The American Founding generation fought a long, bloody war to free themselves from a tyrannical government, only to see the people eventually embrace the very system they struggled to throw off.

That may seem like a stinging indictment, but careful examination of U.S. governance today reveals that it rests on essentially the same philosophical foundation as the 18th century British system Americans rejected.

The founding generation developed a brand new conception of government, resting it on the consent of the governed and the idea that governing institutions must operate within constitutional constraints. Today, we still see the vestiges of those founding ideals in political rhetoric and popular conscience, but the U.S. government long ago threw off constitutional fetters and now functions much like the English system Americans fought to free themselves from.

In Rights of Man, Thomas Paine captured the essence of American constitutionalism that evolved during the Revolution, characterizing the Pennsylvania constitution as “a political bible.”

“Nothing was more common when any debate rose on the principles of a bill, or on the extent of any species of authority, then for members to take the printed Constitution out of their pocket, and read the chapter with which such matter in debate was connected.”

In America, law was king and constitutions stood as the supreme law of the land.

It wasn’t that the British system lacked a constitution, but its unwritten nature and the English conception of its place in the political order was vastly different than the one that evolved in the American states.

In American thought, constitutions remained above governments. They limited the action of every governmental branch, and political systems were subject to words of their constitutions. In short, constitutions stood as the supreme law of the land, and the entire system of government flowed out of them.

The Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution captures the essence of American constitutional thought.

“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.” [Emphasis added]

In the English conception, the constitution was not a superior law set above the government. In a sense it was the government. The actions of Parliament, the courts and the King formed the substance of the constitution and were in no way limited by it.

In the British system, the people were not sovereign – Parliament was. In essence, the government itself enjoyed supremacy. As historian Gordon S. Wood put it in the Creation of the American Republic, any limits on Parliament were strictly theoretical – even moral and natural law restrictions. Constitutional and legal limits only bound lawmakers as far as lawmakers were willing to be bound.

For the Englishman, there was no distinction between the “constitution or frame of government” and the “system of laws.” They were the same. Every act of Parliament was, in essence, part of the constitution. Wood quotes Blackstone to make this point.

“The English constitution therefore could not be any sort of fundamental law. Most eighteenth-century writers…could not conceive of the constitution as anything anterior and superior to the government and ordinary law, but rather regarded itself, as ‘that assemblage of laws, customs and institutions which form the general system; according to which the several powers of the state are distributed, and their respective rights are secured to the different members of the community.’ The English constitution was not, as the Americans eventually came to see with condescension, committed to parchment.” [Emphasis original]

Wood makes the implications of this system crystal clear, writing, “All law customary and statutory was thus constitutional.”

In a nutshell, the 18th century British system the Americans went to war to free themselves from rested on a living, breathing constitution. The government itself defined and enforced whatever limits it might have. Essentially, it was unlimited in power and authority.

As American political thought evolved, the English systems became absurd. Political power was conceived as limited, first by principle, and second by the will of the people as expressed through written constitutions.

The founding generation believed equity – justice according to natural law or right – bound and limited all political power. Government served a limited purpose, as Thomas Jefferson put it in the Declaration of Independence, “to secure these rights,” life, liberty and property. It followed that the people establishing government retained the right and authority to maintain it within those limits. Government was not supreme; it was merely an agent of the people. Written constitutions served a limiting purpose. They provide the “political bible” Paine referred to, specifically circumscribing the scope of governmental power. As Paine put it:

A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution, is power without a right.”

Within this philosophical framework, a sovereign government institution such as Parliament is fundamentally tyrannical.

Even a casual look at American governance today reveals a system having much more in common with the 18th century British model than the one the founding generation forged nearly 250 years ago. America operates under a “living breathing” constitution with the U.S. Supreme Court taking on the role of sovereign.

In 1776, the British Parliament acted with absolute sovereign authority. Today, the federal government rules with that same kind of unlimited power. The federal government determines the extent of its own authority through the Supreme Court. Any limits on Congress or the president are merely theoretical, constrained only by the whims of five out of nine politically connected lawyers. Every opinion of the Supreme Court becomes “part of the fabric of the Constitution.”

For all practical purposes, the federal government today operates without any limits at all. Everything the federal government does and approves is considered “constitutional.”

Even though the founders committed the U.S. Constitution to parchment, judges, politicians and academics have morphed the meaning of words and changed the character of the “supreme law of the land” into something that the framers and ratifiers would scarcely recognize.

Americans won the Revolution, but they squandered the fruits of victory in a quest for government solutions to every problem. Instead of a limited government committed to protecting basic rights – life, liberty and property – we have an institution that attempts to control every aspect of our lives.

We have become what our forefathers sought to destroy.

Mike Maharrey, Tenth Amendment Center

Major Poll Has Great News For Trump” [Daily Wire story]

A new poll has some astonishing news for those who keep seeing President Trump losing in polls in head-to-head competition with the leading Democratic Party presidential candidates Democrats: All three leading Democratic candidates — former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — have lower favorability ratings than President Trump.

It makes sense, at least if there are still Americans who love freedom.

The Democratic Party has become decisively, openly and unflinchingly ANTI-freedom. They are now — officially and by the open admission of each of their candidates — in favor of repealing the Bill of Rights, including the First and Second Amendments. They oppose borders. They openly celebrate terrorist members of Congress. They tolerate — and in some cases endorse — openly violent little savages (Antifa) who throw violent and dangerous temper tantrums in the streets, often with no opposition by the police in Democratically-run cities, and then go home to their parents’ basements.

Democrats and leftists hate people, they hate liberty, they loathe freedom of association, and they won’t even hear about free markets. They are all about unlimited taxation, unlimited wealth redistribution. You don’t support such ideas when you love humanity and the potential for human greatness and achievement. You only support socialism when you’re a sour old parasite, embittered by envy and other psychological neuroses.

It’s no longer a stretch to call them Communists. The myth of “democratic socialism” is a laugh. If you gain the consent (likely through voter fraud) of 50.5 percent of the population to murder 49.5 percent of the population, this doesn’t make murder right. Nor is it right with respect to enslavement of 49.5 percent of the population, who will be forced to work for and pay the way of those whom these tyrannical socialists manage to get into their coalition.

No matter what President Trump’s actual or perceived weaknesses, the loathing and contempt that Democrats so openly express toward freedom, liberty and the U.S. Constitution can only go so far. President Trump naturally benefits.

Keep in mind that President Trump has NO support from the media, NO support in public schools or universities, NO support in the influential technology industry, NO support in the entertainment or sports culture that most voters pay attention to … he has almost no support anywhere, except among people who still love the freedom we have left. It’s as simple as that.

When you spit on people’s freedom, you’re spitting on people’s right to exist. You can do it in the name of “I love you” or “I care about you”, but it’s still spitting. Mabye there ARE enough Americans left who at least sense the contradiction here. A lot of them have been emotionally, physically and sexually abused or tormented by their own families. Maybe they can recognize the same thing in their politicians. “Oh, I’m not hurting you. I love you. I am here to take care of you”. Beyond creepy.

Here’s hoping the poll is right, and that it holds.

—-Dr. Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

“Public Enemies List: Trump supporters face boycotts, bullying amid calls to be named and shamed” [Fox News headline]

“They want to cost people their livelihoods just because you don’t agree with them politically,” Sam DeMarco, Allegheny County councilman and chairman of the county’s Republican Party, told the local CBS affiliate. “It’s not just absurd, but I believe it’s dangerous.”

DeMarco continued, “People who they just don’t agree with, they want to take and punish. I absolutely believe this is a fascist behavior, and I totally reject it.”

This is real.

Anyone who’s a Trump supporter knows that opponents of the President feel justified in expressing any feeling they wish against opponents. Reason and persuasion are not their methods. Today’s leftists/Democrats are basically of the Antifa mentality: Destroy by any means necessary. Antifa does it physically and through violence. Most opponents of President Trump seek to do it through sneering, intimidation, slander and threats.

Once upon a time, American leftists presumably thought they had reason, facts and logic on their side. They didn’t resort to the level of attack and slander they use now. Many of them didn’t use any. They may have been wrong, but most of them were not evil. They were naive and uninformed enough to believe that socialist “utopias” in places like Cuba and the Soviet Union were genuinely the way of the future.

Today, American leftists obviously don’t believe they have reason, facts and logic on their side. So they resort to the only thing that’s left: Force. Force can take many forms. The obvious form is violence. However, threats, lies and intimidation are an equally potent form of manipulation.

What’s most revealing about Antifa — the terrorist spokespersons of today’s American left — are not their tactics of violence and intimidation against ordinary Trump supporters. What’s most revealing is the total silence and lack of opposition from the Democrats and leftists we now may assume they represent.

Ultimately, the liars and the terrorists are at war with reality. Their methods betray their real insecurity. It doesn’t mean they cannot and will not do a lot of damage along the way. But in the long run, they cannot win, because the destructive, nihilistic nature of statism and socialism cannot create anything. All they have ever done is destroy.

Leftists know it. Today’s leftists are neither innocent nor ignorant. I cut them no slack. And it’s why they continue to intimidate. My advice to Trump supporters or anyone else who still loves freedom? Fight the leftists with everything you’ve got. Buy weapons of self-protection.

The aftermath of the next election — however it goes — will not be pretty. We have to face reality. Arm yourself with good intellectual arguments — not because leftists will ever listen, but so you’ll know them and feel confident in your right to live as a free man or woman. Start with Ayn Rand. Note that her ideas enrage the worst of the leftists, more than those of any other thinker. When you read her works, you’ll understand exactly why.

And most of all: See leftists as the pathetic, weak people they are. Because every time they open their mouths to lie, scream, cry, attack or threaten, they have told you all you need to know. They have no truth or logic on their side. All they have is hatred of Trump — and hatred of YOU. Hate is what animates and motivates them.

It will ultimately get them nowhere.

—by Dr. Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Here it is, Labor Day weekend 2019. Most take it for granted that without the labor movement, we would all be slaves working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

It’s naive and ignorant to assume such a thing. Think about it. What makes life easier, both in and out of the workplace? Technology and innovation. Does government pass laws commanding innovation? Did the labor movement cajole and legislate improved standards of human living into existence? Or did those things come about because (1) certain people choose to think/invent and (2) the profit motive in the free market makes it worthwhile for people to do so?

Take child labor laws. We’re led to believe that without child labor laws, young children would still be working in factories and retail stores today, even if all our other economic and technological expansion had occurred. Absurd! Does it occur to anyone that people who made their children labor did so only because it was required for the whole family to survive? And that once the standard of living improved enough, and once capitalism had made the economy grow enough, that no reasonable parent would want his 10-year-old in the work force? Government child labor laws get the credit for what only a free, innovative and expanding marketplace could ever have done. Ditto for other labor laws.

Are people really ignorant and naive enough to assume that parents in 1850 or 1880 wanted their little children to work any more than parents in 2019? And that without an order from the government, such activity would never have stopped?

I don’t like to celebrate “Labor Day” because it’s really just a way to celebrate socialism-lite and the labor movement. But by celebrating the coercion of the labor movement, you’re really saying it’s a good thing for government to intervene in the economy. Unfortunately, anything arguably “good” done by the government would have happened anyway, and anything else the government does only hampers, stifles or decimates economic growth.

If it’s workers and ordinary people you really care about, then it’s free markets and capitalism you ought to celebrate. Why? Because these are the only things that lead to innovation, economic growth and improvement in the standard of living for all. Even charity thrives much better under capitalism. Contrast the situation in Venezuela with any semi-free market country and you’ll see what I mean. Capitalism leads to human happiness. The socialism of the labor movement, in all its forms, leads to stagnation, misery and ultimately despair.

The deeper issue is that labor does not lead to economic growth. Human thinking does. Thinking gives rise to action and it’s the only thing that makes activity rational, purposeful and productive. Mindless action is random mental illness. Purposeful, accountable and productive labor is only made possible by the free, innovative markets of capitalism. It’s the precise opposite of what we’re taught, but it’s true.

It’s human thought and innovation by the business geniuses of the world who give people engaged in labor something to do. It’s true that labor is very important. But it will never be as important as the thought that gives rise to it.

We shouldn’t celebrate Labor Day. We should celebrate Human Mind Day. And the only system that fosters the development of the human mind — through science and free enterprise — is freedom, which includes both economic and political liberty. No matter how much we’re told otherwise, it will always be the case.

Michael J. Hurd

How did Democrats get so radical?

Bill Clinton signed welfare reform and capital gains tax cuts. Although very leftist himself, even Barack Obama was not the full-blown socialist-Communist today’s crop of Democrats are. Joe Biden, a consistent leftist for 50 years, gets to run as a “moderate” alternative to those who seek 90 percent tax rates (evidently he only wants 70 percent). How did it all happen?

The answer is simple: There was nowhere left to go.

Back at the end of Obama’s term, I wrote about how leftists are grouchy. It was before Donald Trump was taken seriously as a presidential candidate. They had already realized all their semi-socialist dreams. They had Obamacare, high taxes, unprecedented regulation and all the rest. They accomplished everything Democrats had promised for decades, and more. The Republican Congress, run by cowards, gave leftists even more than what they demanded. Democrats and politically connected socialists controlled much of the economy. What was left?

There was nothing left…other than the final two legs of the Constitution: The First and Second Amendments.

Going after the right to self-defense — including from the government, most of all — and the right to free speech … that’s what they have left. And they’re going for it. Antifa. 90 percent tax rates. Medicare for all. Free college for all. Guaranteed income for all. Hatred of Jews and Israel — it was always there. Donald Trump is merely their excuse. They wanted it all along, and there was nothing else to go for.

It had to happen, sooner or later. Your underlying premises scream for a consistent conclusion. The party of high taxes, little or no economic growth, perks for the connected rich while punishing real achievement and success — “You didn’t build that” — all had to lead to the only possible, consistent conclusion: totalitarianism.

Leftism/socialism is a hateful philosophy. It’s based on hatred of achievement, profit, individual well-being and success. Leftists either lack these things and envy those who possess competence; or possess competence themselves, and hate themselves for it. Hence the manifestation of socialism. Socialism soothes two of the sickest psychological maladies: Unearned guilt and envy.

You can say you’re not ideological. The fact remains, as I tell people every day in the therapy office: Your ideas underlie your emotions. Ideas are always implicit in your emotions. You cannot escape ideas any more than you can escape emotions. You just can’t!

So that’s it. Leftism had to lead to this. Forget President Trump. He was merely the catalyst. He’s the excuse.

Leftism is the sociopolitical equivalent of suicide-homicide. Yes, it’s THAT bad. Our liberty and freedom are the oxygen we breathe. Our liberty and freedom are what they seek to destroy. There’s no more room for civil differences of opinion. You can’t have civil differences of opinion with people who despise your liberty and want to take it all away. You have to stand up to them as you stand up to any emotional or physical abuser, or any tyrant: Tell them you’re not going to take it anymore, and you WILL fight back.

There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam.”

AUG 13, 2019 10:00 AM BY HUGH FITZGERALD

Ayatollah Khomeini famously proclaimed: “Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.” His own son said he had seen Khomeini laugh only once. It happened when Oriana Fallaci, the celebrated Italian journalist, was interviewing him, and asked him about the chador, the full-body garment that Iranian women were forced to wear in the new Islamic Republic. In fact, she had to wear one for the interview.

“How do you swim in a chador?” Fallaci asked. “Our customs are none of your business. If you do not like Islamic dress, you are not obliged to wear it,” Khomeini replied. “That’s very kind of you, Imam. And since you said so, I’m going to take off this stupid, medieval rag right now.” She removed her chador. The interview was called off.

After a day had passed, Khomeini apparently had reconsidered, and Fallaci came back to interview Khomeini; his son Ahmed had asked her not to mention the word “chador” again. But Fallaci did. And Khomeini laughed. After the interview was over, Ahmed told her that it was the only time in his life that he had seen his father laugh.

Last year the Iranian government showed that there is indeed no humor in Islam and no fun in Islam. It shut down a leading newspaper, Sedayeh Eslahat, because in one line of one article, the teeny-tiniest of little jokes was made. Almost a year later, the paper remains closed; there is apparently no sufficient penance for humor.

Here’s the story:

Reports say Sedayeh Eslahat ordered shut by top prosecutor for ‘desecrating’ family of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson.

Iran’s top prosecutor has ordered the closure of a reformist newspaper on charges of “insulting” Shia Islam, according to media reports.

Mohammad Jafar Montazeri ordered the shutting down of Sedayeh Eslahat for “desecrating” the family of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, the Fars news agency reported on Friday.

The article that caused offence was about a female-to-male gender reassignment surgery, according to The Associated Press, which cited Iranian media reports.

It was published on the newspaper’s front page on Thursday and carried the headline: “Ruqayyah became Mahdi after 22 years.”

Ruqayyah was the daughter of Hussein and the article was published during Muharram, a holiday in which Shia Muslims mourn the Imam’s death.

‘According to Shia Islam, Mahdi is the name of the 12th Shia Imam who has lived since the 9th century.

In a letter published by Fars, Montazeri said the article caused “protest during these days of sorrow”, and ordered the editor of Sedayeh Eslahat be punished over its publication.

Iran is ranked 164th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) press freedom index.

In August, Iranian courts jailed seven journalists and ordered them to be flogged publicly over their coverage of protests by the Dervish minority.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the “horrifying sentences laid bare Iranian authorities’ depraved attitude toward journalists.”

The Islamic Republic clearly does not believe in a free press. It is ranked 164th out of 180 countries in press freedom. Also last year, it shut down a news outlet focusing on Iran’s Gonabadi Dervish minority, which had reported on protests by the dervishes, Sufi Muslims long mistreated by a Shi’a establishment that disapproves of their ways. Two of the outlet’s editors received long sentences. A Tehran Revolutionary court sentenced news editor Reza Entesari to seven years in prison, 74 lashes, two years of exile in the northeastern city of Khaf, a two-year ban on leaving the country, and a two-year ban on political and media activity.

Another editor, Mostafa Abdi, received an even more severe punishment. Abdi was sentenced to 26 years and three months in prison and 148 lashes, in addition to two years of exile in the southeastern province of Sistan Baluchistan and two-year bans on leaving the country and engaging in political and media acts.

In the summer of 2018, there were large anti-government protests in many Iranian cities. Angry crowds shouted “Death to Khamenei” and “Reza Shah,” as well as “Death to Palestine” and “Leave Syria Alone and Deal With Iran.” No newspaper in Iran dared to cover these protests, but of course, videos of the crowds, posted to social media, could not be stopped.

But what was being objected to in the Sedayah Eslahat case was not the contents of the story, but merely a little joke by the editors that apparently was deemed sufficiently “sacrilegious” to warrant not a fine, or a temporary closure, or the firing of an editor, but rather, the shutting down of the whole newspaper. The article was about gender reassignment surgery. It reported; it did not endorse. But the editors thought it would be mildly funny to describe the female-to-male change, in an allusion all Shi’a would instantly recognize, as being one where a female humorously called “Ruqayyah” (the daughter of Imam Hussein, grandson of Muhammad), having waited 22 years for the operation (the girl in the story was apparently 22), changed — remember, it was a joke, just a joke, for god’s sake — into the male “Mahdi” (the Mahdi is the name of the 12th Shia Imam who, the Shi’a believe, has been living, though hidden, since the 9th century). It was not meant to be disrespectful — the editors would have had to be madmen to try that — but rather, an affectionate allusion that all Shi’a would instantly recognize.

This is something the Iranian regime’s dour masters have a hard time comprehending. It’s what sane people of a normally humorous bent call “a joke,” or, if you prefer, une blague, uno scherzo, ein Witz, un chiste, shutka. The Iranian editors, their newspaper now closed for almost a year (with no indication that it will ever reopen), and awaiting their own personal punishment, showed they have a sense of humor. Those in the regime who shut them down, for a single sentence clearly not meant disrespectfully, following the example of their Glorious Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, on the other hand, clearly do not.

Having an open border combined with a welfare state is crazy. It’s like having a really nice house with really nice things inside, and then telling people, “It’s all yours. Come on in any time you want. Take whatever you wish”. What do you think would happen?

It’s stupid not to have locks on your doors. But it’s even more stupid to treat all your things as if they all belong to others. Yet that’s pretty much what we’re doing now in America, or at least we WILL be doing if the leftists, Democrats and RINO types get their way.

It has nothing to do with immigration. Immigration is a great thing — for a free country. In a free country, people are responsible for themselves and themselves only. They can take on whatever responsibilities they wish, but not as an obligation. Only if they choose to do so. The most obvious example of a chosen obligation is to have a child, or a family.

In a welfare state, everyone is responsible for everyone else — under the law. It’s not benevolence. It’s not kindness. It’s coercion. Coercion and kindness do NOT mix.

The problems are so much deeper than the border wall, illegal aliens, and all the rest. The problems go to the core of our society.

We repeatedly elect people into high office who say, “Hey, the more you produce, the more the results of your efforts belong to others”. People who created NOTHING — these 25 or so Democrats running for President — are given the right to treat the products of others’ efforts as their own, and exploit giving them away for political gain. “Look at me! I’m so generous with other people’s money!”

This is sick, wrong, twisted and deranged. It never should have started, and now it’s out of control. You know it’s out of control when these twisted politicians come out and say it’s time for 90 percent tax rates, totally open borders, and a total welfare state.

America is poised to go the way of the Soviet Union, Maoist China, Cuba and Venezuela. The level of ignorance for this to happen is almost too much to contemplate. For a country like Russia, Nicaragua or Venezuela to fall for Communism is one thing. It’s like falling from a second or third floor window. For a country like America to do it, it’s like falling from the top of the world’s highest skyscraper. It’s incredibly stupid and horrifically wrong. I can’t believe it’s happening to the extent it has.

Yet it’s where we are: One of our two political parties saying, in effect, “The doors are open. It’s all yours. Nothing belongs to anyone — except to us, the politicians, of course”.

Madness. Will a majority of voters seriously allow it? We will know in a little over a year. The stakes have been very high for America in the past: The Civil War, the Great Depression, World War II. We are at a similar point now.

Our freedom is ours to save. If we don’t act to keep it, we will lose it. And freedom will have perished from the earth. It can’t happen.

by Michael J. Hurd.  http://www.drhurd.com

THE ABYSS OF LIBERAL IGNORANCE

Here’s how a young person turns socialist.

One, envy. Envy is the view, “Others have a lot. I can never have a lot. That’s not fair”. A non-envious person sees success or achievement and thinks, “Wow, if he did that, I can do that too”. An envious person thinks, “He can do/have all that. But I can’t. That’s not fair”. All the young socialists I know are envious.

Two, low self-confidence. “I don’t know how to use my mind. I have no clue.” That’s because of Common Core/public education, in most cases. Such schooling is based not just on leftist dogma, but also on the idea that individual minds cannot think objectively, rationally or independently. Conventional education emphasizes group think and group membership, not the individual achievement of objective, independent thought. That’s a recipe for fear and low self-confidence. Fearful people don’t like freedom. Socialism is the drug for the fear.

—Michael J. Hurd