Virginia Living Digital Edition

Here.

Wild Eyed Radicals And The Tea Party

REASONABLE MEN

by Bill Whittle

George Washington:

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

"To those who say, well, the Government has to force you to buy something you don’t want. It’s for the greater good! Here’s William Pitt, 1783:

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.”

Thomas Jefferson, the most intellectually brilliant man to ever hold the office of President – Barack Obama excepted, of course – had this to say in his First Inaugural, accepting the reins of that power:

“A wise and frugal government – (wise and frugal, my God how we have fallen) A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government…”

Did the greatest mind in American history have any other radical, dangerous thoughts on the encroachment of government and uncontrolled spending?

Jefferson, 1782:

“On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that power to them? If so, how many rebellions should we have had already?”

Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816:

“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Spencer Roane, March 9, 1821:

“The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife.”

Thomas Jefferson, 1824:

“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.”

1824! If Jefferson was outraged at the extent of the federal government in 1824, then that’s good enough for Bill Whittle in 2010. You see, unlike Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz and Keith Olbermann, I don’t think I’m smarter than Thomas Jefferson. But Ed and Rachel and Chris and Keith are here to tell you that protesting this government takeover of the auto industry, the financial industry, the insurance industry, the housing market and now the nation’s health care is a wild and radical idea!

I’ll tell you what else we Tea Party supporters believe in: we believe that the Constitution is Law. In the same way it’s the Ten Commandments and not the Ten Suggestions, we feel that the Constitution is law. When the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, was asked where she drew the Constitutional authority to force people to buy health insurance, she said this…

And, famously, a few days ago, Democratic Congressmen Phil Hare, from Barack Obama’s own state of Illinois, had this to say about the source of his legal authority to make people do things they don’t want to do…

Now, if you took your responsibilities and your oaths seriously, I would be forced to at least respect the offices you hold, Madam Speaker, and Congressman Hare. But it’s obvious you don’t. So listen carefully, Nancy and Phil, to what better people then you can even imagine being had to say about the source of your authority:

“If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws — the first growing out of the last…. A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government. “

Alexander Hamilton, Aug 28, 1794

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.”

Patrick Henry

“A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

Thomas Jefferson, 1774.

And finally, what about the dangerous, wild-eyed, hateful and threatening allusions to violence? What about that un-American, unheard of, unprecedented repudiation of the genteel nature of politics, as represented by the calm and rational rhetoric that came from the left during the Bush years? What did the founders have to say about defending freedom, by force if necessary?

One of the Framers of the Constitution, John Dickinson wrote:

“We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers (“irritated ministers” – I love that; that’s spot-on) or resistance by force. Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.”

Or this, from Patrick Henry , 1778:

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”

Of all of the things I have seen since this movement began, nothing has tickled me the way blogger Kent McManigal has with his updated take on the famous Gadsen Flag, widely popular at the time of the Revolution and making a strong comeback in the Tea Party movement. Here’s Kent’s flag:

Time’s up, guys. I know you Irritated Ministers and the defenders of the rich and powerful in the news media loathe and despise the Tea Party because you fear it. And you are right to fear it! It’s coming! It’s coming to take the country back from you big-state, anti-freedom elitists. Time’s up.

Here are some final words to take us out.

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 21, 1787:

“The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.”

John Adams, 1765:

“Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.”

Benjamin Franklin, July 4, 1776:

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

And then there’s this:

“What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 November 1787

And finally, from Samuel Adams – for all you big-state control freaks, Tea Party slanderers and the entire staff at MSNBC:

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

Those are the wild-eyed radicals I stand with, and those are the ideals that I hold that are under assault. What about you?"

Liberty

Patriot Post

"Most people whom we elect to Congress are either ignorant of, have contempt for or are just plain stupid about the United States Constitution. ...

Here, in part, is the oath of office that each congressman takes:

'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same....'

Here's my question to you: If one takes an oath to uphold and defend, and bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution, at the minimum, shouldn't he know what he's supposed to uphold, defend and be faithful to? If congressmen, judges, the president and other government officials were merely ignorant of our Constitution, there'd be hope -- ignorance is curable through education. These people in Washington see themselves as our betters and rulers. They have contempt for the limits our Constitution places on the federal government envisioned by James Madison, the father of our Constitution, who explained in the Federalist Paper 45:

'The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. ... The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State.'"

--economist Walter E. Williams

Quotes Catch Up

Quotes Catch Up
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere."
--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Abigail Adams, 1787
========
"Plan A is to live a long, prosperous life while enjoying my Freedom, and Liberty. My Guns are Plan B."
-- From a .sig block at The Highroad Forums
========
"It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect."
--James Madison, 1833
=========
"Am fear nach gheidh na h-airm 'nam na sith, Cha bhi iad aige 'n am a chogaidli."
-- Gaelic Proverb ("Who keeps not his arms in times of peace, Will have no arms in times of war.")
========
"If you want the government to intervene domestically you’re a liberal, if you want the government to intervene abroad you’re a conservative, if you want the government to intervene both domestically and abroad you’re a moderate, and if you don’t want the government to intervene either domestically or abroad you’re an extremist."
--Joe Sobran
========
"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
Frédéric Bastiat

A Citizen's Constitutional Workshop

The John Locke Foundation
Cordially invites you to
A Citizen's Constitutional Workshop

with presenters
Dr. Troy Kickler & Dr. Michael Sanera
Dr. Kickler, founding Director of the NC history Project & Adjunct Professor of United States History, NC State University.

Dr. Sanera, Director of Research & Local Government Studies & Adjunct Professor in Political Science, NC State University.

What the Founders and the State Ratification Conventions Can Teach Us Today

Saturday, October 02, 2010, 8:30 am- 1:30 pm
The John Locke Foundation, 200 W Morgan St., Raleigh, NC 27601 - View Map
Price: $10.00- includes lunch. - Purchase tickets online HERE.

Due to high demand, this is a repeat offering of the August 7, 2010 workshop.

Space is limited for this event, pre-registration is required.

The past 100 years of Progressive ideology have almost destroyed the US Constitution. This generation must restore the Constitution's original intent of limited, federal government based on the rule of law.

This workshop provides today's Patriots with the intellectual tools to restore original intent and repair the damage done. It explains what the framers meant by phrases such as the "general welfare," "necessary and proper" and other so-called "elastic" clauses. In addition we explore the North Carolina ratification debates and reveal how the Tar Heel State ensured that the Bill of Rights was added. By examining the important role of the states in the nation's beginning and providing constitutional commentary based on the founders' words, this workshop is a must for Americans interested in preserving the United States and a federal form of government.

What the experts are saying about "A Citizen's Constitutional Workshop"

"The John Locke Foundation's workshop on the Constitution will provide a solid foundation for anyone interested in understanding the Founders' experiment in republican government. By taking a federal perspective upon the original understanding, students will learn how the Revolution was fulfilled by the Constitution -- and gain insight into the divergence between the world of James Madison, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson and the USA of today."
*Kevin Gutzman
History Professor, Western Connecticut State University.
Author of Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution and Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush.

"A constitution is meaningless if its original intent is not preserved. "A Citizen's Constitutional Workshop" has embarked on a project to retrieve the original intent of the Constitution through the most reliable, yet overlooked, means at our disposal--the states. The innovative method of this project combined with its ambition to retrieve our Constitution, and with it the true meaning of limited government, makes it the most important project of its kind. Troy Kickler and Michael Sanera are following in the Founders' footsteps by bringing this discussion to a public forum which is certainly the best place to start."
*Kyle Scott, Ph.D.
Department of Political Science and Honors College, University of Houston.
Author of The Price of Politics:Lessons from Kelo v. City of New London and Dismantling American Common Law: Liberty and Justice in our Transformed Courts.

"The Key to the Constitution, as James Madison said, is the State ratifying conventions, and North Carolina played a pivotal role in defining the nature and scope of federal power. The American people will gain a better understanding of the original intent of the Constitution if they can digest how members of the State ratifying conventions argued for and against the document."
*Brion McClanahan, Ph.D.
History Instructor, Chattahoochee Valley Community College
Author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers

IS Constitution Day A Celebration, Or A Memorial?

"Before we can know whether we can keep our Republic, the central question is whether liberty still lies in our hearts, as it did in the hearts of the Founding Generation and in the hearts of all who stood in its defense since. The answer to that question makes all the difference to if and how we shall keep and restore our Republic."