863 later.
On December 27, 2020, President Trump signed a second Stimulus Bill of $900 billion giving most adults another stimulus of $600. We have not assessed what the payback for this particular stimulus will be.
These three stimulus packages ($2.5T, $900 B, $1.9T) added increased the national debt by $5.3 trillion in less than one year. This total is more than the combined cost of World War I, $334 billion, and World War II, $4.1 trillion “adjusted for inflation to today’s dollars” (“The Cost of U.S. Wars Then and Now,”Military History, by Norwich University, October 20, 2020). Such debt is a recipe for bankrupting America and those doing it must know this.
So what is a trillion dollars? To begin with a trillion is the number one followed by twelve zeros. A trillion dollars is a thousand billion and a billion is a thousand million. One mathematician gave us a very practical way of evaluating our outstanding debt. One trillion one-dollar bills stacked atop each other (not end to end but flat) would reach nearly 68,000 miles into space—a third of the way to the moon (See CNN News Cast, Feb. 4, 2009). If so, the debt thus far incurred by the coronavirus alone, $5.3 trillion, would reach to the moon and two-thirds back to earth.
Senator Mitch McConnell gave another illustration just as awe striking. He calculated that if we spent a million dollars every day since Jesus was born, we still would not have spent a trillion dollars—only three-fourths of a trillion dollars (Ibid).
Who will pay these three coronavirus loans? Since we never liquidate our debt—only increase and pass it on to posterity—our grandchildren yet unborn, will be saddled with this debt plus the interest on it. How can I prophesy with such certainty? The United States has not been free of debt since Warren G. Harding 100 years ago (US Debt by President by Dollar and Percentage Who Increased the U.S. Debt the Most? Depends on How You Measure It. By Kimberly Amadeo, Updated November 04, 2019)?
Yes the coronavirus is a massive rogue wave that has sunk thousands of businesses in its path but following closely behind it is a tsunami many times larger—the national debt—that is and will bring down this country because our children cannot pay it either. Our national debt has soared to $28.09 trillion (USDebtClock.org). This debt in one dollar bills laid flat atop each other, not just the COVID portion as mentioned, will now go to the moon and back almost five times. We are drowning in debt.
I ask students, “Who gets to go without so that this debt can be paid?” “Go without!!!?” That is a concept foreign to this generation!! They do not know, and neither do their parents and grandparents who laid it on their backs. When they are told that their share to liquidate this debt is not just $37,726 for the coronavirus bailouts, but $224,456 per taxpayer—due immediately, they get angry (see USDebtClock.org). “Someone should have told me that government handouts are not free.”
The 13th Amendment ending slavery has been rescinded, they are America’s new slaves. Bondage was given them before their birth, or while they were in the womb, or before they were old enough to know what it meant to be sold into slavery. The past and present generations wanted nice costly programs for free and were willing to sell their children to have them. Worse, the older generation is still anxious to incur even more debt on our defenseless children and grandchildren. Are we not the most debt addicted, insensitive generation in U.S. History?
Yes these are hard times and in such adding to a national debt is said to be justified. What isn’t justified is that in prosperous times, of which most of the last 70 years have been, we should, and could have, liquidated that debt. Then a $5.3 trillion debt to handle a virus could have been repaid in the next prosperous time or perhaps by the children, but not now. We have squandered our wealth in foreign endless wars, foreign aid and domestic welfare.
Both parties are responsible for this debt. I had hoped with the robust Trump economy (the best in several decades) that we could start paying off the debt but now chances of removing, even the coronavirus portion of the national debt enslaving us, is slim. Biden proposes $3 trillion for infrastructure updating. Trillions more debt Democrats plan for reparations for descendants of slaves, the green new deal, and free college for everyone. It is hard to believe that the Democrats are not purposely pushing us over a cliff destroying the once wealthiest nation in world history.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
In March Congress added $2.3 trillion to the national debt with the stimulus package. Most were jubilant to receive a stimulus check. But what does this mean? Just to pay this back today would cost each taxpayer $18,863 (compare U.S. Debt Clocks Nov. 2019 with April 2020).
In May the Treasury Department announced that it will borrow another $3 trillion this quarter making our total coronavirus indebtedness $5.3 trillion and thus what we owed for the smaller loan more than doubles (Matt Egan, The US is becoming the king of debt. It’s a necessary risk, CNN Business). To pay both loans in August would be more than $37,726 per U.S. taxpayer.
Those who pay no federal taxes, which is about 50% of American adults, are not assessed. “The latest spending packages are estimated to be worth about 14% of the country’s economy…the national debt soared above 100% of GDP” (“Coronavirus: US to borrow record $3tn as spending soars,” BBC News, May 4, 2020).
So what is a trillion dollars? To begin with a trillion is the number one followed by twelve zeros. A trillion dollars is a thousand billion and a billion is a thousand million. These numbers mean very little to the average person. who count their money in tens, twenties and hundreds .
One mathematician gave us a very practical way of evaluating our outstanding debt. One trillion one-dollar bills stacked atop each other (not end to end but flat) would reach nearly 68,000 miles into space—a third of the way to the moon (See CNN News Cast, Feb. 4, 2009). If so, the debt thus far incurred by the coronavirus alone, $5.3 trillion, would reach to the moon and two-thirds back to earth.
Senator Mitch McConnell gave another illustration just as awe striking. He calculated that if we spent a million dollars every day since Jesus was born, we still would not have spent a trillion dollars—only three-fourths of a trillion dollars (Ibid).
Who will pay these two coronavirus loans? Since we never liquidate our debt—only increase and pass it on to posterity—our grandchildren yet unborn, will be saddled with this debt plus the interest on it. How can I prophesy with such certainty? The United States has not been free of debt since Warren G. Harding 98 years ago (US Debt by President by Dollar and Percentage Who Increased the U.S. Debt the Most? Depends on How You Measure It. By Kimberly Amadeo Updated November 04, 2019)?
Yes the coronavirus is a massive rogue wave that has sunk many businesses in its path but following closely behind it is a tsunami almost six times its size—the national debt—that is and will bring down this country because our children cannot pay it either. Our national debt has soared to $25.5 trillion, and with the newly announce $3 trillion loan to $28.5 trillion. Our debt in one dollar bills laid flat atop each other will now go to the moon and back almost five times.
I ask students, “Who gets to go without so that this debt can be paid?” “Go without!!!?” That is a concept foreign to this generation!! They do not know, and neither do their parents and grandparents who laid it on their backs. When they are told that their share to liquidate this debt is not just $37,726 for a coronavirus, but $205,440 per taxpayer—due immediately, they get angry (see USDebtClock.org). Someone should have told them that government handouts are not free.
The 13th Amendment ending slavery has been rescinded, they are America’s new slaves. Bondage was given them before their birth, or while they were in the womb, or before they were old enough to know what it meant to be sold into slavery. The past generation wanted nice costly programs for free and were willing to sell their children to have them. Worse, the older generation is still anxious to incur even more debt on our defenseless children and grandchildren. Are we not the most debt addicted, insensitive generation in U.S. History?
Yes these are hard times and in such adding to a national debt is said to be justified. What isn’t justified is that in prosperous times, of which most of the last 70 years have been, we should, and could have, liquidated that debt. Then a $5.3 trillion debt to handle a virus could have been repaid in the next prosperous time or perhaps by the children, but not now. We have squandered our wealth in foreign endless wars, foreign aid and domestic welfare.
I had hoped with the robust Trump economy (the best in several decades) that we could get to paying back the debt. I previously published that we could survive and turn things around if we did three things: made significant cuts in our top 6 major expenditures, did not elect a big spending congress, and did not incur a big funding event. Unfortunately we made no major cuts in spending, maintained a big spending congress, and did incur a big funding event—the coronavirus.
Trump remains our only hope for rebuilding the economy because he already did it once, but chances of removing even the coronavirus portion of the national debt enslaving us is slim.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
In listening to the 2020 Democratic Presidential debates or President Donald Trump’s many addresses to the American people, you would not know that we have exceeded 23 trillion dollars in debt and that to liquidate this debt $186,577 per taxpayer is due immediately (see, https://www.usdebtclock.org/). America cannot pay its existing bills.
Four trillion of this debt is from eight years of George W. Bush and nine from eight years of Barack Obama—the two biggest spending presidents in U.S. History. Obama alone doubled the national debt and accumulated more debt than all previous presidents put together. The major reason is government gifting to buy elections. Each election year more freebies are offered.
In the second democratic presidential debate held in Miami, June 28, 2019, Free healthcare . In other words, anyone in the world who comes to this continent and crosses our border, although it is against the law to do so, will be given free healthcare thereafter paid for by the American taxpayer. This one freebie, by itself, would bankrupt America, let alone free college and all the rest they have promised.
In late October, 2019, presidential front-runner Elizabeth Warren, released her Medicare For All plan. Its cost, 52 trillion dollars over ten years No such assets exist.
Democrats want everything free or subsidized— healthcare, housing, food, even free college. They can’t give away enough. Where will all that money come from?
So what is a trillion dollars? To begin with a trillion is the number one followed by twelve zeros. A trillion dollars is a thousand billion and a billion is a thousand million. This still means very little to students who count their money in fives, tens and twenties.
One mathematician gave us a more practical way to evaluate our outstanding debt. One trillion one-dollar bills stacked atop each other (not end to end but flat) would reach nearly 68,000 miles into space—a third of the way to the moon . If so, the debt incurred under President Obama alone, $9 trillion, would reach the moon and back and to the moon again. Moreover, if you like traveling atop this stack of ones, our total $23 trillion in debt today would take you to the moon and back almost four times (See CNN News Cast, Feb. 4, 2009).
Senator Mitch McConnell gave another illustration just as awe striking. He calculated that if we spent a million dollars every day since Jesus was born we still would not have spent a trillion dollars—only three-fourths of a trillion dollars (Ibid).
I ask students, “Who gets to go without so that this debt can be paid?” “Go without!!!?” That is a concept foreign to this generation!! They do not know, and neither do their parents and grandparents who laid it on their backs. When they are told that their share to liquidate this debt is $186,577 per taxpayer —due immediately. (see USDebtClock.org), they get angry. Someone should have told them that government handouts are not free.
The 13th Amendment ending slavery has been rescinded, they are America’s new slaves. Bondage was given them before their birth, or while they were in the womb, or before they were old enough to know what it meant to be sold into slavery. The past generation wanted nice costly programs for free and were willing to sell their children to have them. Worse, the older generation is still anxious to incur even more debt on our defenseless children and grandchildren. Are we not the most debt addicted, insensitive generation in U.S. History?
The favored method to deal with this problem is print more fiat money. But expanding the money supply just reduces the value of the money that you have in your pocket. Prices go up. My Camaro bought new in 1968 cost $ 2,700. Had I instead put the money under a mattress and tried to purchase a Camaro today it would cost more than ten times that much. In this instance money has lost 90% of its value since 1968 Those on fixed incomes are robbed as surely as if a thief had lifted their wallet or purse. Those on pensions cannot receive a raise to compensate for the value loss caused by their own government.
The last president to fully pay for his government was Warren G. Harding in 1922. Thereafter all presidents added to the debt by spending more than they received. Deficits from Ronald Reagan on exceeded a trillion or more (US Debt by President by Dollar and Percentage Who Increased the U.S. Debt the Most? Depends on How You Measure It. By Kimberly Amadeo Updated November 04, 2019).
We print whatever money we want to purchase whatever we wish. Neither party is serious about stopping the debt and removing the bondage that we have imposed upon our children and grandchildren. Who cares if our debt of dollar bills stacked atop one another can go to the moon and back almost four times, or that pensions loose their value, or that we haven’t fully paid our debts in 98 years, so long as the government fills our stomachs and the new slaves pay for it.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
I met R. Sellner Reese about 9 years ago and found her story one of the most compelling and unusual ever; she lived under two of the most murderous socialist governments ever: Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. “I was born under Hitler, grew up under Stalin and worked under communist dictators Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honnecker in East Germany,” she told me. Few had more practical experience under socialism than she.
She and her three children came to America in 1985 for political and religious freedom requesting political asylum. Her main message: “socialism never worked under these regimes and it will never work in America either.” Even then, under Obamacare, she saw America falling into the same trap of repeated lies and false promises that duped her German friends and neighbors.
She spoke to my classes when I got to the section dealing with socialism. I introduced her as having lived under two of the three biggest tyrants in world history, with China’s Mao Tse Tung being the third. She vehemently objected to my using the term communist instead of socialists. She made it clear that there was no difference and that the distinction only existed in the West. “We only used the term socialist.” I never made that mistake again. I had tried to separate the two as though one was tolerable, the other the more violent of the same thing.
“Hitler promised National Socialism but gave us tyranny instead,” she said. “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” Some warned the people but the promises were so desirable and powerful. “My friend’s father told other people, that Hitler is a liar and will bring Germany down. One evening, two men came to his apartment and took him in for questioning before the police. Five days later, the wife received a letter that he has passed away with a heart problem. The family was told his grave was at the city cemetery. The family was so afraid to ask questions, and nobody knew what the Gestapo had done. No paper concerning his death was ever found. I personally know so many people who have suffered in the Nazi time.”
A second Hitler promise: “Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.” The socialist promise that the government would take from the rich and give to the poor only made everyone poor and resulted in human suffering and death, and eventually war. “In my school class of 40 children, only 8 had a father after the war. Women had to take all the responsibility for family and their future.” So much for the socialist promises.
After the war the Soviets held the eastern part of Germany where she lived, (renamed East Germany) under socialism with Joseph Stalin. “We had to learn how wonderful the Red Army was and that socialism will take over the whole world to make all people free.” She remembered the fruitless promises of prosperity under Hitler. Socialism never delivered then or under Stalin. “We had little food and I never saw a banana, and chocolate was only a dream. We had to stand in long waiting lines for food. When I finally got to the counter, there might not be anything left. To buy a car, there was a 10-15 year waiting time. Of course, you must have cash!”
Still, even midst all this poverty, the message went out, “SOCIALISM IS THE ONLY TRUTH ON THIS EARTH!” But the real truth was that the people could not choose their education or occupation. “The government had control over your personal life, our work, living place, childcare, school and the ‘STASI’ (Socialistic Secret Service) constantly watched us. If you resisted you ended up in prison and your children could be taken from you and adopted.”
A visit to Russia, the motherland of socialism, in 1982 revealed the failure of the promise of socialism there as well. “The citizens of Russia were so poor. Bad housing, not enough food and clothing.”
In 1985 Reese was finally able to leave socialist East Germany and come to the United States under political asylum. What she sees here in recent years is too similar to the socialist worlds’ from which she escaped, Reese says, and it frightens her that we are taking the same path of forced sharing the wealth and socialized medicine and so many other things, and she is forced to watch tyranny return one more time.
When she sees Congress having its own healthcare plan rather than taking the same one forced on the people, visions of privileged healthcare for the socialist leaders in East Germany comes to mind. She experienced rationed healthcare when her mother was declared too old for an operation and died two years later because resources would be better spent on the young, but knew that such would not be denied a government official.
Reese then warned, .”It can happen in America!!” What is happening in America right now is scary! I’d like to tell everybody, socialism will never work in America either.”
What would she now say with the Democratic Party openly promoting socialism.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org
As government controls more portions of the economy, democracy transcends to socialism. Sometime in this transition democracy ceases to be democracy although the term continues to be used, and no-one can identify that moment when it is too late to pull free.
So why should the dependent class, defined as the approximately 47% who pay no federal income tax and are largely those who benefit from food stamps, subsidized housing, healthcare and other assistance programs, fear socialism? Because socialism has a history of ending assistance programs. Democracy enables a marriage between the assisted class with their vote power and politicians wishing to empower themselves by, in effect, transferring wealth from those who have to the poor. Once established this marriage self perpetuates and amplifies. Try seeking office today on a platform that ends all governmental assistance programs—or, even just one, food stamps.
The brakes (limits) of the Constitution are powerful when observed but they cannot perform well once gifting (bribing the dependent class for their vote) has been introduced into the body politic. Once ingrained it cannot prevent itself from offering larger and more gifts until elections are bidding wars without constitutional restraints. This feeds an enlarging national debt that can never be paid. We see this today in the Democratic Party presidential debates: free college, reparations for the descendants of ex-slaves, a guaranteed income, and free healthcare for everyone in the world willing to cross our borders illegally. In exchange for your vote the socialist politician advocates that everything be free. This is his most powerful lure and works well on idealistic youth and the already dependent but it risks collapsing the economy, democracy, the Constitution and liberty.
Aristotle recognized this when he wrote, “Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotism.” The deadly virus of democracy is voter gifting by politicians willing to sell their souls for elected office.
King Solon of Athens created the governmental form a republic because the philosopher king believed that man should govern himself and, once he had the republic in place, left Athens to attend the University of Alexandria in Egypt never to return. The new idea, personal freedom, resulted in five major unintended consequences: a booming economy, a creative and intellectual surge, an ever enlarging voter base, an unequal distribution of wealth because not all were equally gifted or industrious and, finally, class envy because, although all who worked were comparatively better off from pre-republic standards, some still had more.
The ever enlarging voter base deteriorated into a democracy which had no brakes, no resistance to class envy and the marriage between the expanding less productive who could link their vote with unprincipled politicians willing to transfer the fruits of labor from those who produce to those who do not in exchange for their gaining power. Democracy degenerates into gifting but soon enough there does not exist enough money to sustain the gifting and it ends with an economic crash. Once despotism replaces democracy there are no constitutional checks.
Rome repeated the same experiment with a similar result about a century later. Bread and circuses (free food and entertainment) destroyed the noble idea.
The previous failures were known to the well-read Founding Fathers who wanted the burst in creativity and general prosperity for all as delivered in a republic without the class envy and voter gifting. What if the powers of government were divided and separated into three branches with each a check on the other two and each given a list of the things they could do with gifting excluded? What if all powers not specifically mentioned in Article I, Section 8, remained with the states and the people as stipulated? What if all taxes must be spent only on the items on the list? What if the federal government could not assume additional power without the consent of 3/4th of the states? The government could not take over the economy by confiscation or regulation and the poor could never destroy the rich or devour the middle class. We could never degenerate into democracy then to the most common form of despotism today, socialism—fathered by Karl Marx.
Not a single sentence in the Constitution gives a benefit to anyone, only an environment of equality where one can maximize his talents.
In our republic all votes are not equal. Under the Constitution as designed only the House of Representatives was democratically elected by the people. State legislators voted for U.S. Senators, an Electoral College selected the President, and he appointed supreme court justices for life confirmed only by the Senate.
We must apply the brakes of the Constitution to retain our republic. Otherwise in time the productive classes cannot provide the money that is demanded of them to feed and otherwise subsidize the less productive class. It already can’t. We exceed 22 trillion dollars in debt. Each taxpayer owes the federal government $182,881, payable today (See USDebtClock.org). Despite unrealistic promises, socialism gives only slavery and shared poverty.
Gifting must end. When the banks crash a new government will form and it will not honor the debt that destroyed its predecessor government, nor is it likely to fund social security, medicare, unlimited war , income security, federal pensions or any other program that contributed to it. Under socialism freedom does not survive.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
