CONSTITUTIONAL CONVERSATIONS
Obliterating the American System
by
M. E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”
Trying to analyze the spate of Executive Orders signed in the first days of the Biden Presidency is difficult. Those relative to the virus amount to a federal takeover of the distribution process that has been the purview of the States since it is the States in our Federalist system that handle the health and welfare of their citizens. Some States have handled things well and some have not. Some States have politicized the vaccine so as to deliberately fail to deliver it efficiently in the hopes of harming former President Trump. What got us the vaccine in the first place is a public/private partnership that helped the mostly inefficient federal bureaucracy shed some of its inherent weaknesses and link arms with the mostly efficient private sector. Common sense would tell us that the answer to distribution is to keep this link going. The rest of the Executive Orders are just an orgy of centralizing federal or global power that is not compatible with the Constitutional Republic that has served us so well. What is being created before our eyes is soft Communism made palatable, it is hoped, by making as many Americans and incoming un-vetted unknowledgeable immigrants as dependent as possible. Surely no one will complain when they receive a check in the mail or more food stamps or free college or a host of other lures. We are at the same time witnessing the loss of our treasured “marketplace of ideas”, protected by the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution, as well as erasure of people by corporate decisions that cancel communication; censor books and information; and remove basic services to certain persons. The new Administration is creating dependencies that human beings have a hard time resisting. Example: If you are scared of COVOD-19 you can now quit your job and collect unemployment. What if you are scared of your own shadow? We may not be able to stop this runaway steam locomotive because lures can be very inviting, and the public is being overwhelmed with a cultural and economic revolution through Executive Orders never intended to be used this way. What now? A few admonitions:
First, understand what made America exceptional. What made America exceptional is the nature of her Law and the striving for moral virtue of her People. There are different kinds of Law such as maritime law or forest law, or martial law, or canon law, or international law, or military law, and so forth. Our governance, unique in the world, is through rules called Positive Law, Natural Law, Moral Law, and Unwritten Law. Statutes passed by legislative bodies and precedents in Courts and Constitutions and administrative rules are within Positive Law. Natural Law spells out for us what rights we have as individuals that are Unalienable and come from God not government. Moral Law governs what is right and wrong regardless of Positive Law, and Unwritten Law is the customs and courtesies that lubricate our everyday intercourse with each other. This is all well and good but would not be effective governance if the People lacked moral virtue. Put simply, Americans must be a Good and Decent People for Liberty to work. Are we a Good and Decent People? Miss Constitution would say “yes”, generally, a People always working to improve, but uninformed and therefore easily led astray. It is this lack of knowledge and the focused effort by those who wish to dismantle the country that has allowed those who would replace the Republic to prevail. Many of the current Executive Orders defy Moral Law and fly in the face of a virtuous People. Miss Constitution would add, then, that Americans must be a Good and Decent and Knowledgeable People for Liberty to work.
Second, note when the individual is replaced with the group and when local administration is replaced with national administration. “Systemic racism” is an accusation about the group. Our system demands that accusations be made only about a person, not a group. If the society begins to accept that ALL white people are this or that; ALL black people are this or that; ALL Jewish people are this or that; ALL Muslims are this or that; ALL women are this or that; ALL immigrants are this or that; etc., we lose what Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) called “progress toward true respect for the individual.” In addition, health and general welfare are governed by the state, the county, the township, and the city. This is called Federalism; it is the part of our system that splits power, so power is not concentrated and therefore less easily corrupting. That is not to say that we have not seen local corruption, local incompetence, and local lunacy. This is why it is important to keep it local. When corruption, incompetence, and lunacy go national the harm is exponentially greater. New York City is a great example. The citizens voted for someone so unfit for office that a great deal of the wealth of this metropolis has fled. New York City voters need to fix the problem they created not transfer it to the whole nation. Concentrating power at the federal level replaces Federalism with Tyranny and negates the thrust of the United States Constitution that splits the atom of power to prevent such a thing.
Third, think through what has helped our nation develop Good and Decent and Knowledgeable People – Aristotle and the virtuous life, religion and her partner conscience, the moral constraints on behavior that are part of our traditional DNA, and authentic education, not brainwashing and propaganda. These constraints and what is left of our education system that is authentic, should be respected, cherished, developed, and passed down to new generations. The moral family and the authentic school create Good and Decent people, not the government. Miss Constitution realizes that keeping up with all this is a Herculean task. If one sees a pattern, however, one does not need every detail. What was gained by Title IX in women’s sports has been eliminated by Executive Order. What has finally been gained in energy independence has been eliminated by Executive Order. Without inexpensive energy that America controls there can be no prosperity. Prosperity has been eliminated by Executive Order. Proposals are in place to eliminate privacy by Executive Order through keeping track of where you drive. And on and on – a pattern of tyranny that ignores our Rule of Law and leads our People into turpitude and political slavery.
The steam engine of obliteration is barreling down the track at full speed, unfortunately, without the brakes of a moral compass or civics knowledge to stop it. Only a loud “No” and “Stop” and defeat at the polls can make a difference. Be aware that the Speaker of the House is proposing a Bill that would prevent the tyrannical from ever losing an election. “No!” “Stop!”
www.missconstitution.com
