Republic No More
You've undoubtedly heard by now that Justice Roberts rolled over like a two-dollar whore. Oh, the ruling had some mild admonishing language for the administration and some half-assed excuses about it not being the Court's job to "protect the people from their own political choices." In the end, however, this shameful decision by the Court has essentially gutted States' rights once and for all.
In 104 BC, the Marius reforms effectively converted the Roman Republic into an Empire, by stripping power from landholders and centralizing it within the hands of the elites. The specific mechanism was to reform the requirements for military service. Previous to Marius, landholders were obligated to maintain equipment and serve in the military to protect the Republic. Marius changed this by inverting it: he said that anyone could serve in the military, and in return would be granted land by the state. This had the effect of centralizing power within the controlling factions at the top levels of government, as all future landholders were beholden to the state for their wealth.
Future historians will mark the 28th of June, 2012 AD as the point at which the American Republic officially became an empire. We are now dependent upon the government for an item that was formerly a matter of personal choice. By allowing the federal government to abscond this power, the Court has opened the floodgates for any future power seizures by Congress and the Executive. Effectively, any President who has a controlling majority in Congress can create a new law which requires private citizens to do anything he wishes.
Oh, we'll putter on for a few centuries more, just as did Rome. I'm middle-aged, so this won't have any major impact in my lifetime, or within those of most of our readers. But your children and your grandchildren will be increasingly dependent upon a more and more dictatorial state. Ultimately, the power of the people will bow before the power of the elite, a man on a white horse will declare himself the Ruler for Life at a time of great crisis, and then we'll truly be Imperial America. The Court has made clear today that they will do nothing to prevent it, and in so doing made themselves redundant and irrelevant to the future of this country. On this day, the primary cornerstone of the Constitution, the check-and-balance between the three branches of Federal authority, has effectively ceased to exist as a real power.
RIP the Republic.
In 104 BC, the Marius reforms effectively converted the Roman Republic into an Empire, by stripping power from landholders and centralizing it within the hands of the elites. The specific mechanism was to reform the requirements for military service. Previous to Marius, landholders were obligated to maintain equipment and serve in the military to protect the Republic. Marius changed this by inverting it: he said that anyone could serve in the military, and in return would be granted land by the state. This had the effect of centralizing power within the controlling factions at the top levels of government, as all future landholders were beholden to the state for their wealth.
Future historians will mark the 28th of June, 2012 AD as the point at which the American Republic officially became an empire. We are now dependent upon the government for an item that was formerly a matter of personal choice. By allowing the federal government to abscond this power, the Court has opened the floodgates for any future power seizures by Congress and the Executive. Effectively, any President who has a controlling majority in Congress can create a new law which requires private citizens to do anything he wishes.
Oh, we'll putter on for a few centuries more, just as did Rome. I'm middle-aged, so this won't have any major impact in my lifetime, or within those of most of our readers. But your children and your grandchildren will be increasingly dependent upon a more and more dictatorial state. Ultimately, the power of the people will bow before the power of the elite, a man on a white horse will declare himself the Ruler for Life at a time of great crisis, and then we'll truly be Imperial America. The Court has made clear today that they will do nothing to prevent it, and in so doing made themselves redundant and irrelevant to the future of this country. On this day, the primary cornerstone of the Constitution, the check-and-balance between the three branches of Federal authority, has effectively ceased to exist as a real power.
RIP the Republic.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 16:03
6 Comments:
Very succinctly put. Today marks the end of america as we knew it. We are now officially a banana republic.
I think you give us too much credit. I am actually surprised we have lasted this long. It only took 14 years for the radicals to take over in Germany and make their constitution obsolete. The Nazi's passed the Gleichschaltung (the coordination) which allowed parliament to pass legislation contrary to the constitution. I have been reading an interesting book called "From Germans to Nazi's" and it talks about how Germany went from a democracy to a dictatorship. High unemployment, a loss of national identity, and extreme debt and devaluation of their currency. This led to people allowing a strong centralized government for security and the election of a party that led to one of the darkest times in modern history.
The funny thing is that the idiots in D.C. think that when things get bad enough, people will turn to them and they will be in charge. The problem is they don't believe what they are spouting. What will happen is a true believer will come along who will make it happen for real. Obama is a true believer, but an empty suit, since he surrounded himself with establishment people and let them set the tone. No this will be someone from outside, with a large following, that will make a true sea-change in the people in congress. Is it the tea party? Someone from Occupy? Or is their some hybrid group out there waiting to come and make it happen. This next election is not the most important one in our history as some would like to say. I think the next one is. When either Obama wins and runs this country into the ground, or Romney wins and people realize that nothing will change and the rate of decent has just slowed. Mark my words 2016 is the election that will fundamentally change this country.
Not that any of it matters since we will all be dead by December of this year anyway from the comet, polar shift, alien invasion, super-volcano, zombie uprising.
Roberts did do some good. If you read the ruling he actually sided with the conservatives in restricting the further use of the Commerce Clause. Amercian Thinker has a nice article if you care to read:
Clicky
Yeah, I've seen the commentary on several sites about the Commerce clause. It's true, and there will be also be short term political gains out of this: it's basically put the election in the bag for Romney, which means the Court will get two or three conservatives on it over the next four years.
I get all that. But what the Court surrendered to get it is not worth the price. They've set a precedent which basically tells Congress, "Pass any law you like; we won't question you." They don't have to call it a tax, or a fine, or anything logical. They can pass a law which requires everyone to walk to work on their hands every third Monday or pay $100 to the Treasury, and call it a Chocolate Fudge Sundae With Extra Sprinkles Law. The Court has given up their power to strike that down in the future.
It's bad. In fact, it's much worse than it even appears right now. Over the next few decades, we're going to learn exactly how bad it really is...
Progressives are a patient bunch. It's the death of a thousand cuts. This is another slice, and close to the jugular. The public has already figured out how to vote themselves largess from the public treasury. Health care "rights" is another nail in that coffin. To each according to his need, from each according to his ability.
(How am I doing on my MBA lingo?)
This ruling is atrocious. Any "positives" taken from this ruling are simply optimistic fantasies. This ruling does nothing to set precedent for interpreting the Commerce clause, it only establishes a precedent that the highest court in the land can arbitrarily rule however it wants and then rationalize it with self-contradicting "decisions" that ignore existing precedent and the language of the Constitution itself.
In the same breath, SCOTUS declared that it had standing to issue a ruling on the individual mandate because it is NOT a tax, and then upheld it because it IS a tax. Nevermind the fact that this argument was NOT made by the government in presenting its legal defense of the law. Nevermind that there are specific, enumerated taxing powers assigned to Congress and that this mandate does not qualify under any of them. Nevermind decades of established precedent regarding the extent of taxing powers permitted to Congress.
We would have been better off if they had simply ruled that it is a tax and therefore a challenge could not be heard until said tax is actually assessed, as per the Anti-Injunction Act. That would have had the same political benefits (labeling it a tax, energizing voters, avoiding the appearance of partisanship, etc.) without establishing a truly horrific precedent that the left will exploit for years to come. A few side notes about the application of the Commerce clause will simply be ignored. All that needs to be done to justify anything now is to call it a tax. The legislature doesn’t even have to call it a tax when passing the law or defending a legal challenge, the court will obligingly make that determination for them!
I consider this ruling to be nothing less than legal malpractice.
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