Thursday, January 3, 2013

Is The U.S. Congress On Its Way Out?

By, Chris Rossini
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The lust for an iron-fisted Executive is nothing new. The U.S. Constitution was supposed to protect against it. That lasted all but 9 years until John Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts.

Each President since has made his contribution.

Teddy Bear Roosevelt even bragged about his contributions:
"Whenever I could establish a precedent for strength in the executive, as I did for instance as regards external affairs in the case of sending the fleet around the world, taking Panama, settling affairs of Santo Domingo and Cuba; or as I did in internal affairs in settling the anthracite coal strike, in keeping order in Nevada this year when the Federation of Miners threatened anarchy, or as I have done in bringing the big corporations to book — why, in all these cases I have felt not merely that my action was right in itself, but that in showing the strength of, or in giving strength to, the executive, I was establishing a precedent of value."
The trend has been steady all the way to the present day.

Looking at the state-controlled mainstream media can make you wonder: "Are they preparing us for something?"

TIME has it's time-tested Executive worship:



And then you have the "Babies" known as the U.S. Congress:



Recent headlines also paint a picture:







Are ideas being planted?

Are Americans being softened to the idea of dictatorship?

Anyone with an operating brain can tell that the U.S. financial system and welfare state are a complete house of cards.

What happens when the house of cards collapses?

Will The State be completely surprised? That's highly unlikely.

Is the media preparing us for a white knight with an iron fist? Someone who will have to clean things up without the "Babies"?

Maureen Dowd believes that it could be Conquistadora Hillary:
But history will no doubt record that withering Republicans were finally wiped from the earth in 2016 when the relentless (and rested) Conquistadora Hillary marched in, General Bill on a horse behind her, and finished them off.
Are the days of U.S. Congress numbered?

Who knows?

It wouldn't be the first time. In days of old, Kings would regularly dismiss parliaments and operate without them. Dictators are a dime a dozen throughout history.

The U.S. was supposed to be different though. While not perfect, the ideas of liberty took root here. Was it just a flash-in-the-pan fluke? A bump in the road, as Slick Willy likes to say?

Let's hope not.

No matter what happens, libertarians need to step it up. Our ideas will need enough believers in order to fend off whatever it is that comes our way.

11 comments:

  1. You ask that title question as though it's a bad thing.

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  2. I read Hayek's Road to Serfdom for the first time in 2008 and thought this is exactly what is happening in America.

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  3. I think it will be Obama that seizes power before the end of his lame-duck term. He feels he has nothing to lose. He has two years before mid-term elections. If we see a significant inflationary / stagflation turn in the economy before then, I would expect him to use the "emergency powers" available to him.

    Oh, and he will sign an EO with respect to gun control, mark my words on that. He's just giving notice with headlines.

    He's already a dictator, the only question becomes how overt he'll be about it. IMHO, I don't feel he has anything to lose.

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    1. The lefties said that about Bush... That he'd suspend elections and be king forever, or whatever...

      No, Obama will continue to drive the federal government into the ground until it collapses, or his time runs out. Then the next shrub will take over.

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    2. Well, Bush also made dictatorial maneuvers. As has been said, each successor president makes you long for the previous one. Renditions of US citizens, torturing of "enemy combatants," DHS creation (Clinton idea implemented by Bush), warrantless searches and communication monitoring, etc.

      Look at where we are right now. Can you look back at Nazi Germany and think of all of those movies with "Papers Please" connotations and tell me how we're not the same?

      Most of what Chris is talking about has already happened, right? What are the elected reps but a rubber stamp on statism and the president? Who but Ron Paul actually stuck his neck out and said "Liberty is what matters"? The Republicans and Democrats only argue to the degree of additional statism the President gets, not how to protect individual liberty and property.

      Obama built upon the Bush statism. Instead of expanded Medicare we now have universal socialized medicine with Supreme Court approval! Up to 16,500 new IRS personnel will be needed to collect, examine and audit new tax information mandated on families and small businesses because of it!! The DHS is involved in train station, bus station, and highway stops and recently purchased 450 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammo ( http://www.infowars.com/homeland-security-buys-enough-ammo-for-a-7-year-war-against-the-american-people/ ). Unarmed and armed Predator drones are available to the Police or related agencies. US citizens can be executed at the President's stroke of a pen. NSA datacenter in Utah collecting everything possible on all communication activity. Military actions deposing or attempting to depose sovereign rulers without war declarations in the Middle East.

      Congress approved all of these things either explicitly, or tacitly by not acting against the power grabs. Essentially, the Presidency is already a dictatorship. There is only the facade of representation.

      The stuff that goes on is straight out of Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith with the Imperial Senate voting emergency powers to the emperor. "So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause."

      The only thing that really hasn't been done is the actual declaration. But does it really have to happen? There is no need to suspend elections. The state is so powerful that those actions would merely be symbolic.

      Will Obama go all out if an opportunity presents itself? Hell yes he will. He's murdered US citizens without trial and stepped over a line Bush didn't. Some Nobel Peace Prize winner! However, it's also conditional. He's a politician, after all. If the people turn against him and demand it to stop, he won't jeopardize the state.

      I can't forecast the future, but I said when he was elected the first time he was the arch-enemy of gun owners, he just didn't have the opportunity to do anything about it. "After my election, I have more flexibility." That applies to more than just Russia! http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/president-obama-asks-medvedev-for-space-on-missile-defense-after-my-election-i-have-more-flexibility/

      Obama takes every opportunity available to him to advance the state at the expense of the people and liberty. I see no reason why he's going to change this term.

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    3. Cory-

      That line "is this how liberty dies, with thunderous applause?" is the only good part of the movies. But it's good enough to make up for most of the bad! Except Jar Jar.

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    4. Ha ha ha, Cory had me until he started talking about a Star Wars prequel. Then I stopped reading, just as I stop watching whenever a Star Wars prequel pops up somewhere.

      I'm immature today.

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  4. I wouldn't count on it. I could just as easily see things get SO awful by 2016 that Democrats are driven from office in record numbers, putting Republicans fully in charge of the House, Senate, and Presidency. I would find it MUCH more likely that dictator Christie will be the one to destroy everything than dictator Hillary. Conservatives would fight to the last over Hillary. They would welcome Christie with open arms - emperor palpatine style.

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    1. It would seem the perfect time for a liberty candidate, perhaps Judge Napolitano...

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    2. I couldn't agree more. At least it would be the perfect time for a liberty candidate to come fix things. Sadly I do not think the time has come yet for the population at large to recognize the value of a liberty candidate.

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  5. While I can appreciate the concept of "gridlock", it seems to me that Congress is a just a rubber stamp on most of the more significant issues such as the Patriot act, NDAA, and the beast that is the empire. In fact, most of its members don't even bother to read the laws they vote on.

    Ideally, even with a few "Ron Paul" type members (if that makes sense), Congress will never be a check on Leviathan. Maybe it slows her down, but in the end she continues to grow with or without Congress. So I would say good riddance. If voting and the whole circus that is politics has nothing to do with how the country is run, then why should people care if congress exists?

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