If the Constituion Were Drafted Today, What Would Be Americans' Chief Political Value?

If the Constitution were drafted today, I doubt it would look much like the document drafted in  1787.   Back then, the rule of the federal government was limited; just a small tax on whiskey led to an armed revolt in Pennsylvania in 1791; states collected religious taxes; the majority of the elected elite believed in federalism and states' rights; and a large percentage of Americans opposed a central bank.  Today, some of these ideas are being renewed, but Progressivism, socialism and state power have become the dominant values of a nation devoted first and foremost to financial interests and the privileges of Wall Street.

If the Constitution were drafted today, and were it to reflect the average American's beliefs, it would first and foremost require a two party system, with both parties committed to big government and to logrolling of special interests' economic benefiits.  Rights to property would be subjected to the right of the two parties to steal and murder on behalf of the financial and corporate community. All economic transactions would be required to subsidize Americans' greatest goods:  General Motors, Goldman Sachs, George Soros and Paul Pelosi.

Most important among Americans' political values is the prominence of two nearly identical political parties, both strongly committed to theft and violence.  The unlimited rights of eminent domain; government's right to mismanage the nation's wealth; the president's right to wiretap; and the harm that freedom of speech might do to Congress and to corporate interests would be important elements, as would the right of the Supreme Court to compel you to be an atheist and to give your land to inept developers and the two parties.

Support Red Fridays

I just received this message from Sharad Karkhanis.

>As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support 'Red Fridays...'

Last week I was in Atlanta , Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed One of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving thru the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.

When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and Cheered for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.

Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our Service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said 'hi.'

The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.

The young soldier, who didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up

When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.' He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying 'your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and He is coming home very soon.'

The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom.. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event.

As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.

RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority'. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers.

We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing.. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops.

Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday - and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear Something red..

By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.

If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever; certainly more than the media lets on.

The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is....We need your support and your prayers.

Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.

America Is No Longer A Moral Nation

Americans remember that their nation was "conceived in liberty" but tend to forget that liberty was based on morality. Morality is not the same thing as charity. A thief can donate his booty to charity, but he is not moral. Aristotle argued that there are moral as well as intellectual virtues. The moral virtues in Aristotle's view were justice, temperance, prudence and courage. Morality, then, depends on justice. Justice means that each producer receives a fair return, and that no producer receives an unearned return.

The Founding Fathers' morality was linked to the Aristotelian philosophy. Liberty in the sense that it once existed in America depended on justice. This was the underlying assumption of John Locke's Second Treatise on Government on which the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were based. Governments are formed for the just reason of protecting life, liberty and property from violence.

The morality of justice is in turn dependent upon truth. For without a willingness to examine the truth justice is not possible. One cannot receive a fair reward if one is not willing to truthfully examine the contribution one has made.

Ever since the beginning of the Republic a sizable contingent of Americans fought the idea of justice. These Americans wanted the public to subsidize them. The way that they were to be subsidized was through the power to create paper money.

Because of the inherent morality of the 19th century American public, the public rejected this attack on moral values. In 1836 President Andrew Jackson abolished the Second Bank of the United States, the precursor of today's Federal Reserve Bank. The American people of 1836 were too moral to tolerate the fraud associated with the central bank.

In the 1930s John Maynard Keynes proposed an economic system whose foundation is the commission of fraud. Employees would be fooled into accepting lower wages through inflation. The nation's universities would be called into service to perpetuate the fraud by claiming non-existent economic expertise that justified the fraud. The media, already controlled by banking and Wall Street interests, were also called into service of the fraud.

The American people could no longer call themselves moral. For the people did not oppose the fraudulent issuance of bank notes. They did not oppose the transfer of wealth from productive labor to speculator and banker because they were afraid. They were afraid of deprivation because the mass media told them to be afraid. They feared for their security. They trusted experts whose motives were corrupt and whose ideas were merely warmed over and elaborated versions of the same claims that banks had made previously.

America stopped being a moral nation. It could no longer claim justice as the foundation of its ideology. And where justice dies, freedom is sure to follow.

A little dishonesty and a small decline in morality are likely to be followed by ever greater lapses. A little cheating is observed, and then someone does a little more. America has become a nation governed by immoral people. Its economy no longer encourages productivity. Its ethical base has deteriorated. Instead of justice, its ideology is theft. Wal-Mart is excoriated for reducing costs. Goldman Sachs is subsidized for stealing and reducing Americans' standards of living.

A nation that has rejected morality and has rejected justice is sure to deteriorate into the kind of nation that favors charity and stealing. Such a society existed in Europe in the Middle Ages. The socialist economy will see decline to the primitive backwardness of the Soviet Union and pre-Tudor England.

America Enslaved to the Stock Market

A stock market has a purpose--to provide a means by which people who invest in firms can sell their investments. It is not supposed to be the main purpose of American life. However, judging by the endless horde of media pundits, academic experts, economists and of course Wall Street executives who have announced that in order to survive the US must pay trillions of dollars (is it 2.5 trillion now?) in order to compensate Wall Street and commercial banks for bad decisions, it would seem that the United States exists for Wall Street, not the other way around.

Our current president and Congress, who claim to be the representatives of the poor, seem eager to transfer trillions to the rich. After all, the "financial system" must be retained at all costs. Why that is so, no one bothers to explain.

The most productive decades of American history were when the Federal Reserve Bank had been abolished and the financial system did not exist in its current form. Since Wall Street apologist Franklin Roosevelt abolished the gold standard, Wall Street has felt increasingly bold as to its purpose to steal from and enslave the United States.

I have not been blogging lately because I am working on a research project with some students and a longer term book project. As well, the current parlous state of the United States gives me little to blog about because the nation is past redemption.

America has become a slave state and Americans slaves. They accept 50% and higher taxes just as would slaves who accept that they work for their masters.

There has been a melt down in the national spirit and it is going to get worse. The problem is not the failure of dingbat firms like Citigroup and Bear Stearns, but rather the "cure" that the morons in Congress have passed through while a drooling American public watches their wealth being stolen, stupidly acquiescing to the claims of "experts" who are expert thieves and little more.

I think the best model for today's world is Henry David Thoreau--plant some beans, build a cabin and let the American slave society go its own incompetent way--a once free country that has become the first nation to voluntarily enslave itself to a stock market.

I especially feel sorry for my students, who have watched their birthright stolen by the past four generations of Americans who believed the stupidity of Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Croly and Franklin Roosevelt; who quietly watched the real hourly wage fall and believed the double talk on CNN. I feel sorry for them because they are not at fault, and will see themselves much poorer than they could have been, but nevertheless will be slaves.

Antiquity and American Decline

Ancient Egypt is best remembered for its massive pyramids, but few people realize that the pyramids were built during the first, most ancient 1,000 years of the 3,000-year long Egyptian civilization. The most famous Pharaoh, Ramses II or Ramses the Great, who lived in the 13th century BC and was likely the Pharaoh of Exodus, was followed by a 500 year political decline. The Nubians of what is now the Sudan conquered Egypt in the eighth century BC, about 500 years after Ramses II's death, and ruled for about 100 years before the Assyrians and then the Greeks led by Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. The decline of Egypt was due to political rather than economic causes. Egypt had become wealthy because of natural resources. The overflowing of the Nile provided rich topsoil and an abundant crop, making construction, a priesthood, royalty and development of mathematics and some sciences possible. Without the good fortune of the fertile soil due to the overflowing of the Nile, the Egyptian civilization could not have been so influential.

The United States has existed for 220 years compared to the 1,800 years that Egypt had existed by the time of Ramses the Great. Egypt's decline took 500 years, that is, 500/1800 = 27% of the time it took Egyptian civilization to reach its culmination in Ramses the Great. Arguably, American civilization is past its prime, so a comparison is difficult to make. However, let us say that the election of Barack Obama reflects the beginning of American decline. Then, if we follow the pattern of Egypt, the decline will take 27% x 232 years = 62 years.

The decline of Egypt, like the decline of Rome, did not occur at once. Arguably, America began to decline with the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Progressive era. If so, it would seem that America's decline has taken much longer than Egypt's in proportion to its brief time of glory in the nineteenth century. Unlike Egypt, America's success is largely due to its laissez-faire economic system, not to its luck of natural resources.

Perhaps America is closer to the Periclean democracy of Athens. That democracy lasted for less than a century before the Spartans defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War and much of Athens was wiped out by a plague. The Athenian culture continued for centuries more and continued to make important cultural contributions. But after the fifth century BC Athens was no longer able to influence the world directly. Plato and Aristotle were post-Periclean, and arguably Alexander the Great (of Macedon), Aristotle's student, carried much of Athenian culture to the rest of the word, including Egypt when he was crowned Pharaoh. The Greeks saw themselves as carrying ancient Egyptian culture forward. Perhaps a younger, more vibrant society that has adopted at least some of American values, such as Estonia or Singapore, will become the leading nation of the next age.

Right at the time the Assyrians were conquering Egypt, Rome was founded. The fall of Rome took at least several centuries, and many would argue that Rome did not totally fall until Constantinople fell in the 15th century. In the third century Rome had shifted to more autocratic government (the process had begun in the time of Julius Caesar). In response to inflationary debasement of the Roman currency, Emperor Diocletian imposed wage and price controls. As well, the manorial system that led to serfdom began in late antiquity. To quote Wikipedia:

"Diocletian separated and enlarged the empire's civil and military services and re-organized the empire's provincial divisions, establishing the largest and most bureaucratic government in the history of the empire...Building on third-century trends towards absolutism, Diocletian styled himself an autocrat, elevating himself above the empire's masses with imposing forms of court ceremonial and architecture. Bureaucratic and military growth, constant campaigning, and construction projects increased the state's expenditures, and necessitated a comprehensive tax reform...

"Not all Diocletian's plans were successful; the Edict on Maximum Prices (301), Diocletian's attempt to curb inflation via price controls, was unsuccessful, counterproductive, and quickly ignored...The Diocletian Persecution (303–311), the empire's last, largest, and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity, did not destroy the empire's Christian community; indeed, after 324 Christianity became the empire's preferred religion under its first Christian emperor, Constantine..."

According to Kevin Greene in "The Archeology of the Roman Empire":

"Crawford believes that (inflation) really gathered momentum from the 260s, and that bronze coins continued to suffer rapid inflation in terms of gold, which rose from 48,000 denarii to 99,000 denarii per pound between the late third century and Diocletian's Edict of AD 301. The marked increase which seems to have occurred in the third century coincided with dramatic changes in coinage...

"In a series of complex graphic presentations, Reece has shown that in northern Italy between Augustus (27 BC - AD 14) and AD 275 the ratio of silver denarii to brass sestertii remained roughly in balance...Inflation seems to have gathered momentum during the third century AD, which provides some good examples of financial desperation, probably brought on by political and military difficulties.* The debasement of denarius is particularly dramatic; whereas under Augustus it was made of virtually pure silver, the gradual decline in purity and weight of the second century accelerated in the third, until it became a little more than a bronze coin with a small percentage of silver..."

The author provides a graph that shows that the percentage of silver in Roman coins fell from 3 1/2 in 318-320 to 1 1/2 in 337-340.

The Roman civilization was closer than Egypt to the US in that it was more outward looking and for at least part of its history was a republic. The decline of Rome took between three and eleven centuries. Arguably, today's western Europe is just an extension of Rome. French, Spanish and Italian are modernized Latin and much of European culture derives from Roman influence. However, if you mark the end of the Roman era with the two sackings of Rome in the fifth century, then the decline of Rome took about 200 years relative to its twelve hundred year history. If so, then if America follows the Roman pattern its decline will take 200/1200 x 220 = 37 years. Thus, the decline of the United States may well be finished within the brief course of the rest of my life.

*Bearus Stearnus, Diocletian's imperial bank, required subsidies.

United States Should Spin Off Into Three Republics

The time has come to decentralize the United States. I think that the alternative camps, the socialist progressives, the conservative progressives and the libertarians have little enough in common that separate economic policies would be more productive than continued association. This would also have the advantage of enabling Americans to see which system works best--Democratic Party socialism, big business/socialist conservatism or free market liberalism. Perhaps the three republics could be renamed

-the United Socialist States of America (Democratic Party socialism)
-the United States of America (libertarian)
-the Corporate States of America (big business conservatism)

Perhaps the southwest could spin off and become the libertarian federation, the northeast could become the big business federation, and the Midwest and could become the socialist federation

I suppose the ideologically affiliated states need not be contiguous.

Even if only one state becomes a free market society, that would eventually be the dominant power. The other two confederations would become like North Korea (socialist) and Europe (big business conservatism).

The American Ideological Divide

The differences between the American left and right are huge. The left is for big government and will increase government spending by 8%. The right is for small government and when elected increases government spending by 11%.

The left favors big government solutions with respect to healthcare, money, social security and regulation. The right favors big government solutions with respect to drug plans, money, social security and regulation.

The left favors a Federal Reserve Bank that would inflate the money supply by 8%. The right favors a Federal Reserve Bank that would inflate the money supply by 7.9% with an extra $800 sent to each taxpayer.

The left favors more Medicaid and is unconcerned with fraud. The right favors less Medicaid with a higher percentage of fraud.

The left opposes investigation of the Kennewick Man. The right opposes teaching of evolution in school.

The left hates white men. The right hates Mexican immigrants.

The left claims to favor the poor and working class but adopts policies that support wealthy contributors, cronies and themselves. The right claims to favor hard working Americans but adopts policies that support wealthy contributors, cronies and themselves.

As John Lukacs has pointed out, the right emphasizes the national, while the left emphasizes the socialism. Thankfully, ours is an intellectually diverse nation.