June 12, 2014
The president is an ardent progressive.
This dastardly philosophy of government was brought into the American
mainstream 100 years ago by a Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, and a Democrat,
Woodrow Wilson. Its guiding principle is the belief that government — not
individuals — is the chief engine of human progress. If that means government
tearing down rich persons to help poor persons, if that means the massive
redistribution of wealth, if it means federal regulation of every conceivable
occupation or productive endeavor, if it means fighting an unjust war,
progressives are for it.
Before the progressives, the dominant
political thinkers in America were Madisonians. James Madison, who kept the
notes at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 — notes that
eventually formed much of the language of the Constitution — made clear what
the purposes of the Constitution were: to prescribe discrete areas of human
endeavor in which the new federal government could legislate; to set forth
open-ended areas of human behavior in which no government could legislate; and
to leave the remaining areas of governmental endeavor in the hands of the
states. The areas delegated to the federal government are only 17 in number and
generally are referred to as federal powers. The areas in which no government
may regulate are infinite and generally are referred to as natural rights.
The progressives have turned this
philosophy on its head. TR and Wilson believed that the federal government
could regulate any behavior, right any wrong, tax any event and curtail any
freedom, subject only to the express prohibitions in the Constitution itself.
This view of American government not only contradicts Madison, but it also
contradicts the language of the Constitution itself, particularly the Ninth and
Tenth Amendments, which state in writing what Madison said many times
throughout his life.
President Obama, most congressional
Democrats and many congressional Republicans are ardent progressives. They view
Congress as a general legislature with no limits to its powers — and they mean
no limits. For example, in an area clearly beyond congressional reach, such as
in-state highway speed limits, the progressives found a way to extend their
reach. They offered money to the states to repave their highways, with the
condition that the states adhere to federally prescribed speed limits (only
South Dakota declined). Once the courts gave their imprimatur to this assault
on the Constitution, the feds realized that by spending taxpayer dollars — by
bribing the states — they could extend their regulatory tentacles to any
extra-constitutional area they chose.
Progressivism’s adherents finance the
government by borrowing or by heavily taxing only the rich, both of which are
sold as being painless to most voters. Yet, the former merely delays the due
date of bills until tomorrow for goodies consumed today; the latter takes cash
out of the free market today, where it could contribute to growth and jobs
tomorrow, and puts it into the hands of the mindset that runs the Post Office
and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Progressives hate the states because
they can be laboratories of less government. They love central government and
all of its creations, such as the cash-printing Federal Reserve, the
wealth-stealing progressive income tax, and the concept of a federal safety net
for all persons. None of this, except the income tax (which Wilson promised
would not exceed 3 percent of adjusted gross income), is authorized by the
Constitution.
Yet today, we are witnessing a
government that is beyond ideologically progressive. Does Obama understand that
progressive ideas have consequences and that governmental behavior often has
unintended consequences? It would appear not, as his long train of incompetence
and indifference, grounded in progressive thought, keeps picking up speed. It
is crushing human freedom, destroying human wealth and even taking human lives.
Under his presidency, the government
saddled us all with a three-sizes-fits-all version of compulsory health care
(which caused more than five million persons to lose their coverage and their
doctors); it has been spying on all Americans all the time (and we sleepily
permit it to do so); it allowed our ambassador in Libya to be murdered (after
it destroyed the lawful government there); it told illegal aliens they need not
worry about deportation (and thus encouraged the immigration of hundreds of
thousands more — even unaccompanied children — to our shores); it neglected
veterans to the point of death in government hospitals (demonstrating
conclusively that the feds cannot deliver health care); it released assets
material to terrorist organizations into the theater of war in the Middle East
(ostensibly in a prisoner swap to save a weird military bird who once embraced
his captors); it has claimed the power to kill Americans it views as a threat
to others and yet too troublesome to arrest and bring to trial (all the while
claiming it has a secret reading of the Constitution and American law that
somehow justifies this); and it has added $6 trillion to government debt (with
no plans to repay it).
What’s going on? The modern presidency
is blinded by a conceit that says it can do no wrong. This is partially the
result of the passage of power from the states to the feds and from Congress to
the president and partially the fault of a president who relishes telling us
all how to live. In Obama’s hands, all this power produces the vast unhappiness
and government recklessness we now see every day.
The same Madison whom Obama rejects
warned 200 years ago against the Obama mindset: “Experience should teach us to
be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are
beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their
liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in
insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
Reprinted
with the author’s permission.
Andrew P. Napolitano [send
him mail], a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is
the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano has written
seven books on the U.S. Constitution. The most recent is Theodore and Woodrow: How Two American Presidents Destroyed
Constitutional Freedom. To find out more about Judge Napolitano and
to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit creators.com.
Copyright © 2014 Andrew P. Napolitano
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