Who Killed the Constitution? We did.

Zbigniew Mazurak provides an excellent guide to the way things used to be, and the way things were intended to be by our Constitution in an article yesterday at the American Thinker entitled Executive Orders and Presidential Prerogatives. Would that Mr. Mazurak was correct in what he writes. For instance:

Executive orders and regulations issued by the president are law for no one except federal executive agencies. Only the Congress can make law for anyone else. So any executive orders or regulations are not law for you unless you work for one of these institutions. The same applies to any executive regulations imposed by executive agencies such as the EPA.

So, farmers could just sort of ignore the proposed regulation of spilled milk that will put a baby food on a par with petroleum products in terms of harm to the environment. If only it were true.  Whatever regulations are finally promulgated will be enforced against any farmer who objects, with guns and jail if necessary.  That's part of the problem.  Unfortunately, the President has guns, and the Congress and Courts do not.  So, when those guns are pointed in your direction, are you really willing to tell him "Hey buddy, you can't do that"?

I am not a Constitutional scholar, so do not know when the exact ruling took place that killed the Republic, but if you believe Thomas E. Woods, Jr. and Kevin R. Gutzman, writing in Who Killed the Constitution it was a variety of politicians, judges, and presidents. Some of it was done for expediency, some for power grabs, all of it because of venal desire for personal gain above the common good, and all of it has acted to steal the liberties that ordinary Americans once expected as a birthright.  The nanny state is taking over everywhere, and individual judgement and responsibility has been made virtually illegal.   Wood's and Gutzman's verdict? The Constitution as we know it is dead.

Today, the Curmudgeon Emeritus over at Eternity Road has a post up entitled Enforcers that points out that expecting the Federal Government to enforce the Constitution was a little bit naive of us. The people, through the Second Amendment were intended to enforce the Constitution. We failed.

When the federal government decided to ignore the Constitution's constraints, did you pull the musket down from your mantel? Your Curmudgeon didn't.

Therefore, it's not the Constitution that's failed; it's its enforcement mechanisms.

We thought we could safeguard our freedom by periodically changing scoundrels. At least, enough of us thought so.

We were wrong. Or squeamish. Or cowardly. Take your pick.

Right now, some 49% of the people receive largess from the Federal Government in some form or another. These people have been bought and paid for with our tax dollars. They are not going to be the least bit interested in returning to Constitutional governance.  The courts, and especially the Supreme Court are divided between nominal originalists, and those who believe they can make the law up as they go.  The latter are in the majority.  And why not?  It is more satisfying to right supposed wrongs than to slavishly follow what some legislature has decided, though that is their job.  Congressman Clyburn famously told Andrew Napolitano that most of what they do in Congress had no Constitutional basis, with no apparent irony or embarrassment. The United States faces a deficit said to be $14 trillion, but if you look at the unfunded entitlements, is really so large that there is not enough wealth in the world to pay it. Yet they propose to cut a mere $100 billion.  This is gross incompetence of the worst sort.  Meanwhile the President, as Mazurak indicated above, is on a tear to advance his socialist agenda by any means necessary.  I am sure the Posse Comitatus act will be no impediment if the time comes.  While the outer forms are maintained, we no longer live under the rule of law, but the rule of men.  So what do you do?  How do you obey an unjust law?  How will you explain yourself to the Creator when judgement day arrives?

The truth is, I do not know.  Perhaps, like Washington, our job is not so much to win, but to avoid losing long enough for God to rescue a future generation.  In the meantime, keep your powder dry and your stocks built up.  And pray.