By The Letter Of The Law

 

"The unquestionable republicanism of the American mind will break through the mist under which it has been clouded, and will oblige its agents to reform the principles and practices of their administration."

"We, too, shall encounter follies; but if great, they will be short, if long, they will be light; and the vigor of our country will get the better of them."

"[When] corruption.. has prevailed in those offices [of]... government and [has] so familiarized itself as that men otherwise honest could look on it without horror,... [then we must] be alive to the suppression of this odious practice and... bring to punishment and brand with eternal disgrace every man guilty of it, whatever be his station."

All of the above quotes come from Thomas Jefferson, long regarded as one of if not the smartest person to ever serve in public office in these United States.  As a Libertarian I am a fan of Jefferson, I read his words with a sense of awe at his ability to think in terms of his time and my own.  One would say his words are timeless.  Yet I do think that Jefferson himself would believe the level of corruption or the warped and twisted ways Government treats the Constitution of the United States.  I am not talking about one party or the other, I am laying blame square in the middle of the aisle that both parties claim to cross, especially in election years, but I suspect the wear on that carpet across it is not noticeable as much as the wear on the left and right of it.

Right now we are facing an administration that likes finding ways around the Constitution rather than the old administration that just basically ran roughshod over it.  Both ways are reprehensible and amount to what I would call a form of treason.  Treason is a most serious word, maybe the most serious in Government annals.  To accuse one of treason by definition of Article III Section 3 follows:   "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."  Kind of reminds me of the last administration a little.  

Fundamentally changing America is a slippery slope as promised by this President.  His campaign promises were dramatic and now in hindsight were clues to his radical agenda as laid out by him and his czars and advisers.  He laid out the why and the need and the promise of hope and change but he left more than one very important question, which is "how?".  Yes, he laid out some paths to how and those have been abandoned or warped dramatically.  Other President's have, over the years, greatly embellished what they intend to do.  Lying to the American people is hardly a new revelation in Washington D.C. or anywhere politicians gather. 

New polls indicate a majority of the American people do not want government run health care. 

Like this one: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/11/polls_so_goes_health_care_refo.html

Or this one:  http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/090729_NBC-WSJ_poll.pdf

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.  So at what point do the people of the United States stand up and say to politicians that enough is enough?  How do we proceed in handling this egregious trampling of the Constitution?  Initially I was calling it treason, but in reading deeper into the subject no one is guilty of treason and I dare say that most people in the country do not understand the law as written.  Surely voting in favor of government run health care is unconstitutional if you bother to read the document.  So is income tax, but I won't go there just yet.

Thus we ask the question, should we prosecute Congresspeople and Senators that vote in favor of anything unconstitutional?  What do we charge them with?  How do we keep the next person in that office, assuming prosecution is successful from falling into the same trap today's politicians?  Heady questions to be sure.  It is a question we need to ask if we take Thomas Jefferson's advice in which he said, "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience [has] shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."