The midterm elections are just around the corner and it seems that people are once again disenchanted with their government. A recent Gallup pole shows that 75% of the people questioned are dissatisfied with Congress while a Rasmussen pole shows that 56% of the people disapprove of Barack Obama’s performance.

With the Democrats having a majority in Congress, and with Congresses approval ratings in the tank, the odds are good that come November the Republicans may once get enough seats to regain control of Congress.

Allow me to ask a question, although I am pretty sure I already know the answer; Are people really that stupid that they are just going to replace the Democrats with Republicans and expect that things will suddenly get better? C’mon people, would you please just take a moment or two to think about how idiotic that sounds!

People weren’t happy with George W. Bush, and a Republican Congress, so they voted for Obama and a bunch of Democrats. Now they aren’t happy with Obama and the Democrats, so they are going to vote for a bunch of Republicans?

I am certain that there are those die-hard Republicans who are almost giddy with the prospect of regaining control of Congress. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are probably having orgasms just thinking about it. It is to those who are not among the foaming at the mouth Republicans that I would like to address.

First of all, what exactly is it that you expect from your government? It is a serious question that, in light of the current state of our nation, should be given much more thought than it has been in the past. Once you have given that sufficient thought, then you have to ask yourself if the Republican Party will best represent what you believe is the function of government.

How you answer those questions will be entirely up to you, but if you would give me the chance, I would like to explain how I feel. I consider myself a conservative. That does not mean I am a Republican, far from it.

In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 12, Christ states, “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.”

How does that apply to this train of thought? Simple, if a person, or a political party, claims to be conservative, but their actions are far from it, are they really conservatives?

The dictionary defines conservative as “reluctant to accept change: in favor of preserving the status quo and traditional values and customs, and against abrupt change.”

I would like for you to pay particular attention to something James Madison once said, “[T]he powers of the federal government are enumerated; it can only operate in certain cases; it has legislative powers on defined and limited objects, beyond which it cannot extend its jurisdiction.”

You know, sometimes when quoting our nation’s founders I use words that I am not certain people understand. I think enumerated may very well be one of them. According to the dictionary, enumerated means, “to name a number of things on a list one by one.”

Our government, both Democrats and Republicans, are equally guilty of expanding their powers to things that are not among those specifically enumerated by the Constitution.

Their claim that the general welfare clause of the Constitution authorizes them to do almost anything they desire is a huge misrepresentation of the intent of our founders. In a letter to Albert Gallatin, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” There’s that word again – “enumerated“.

If that isn’t clear enough for you, James Madison, in no uncertain terms, stated, “With respect to the two words “general welfare,” I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”

It should by now be apparent that our founders did not regard the general welfare clause of the Constitution as a catch all for them to use in justification of expanding their scope of power. Yet that is exactly what they have done.

Each and every Senator and member of the House take an oath, which states, “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; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

Before I go any further, I want to make certain that people understand that although I am primarily discussing the abuse of power by our federal government, those elected to the various state governments also take a similar oath and are equally responsible for upholding the Constitution.

To continue, over the course of our nation’s history, our government has seen fit to pass laws which overstep the powers granted them by the Constitution. Often they justify their actions as necessary to stem some form of crisis.

Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel arrogantly stated what has long been accepted in D.C. as standard policy, “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.”

The recent passage of Universal Health Care Reform, the bailouts and government takeovers of banks and other private sector industries are only the most recent examples of our government exploiting a good crisis.

George W. Bush used the attacks of September 11 to initiate a long stream of legislation which, not only granted government powers it was never intended they have, but in the process trampled upon our 4th, 5th, and 6th amendment rights.

However, the practice of using a crisis to expand their powers did not start with Obama, nor did it start with Bush. Many of the social service programs we now take for granted would have been unthinkable a hundred years ago. Yet the Great Depression gave Franklin Roosevelt all the crisis he needed to implement his New Deal.

Hell, the exploitation of a crisis can be traced back to our second President, John Adams, with the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. So using a crisis to further an agenda is nothing new. But it is something that Daniel Webster warned us about over 200 years ago, “Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.”

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave an excellent example easily it is for government to utilize a crisis to do things people would not normally accept. In a speech to the Bilderberg Group in Evian France, Kissinger stated, “Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will pledge with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government.”

In a speech to the House of Commons, in 1783, William Pitt stated, “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is an argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.”

As long as the majority of Americans remain ignorant regarding the limits our Constitution imposes upon our government; as long as we tolerate their continued abuse of their power; as long as we continue to vote for more of the same from the two main political parties, we will continue to watch our liberty diminish and our governments control over us increase.

So, before you go to the polls this November, I would ask you to give these things a great deal of thought before casting your ballet for either a Republican or a Democrat. I would ask you to ponder something that George Washington once said, that being, “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

After you have pondered these things, ask yourself if the candidate you plan to vote for stands for the same principles as you do, do they represent the same vision of government that you believe in?

And remember, as Theodore Roosevelt once said, “A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” If your character is of a nature that you prefer to let your government trample upon your rights, and control every aspect of your lives, go ahead and vote for a Republican, or a Democrat. However, if you value your rights and your liberty, seek out a candidate worthy of your vote.

Finally, remember how Thomas Jefferson defined good government, “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.”

Now the choice is yours, will you vote for freedom, or the continued path to slavery?

“[T]o preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole
body of the people always possess arms,
and be taught alike, especially when young,
how to use them.” – Federal Farmer

~ The Author ~
Neal Ross can be reached for comments at bonsai@syix.com. Visit Neal’s Blog at http://www.zombie-slayer.com/neal