By: Gary D. Barnett
“The ostensible supporters of the Constitution, like the ostensible supporters of most other governments, are made up of three classes, viz.: 1. Knaves, a numerous and active class, who see in the government an instrument which they can use for their own aggrandizement or wealth. 2. Dupes – a large class, no doubt – each of whom, because he is allowed one voice out of millions in deciding what he may do with his own property, and because he is permitted to have the same voice in robbing, enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in robbing, enslaving, and murdering himself, is stupid enough to imagine that he is a “free man,” a “sovereign”; that this is “a free government”; “a government of equal rights,” “the best government on earth,” and such like absurdities. 3. A class who have some appreciation of the evils of government, but either do not see how to get rid of them, or do not choose to so sacrifice their private interests as to give themselves seriously and earnestly to the work of making a change.”
Lysander Spooner, No Treason No. 6: The Constitution of No Authority (1870)
Given all that has happened over the past 233 years, and especially the past three years, one might wonder why it is so vital to scrap the U.S. Constitution, (and eliminate government rule) and to cease immediately what in many cases could be considered Constitution worship. In fact, most will take considerable offense at the suggestion that the Constitution is a heinous document and a fraud, and in great part, has been the foundation of our liberty destruction. After all, many actually believe that this politician’s dream came directly from God. This could not be so if the American masses had not been duped into believing that a piece of parchment created and drafted in secret, in the dark of night, behind closed and locked doors; and by the very worst and most depraved element of society, politicians, was meant only to expand the powers of a centralized federal (national) government to levels so extreme as to defy sanity.
What level of nonsense is evident when the majority of the supposed most intelligent beings on earth believe that a political document can save them, give and protect their ‘rights’; all based on the absurd notion that all that is necessary for individual sovereignty is that an all-powerful government follow to the letter the same ‘rules’ it created for itself out of whole cloth? Maybe this can be explained better by the master of propaganda, Edward Bernays, when he said:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”
To put this in plain English, the masses are fully responsible for their own servitude because they voluntarily allow themselves to be lied to, cheated, taxed, manipulated, controlled, beaten, ruled, and murdered by the very people they purposely place in power over them.
It seems that I get correspondence daily to the effect that if only ‘our’ constitution were respected and followed, we all would be saved, lights would shine in the heavens, happiness would flourish, bells would ring, prosperity and equality would reign, and government would restrict itself and become a paternal and loving master.
The powers given in the ruling document of this country called the Constitution; said to be the law of the land, are absolutely unlimited. Those powers are defined in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, and state:
Condensed version:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
- Congress can lay and collect taxes
- Congress can borrow money
- Congress can regulate national and international trade
- Congress can establish rules for naturalization and bankruptcy laws
- Congress can coin money
- Congress can set the standard for weights and measures
- Congress can punish counterfeiters
- Congress can establish post offices and post roads
- Congress can grant patents to inventors and copyrights to authors
- Congress can set up federal courts
- Congress can punish piracy and crimes committed at sea
- Congress can declare war
- Congress can raise and support armies
- Congress can provide and maintain a navy
- Congress can make rules for the government of land and sea forces
- Congress can call on the militia (National Guard) to put down rebellion and invasion and to enforce the laws
- Congress can help organize, arm, and discipline the militia
- Congress can exercise control over the District of Columbia and over other federal property
And to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
There are few restrictions here, and none of any consequence, so claiming that this government had or has limited powers is a complete fabrication and lie. Those who state that this current constitution limits the power of government are either ignorant of fact, misinformed, or deceitful. Regardless, there is no excuse worthy of this lack of thinking or behavior.
The U.S. Constitution illegally replaced by the current Constitution were The Articles of Confederation. While also flawed as any government document naturally is, they actually did limit the central government severely. The president of Congress had no power whatsoever, and no executive branch existed. There was no Supreme Court, and only one branch of government. Congress could make decisions, but had no power of enforcement. The federal government (Congress) had no power whatsoever to tax. Congress had no power whatsoever to regulate foreign trade or commerce. While Congress under the Articles had the authority to regulate and fund the Army (military), it had no power to raise an army or navy, and could not compel the states to comply with any requests for troops or funding, restricting greatly any power to war. And obviously, the Congress did not control the money, which it so desperately desired to do.
If any think the current Constitution was created, drafted, and implemented in order to restrict a federal government that was already impotent, please refrain from embarrassing yourselves any longer. One reading of the first Constitution of the United States, The Articles of Confederation, should open your eyes to the deceit and propaganda surrounding the current Constitution, and any notion that it was designed to restrict the federal government in any way, or meant to protect freedom, liberty, or any sovereignty of the individual. The opposite of course is true, as I described long ago.
“Those who depend on a document sanctioned by the state to define their rights, those who believe that their natural rights are given and protected by a constitution, and those who worship such a system as it creates, will never be free and in fact will end up subservient to that same state. For to accept any constitutional system sanctioned by the state is to accept that government which it creates, and since government relies only on force, living under such a system is the antithesis of freedom, and is in fact a form of consensual enslavement.”
As Murray N. Rothbard so correctly stated in Conceived in Liberty, the Constitution was a coup d’état.
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