Progressive Illegitimacy, Part 1

Views from Liberty Hollow – by Historian

I’ve posted here previously that I think that the present regime is illegitimate;  I’ve also made no bones about the illegitimacy of the FedGov goons in personal conversations.  I thought that it was reasonably evident that this was so, especially when even the hard left has started criticizing the Obamessiah. But the other day, somebody said, ( I paraphrase somewhat for the sake of clarifying a rather emotional exchange)  “Historian, I understand that you do not agree with the policies and actions of the present administration.  I do not agree with most of what those bozos are doing now  myself, and I admit I voted for the guy in ’08.  But you have to go a long way from policy disagreement to  being illegitimate.  How can you possibly say that the present government is not legitimate?”  

A good question, which deserves a dispassionate response.  The short answer was that this situation goes FAR beyond simple policy dispute.  The actions of the present regime, continuing the trend of the last hundred years, strike at the roots of the tree of Liberty, and are intended to destroy it.  But before we get into that too far,  first let me ask the first question one must always ask when politics is discussed-  What is the function of government?

Once it is understood that governments are instituted to protect individual rights, then we come to this question-  what is a legitimate government?   What would a legitimate representative constitutional republic look like?  How does that compare to what we have now?

1) A legitimate government holds everyone strictly accountable to the same standards. The rule of the common law, the idea that EVERYONE must obey the same rules, which everybody understood (at least every literate person, and most illiterates) started with Magna Carta, signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215 AD.  One clause from that document, now over 799 years old, states that no free man shall be deprived of his liberty, life, limb, or property, without being promptly tried by a jury of his peers.  Kipling’s magnificent poem, “the Reeds of Runnymede”, posted here yesterday, speaks to that specific clause.  Contrast that Medieval document with the situation here in these presently united States.  These days, agents of our governments kill us, maim us, steal our money and our possessions, and the perpetrators are never charged, for they are agents of the government.  Is this the Rule of Law?

2) a legitimate government has objective standards that don’t change quickly, and that every literate person can understand.  As noted above, Magna Carta established some basic principles for protection of human liberty, some of which are still in force today in Britain.  Contrast that with the current situation here in these presently united States.  As I stated here, the FedGov goons busily churn out more material in a week than an average person could read in a year.  All of this printed matter, most of it ‘regulation’ written by unelected bureaucrats, is enforced by these selfsame bureaucrats.

We have FDA SWAT teams being sent out to take milk from farmers co-ops, armed Treasury agents being sent out to confiscate wood for guitar making and BLM agents trying to confiscate ranchers cattle.  For what?  At least on the face of the issue, for violating one of the myriad of unknowable ‘regulations’ published by unelected faceless government flunkies.  It has been said that every single person in these presently united States is quilty of committing three felonies a day;  link here.  If the rules are impossible to know, and if every single person is guilty of violating them, how can such a government be legitimate?

3) Legitimate government is small.  It takes very little of the people’s money to run it; taxes are a tiny fraction of the productive output of each individual.  In 1774, the cost of a 2% tax on a luxury item sparked outrage and violent objections, ultimately leading to the American Revolution.  Today, over half of the adult population depends on government largesse, in one form or another, and over 3/4 of the price of almost everything you buy is the cost of the taxes, direct and indirect.  Need I say more?  Is this legitimate??

4) A legitimate government has honest money.  The means of exchange are stable and the government does not debase the currency or tolerate counterfeiting.  In 1913, one or two silver dimes would buy a loaf of bread.  In 1964, a silver dime would buy two chocolate bars.  Today, a hundred years after the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank, (which is not Federal, a reserve, or a bank) that same silver dime still has about the same buying power, but the officially sanctioned counterfeit currency being produced by the Fed has lost almost all of its buying power.  When the government steals between 5 and 10% of the value of your money every year, by the hidden tax of currency debasement, AKA ‘inflation’,  how is this legitimate?

5) A legitimate government governs with the consent of all its citizens, and does so honestly and openly, with no corruption. When 104% of the registered voters in a major Eastern city all vote for the Democratic Party, with no Republican or third party votes and no prosecutions result from this obvious and blatant voter fraud, when Federal tax agents target the current administration’s political opponents, when illegal immigrants are imported by the millions and vote for the free lunch they have been promised, is this open and honest consent?  These are only three of thousands of similar examples; are these the actions of a legitimate authority?

6) A legitimate government promotes and depends upon a stable culture, founded upon the principles of liberty.  The principles of liberty cannot change, but there can be legitimate debate about the implementation of those principles, and how those ideals can best be recognized as technology and society do. In a legitimate free society, the government has relatively little power to affect the individual and the impetus to make change is low.

In order to establish the totalitarian police state currently being built around us, turmoil and upheaval are necessary to overturn centuries of movement towards individual liberty.  The fact that we see so much turmoil being fomented by agents of the government is the hallmark of tyranny.  Is this, in any form, legitimate?

As I have stated previously, this is a war of ideas, first and foremost.  Ask yourself these questions, O gentle reader.  Listen to the answers, and be true to yourself.

My answer was that the present government was progressively and Progressively illegitimate.
Or in other words-  Oh, HELL NO!

Hence this post, the first of several on this topic.

With regard to all who serve the Light,
Historian

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