A republic in name only?

Growing numbers of people are coming to recognize a startling truth: When the leaders of a republic violate the boundaries of a republic, it functionally ceases to be one.  

You have to wonder if that’s the case in America today.

Ask yourself if the following characteristics apply to a healthy representative democracy or some other form of government:

1. a government that consistently lies to its people –
brazenly, about big things, and with remarkable impunity – to keep them misinformed;

2. a government that openly punishes political enemies and rewards political friends;

3. a government that spies wantonly on its own citizens and even the media;

4. a government in which a ruling cabal, apart from any legislative body, picks and chooses what laws will be enforced, how, and against whom;

5. a government in which employment of top and mid-level officials is dependent more on loyalty than competence or performance;

6. a government in which the primary function of taxation is regulation of behavior rather than the raising of revenue;

7. a government that uses words to distort reality, often by applying words of completely opposite meaning;

8. a government that relies on top-down, central planning;

9. a government that seeks not just to manipulate the masses through the media, but which seeks to manipulate the media themselves.

Let’s compare these characteristics to current-day America:

1. a government that consistently lies to its people – brazenly, about big things, and with remarkable impunity – to keep them misinformed:

The current administration lied through its teeth about our ability to keep our insurance under Obamacare. The president promised we could – “period,” he added.

Well, some 5 million policyholders on the individual insurance market have begun getting cancellations – and by some estimates, including the Obama administration’s own, from 50 million to 100 million employer-based policies could also be at risk next year.

That’s a fairly big lie, wouldn’t you say?

This administration also concocted a false cover story for the attack on our diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. A recent report also alleges the Census Bureau has been fudging unemployment numbers, particularly before the 2012 election.

2. a government that openly punishes political enemies and rewards political friends:

While friends of the Obama administration were getting hundreds of millions of tax dollars invested in their failed green energy schemes, the IRS was used to suppress Tea Party activism in advance of the 2012 election, by singling out conservative nonprofits for delay, scrutiny and harassment.

How frightening is that, when the agencies of government are used to bludgeon political foes? Does that sound like America?

3. a government that spies wantonly on its own citizens and even the media:

This government not only has violated our privacy with NSA spying, but has angered other governments and leaders around the world.

4. a government in which a ruling cabal, apart from any legislative body, picks and chooses what laws will be enforced, how, and against whom:

This administration has unilaterally chosen not to enforce laws it disagrees with, including immigration and the Defense of Marriage Act, while granting waivers from Obamacare to unions and other politically connected entities.

5. a government in which employment of top and mid-level officials is dependent more on loyalty than competence or performance:

From the Fast and Furious and Benghazi scandals, to the abject failure of the Obamacare website rollout, incompetence in this administration is rarely punished. However, disloyalty is: Washington D.C.’s health insurance commissioner was fired one day after questioning the president’s proposal to ameliorate insurance policy cancellations. Yet, no one, including the woman who claims to accept full responsibility for the disastrous Obamacare rollout – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius – has been fired. Why?

6. a government in which the primary function of taxation is regulation of behavior rather than the raising of revenue:

Mr. Obama admitted even before being elected he would raise some taxes out of some notion of fairness – even if raising it brought in less revenue. Social engineering seems to be his administration’s chief tax policy, and Obamacare is Exhibit A.

7. a government that uses words to distort reality, often by applying words of completely opposite meaning:

The “Affordable Care Act” would make George Orwell blush. Far from making insurance more affordable – Mr. Obama promised average family reductions of $2,500 a year – it has sent insurance costs skyrocketing.

8. a government that relies on top-down, central planning:

Obamacare is the primary example, but the highly controversial “Common Core” curriculum – which micromanages education – is essentially the Obamacare of education and is set to impose itself on most schools in America.

9. a government that seeks not just to manipulate the masses through the media, but which seeks to manipulate the media themselves:

Early on, the Obama administration tried to get Fox News kept out of news events and tried to start a meme that Fox wasn’t really a news organization. More recently, 38 news organizations from across the ideological spectrum sent a letter to the White House complaining that it has blocked their photographic access to the president in favor of government-provided photos. “You are only seeing what they want you to see,” one college journalism dean
lamented.

There also was talk in the early days of the administration of increased government control over broadcasting through reviving the “Fairness Doctrine,” which used to allow the government to officiate political speech.

This administration also has been quite open about using “executive” powers to circumvent Congress whenever it wants.

Ask yourself: If the boundaries and checks and balances of a republic aren’t respected, what has that republic become?

http://chronicle.augusta.com/opinion/editorials/2013-11-30/republic-name-only