When
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence much of the message was
about all of the duties, obligations and responsibilities a government owes to
the people, and if that government refuses to perform those obligations, then
the people have the right to change it.
Jefferson
was talking about liberty.
James
Madison, father of the United States Constitution, gave “We the People” an
enduring document which sets forth in detail the duties, obligations and
responsibilities of the new republic to the people of the United States. The
United States government was meant to belong to the people. The people do not
belong to the government. Thus, the Constitution sets forth no affirmative
obligations on the part of individuals to the government.
Madison
led the effort to codify our American liberty.
The
Bill of Rights, consisting of the first ten amendments to the constitution,
further enumerated the rights of the people as against the government and
specified that the rights of the people are not limited by that document. There
is no such thing as a Bill of Obligations applicable to individuals to the
government anywhere in the Constitution.
That’s
because the founding fathers envisioned the purpose of these documents entirely
as the means and method by which to insure, protect and preserve our liberty. The
United States government was conceived, created and meant to be our servant –
not our master.
What
happened to liberty?
It’s
slowly slipping away. Today the United States government – in spite of the
Declaration of Independence – in spite of the Constitution – in spite of the
Bill of Rights – has adopted the attitude that we all owe it affirmative
obligations, the kind of obligations that a servant owes its master.
Whether
it be forced conscription into military service, compulsory education,
mandatory reporting our income every year, purchasing ObamaCare, (the list goes
on and on), it is now perfectly clear that in the United States of America the
government claims we belong to it.
Now
the President of the United States is calling for mandatory
voting. "If everybody voted, then it would completely change the
political map in this country," said the president, calling it "potentially
transformative." He wants every
citizen to incur an affirmative legal obligation to vote under penalty of a
crime for failure to do so in the same manner as the crime for failing to
report your income.
Other
countries have already done just that to their people. I wrote about it last November.
See Statist
Style Democracy. Australia is
one of 11 nations worldwide with mandatory voting. Australians who fail to vote
can be fined, or even jailed for repeatedly not casting a ballot.
Of course, president Obama would love to see the advent of
mandatory voting in the United States. He thinks, and rightly so, that it would
be of great benefit to his Democrat Party.
I say: What about the First Amendment?
What happened to liberty?
"It’s slowly slipping away."
ReplyDeleteToo late.
I think your vision of history is a little too perfect. Madison wasn't interested in a bill of rights when they wrote the Constitution. He only supported it later. Hamilton was a closet monarchist, while many of the other founders were pure aristocrats or simply rent seekers. Both Jefferson and Madison became quite the petty tyrants once elected President.
Liberty began disappearing very long ago, and Americans have never been very good at protecting it. They let their empathy (and self-interest) cloud their reason (or lack thereof), which makes them easy prey for the smooth talking psychopaths of politics and their utopian fantasies. And there's always enough animals around to enforce the unexpected consequences, for the 'greater good'.