While a savage nation seizes on Napolitano's Homeland Security report for alerting police to radicalization of the political "right"; tea parties, resembling a Joan Baez love-in more than another dread riot by those Sons of Liberty, flicker across the evening news. Nonetheless, it is still possible that Homeland Security has access to information that even radio talk show hosts with their "fingers on the pulse of the nation" do not. That is, since the last election, there may well be an increase in militia movements that are, if not alarming, at least extremely unique in recent U.S. history. Consider, for instance, the hysterical stories about the rise in gun sales since President Obama's inauguration. Even more terrifying are the hundreds of reports about that one gun store owner who connected a shortage of ammunition to the Obama presidency.
Some may say that the potential for the complete financial collapse of the West inspired many to privatize protection against a coming day of lawlessness. Others may say that racial issues or higher taxes might have caused an increase in the size and scope of state militias. Some, though, whisper that Charlton Heston himself has returned with an arsenal from the other side. But, it is at least conceivable that Blackwater, flush with cash from the Bush administration and expelled from power by the Obama administration, is seeking work. Since being conceivable is all that is needed for a terror-driven demagogue to pass yet another tyrannical tax or sponsor some new grievous regulation, we can rest assured our government will not fail to govern us yet more.
While there are those that feel this hyped up hysteria is a prelude to further restrictions on the right to bear arms, they should consider the source. The source of these fears is good old Uncle Sam. How, then could we all, as patriots, not believe? How can concerned Americans or refuse to cower? No patriotic citizen dare point out that this is the same chicken-little U.S. administration that espouses rising sea levels of more than six feet over the coming century. Ask any red, white (with fear) and blue (state) news outlet: these liberals are infallibly correct.
To all of this speaks the ancient Hebrew proverb: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion." While the pursuits of men fade into quaint anachronisms, the pursuit of truth is ever new. The notion that the April 15th Tea Parties are in anyway related to an increasing militia movement is plainly incorrect. Rhetorically, they should be directly linked to an insurrectionist media, but FOX News just doesn't qualify.
The Sons of Liberty were not messing around. The thirteen colonies were on the brink of war, and the Boston Tea Party lit the match. But not this time. If the "Tea Parties" were filled with protestors dressed as Bernie Madoff throwing Federal Reserve Notes in the drink while passing out a new tax free revolutionary currency (with the face of Charlton Heston boldly emblazoned thereon), and if they then tied this currency to a lead standard (a commodity currency based on the need for bullets), then, then we might have concerns about the relationship of these tax-protest, family gatherings and some fearful rise in American the militias of the common man. Besides, Americans are too far in debt to hire Blackwater. Unless Blackwater goes into the banking business and buys America, we need not fear an overflowing tide of crazed Christian mercenaries. However, if there ever is any real threat from an increase in militia forces, it will only be because of the failures of the American judiciary.The failure of the federal courts to take the constitution of the United States of America literally has resulted in one civil war and in festering racial suspicion and animosities. Sooner or later, if the past be any prognosticator at all, the continued failure of our judiciary must, ultimately, bring lawless savagery upon our nation.
Many today view the decisions of state and federal courts of appeal as votes. That is, the court is judged "correct" in its ruling if the outcome of the decision is in accordance with a "vote" they would have made. It is our custom now, as such court decisions as that in Iowa all but explicitly state, for state and federal judiciaries to seat themselves as "Super Delegates" in a democratic process where the people are routinely disenfranchised
No matter what one would have voted regarding gay "marriage" if one were a Vermont legislator, the examination of the Iowa Supreme Court must be made on another basis. The unanimous decision of this court and the constitutionally illiterate manner in which it was issued has undermined, yet again, the role of the judiciary in United States government. The court made no reference to Iowa's laws or judicial precedents on marriage. As in other states around the country, the court simply argued that because the word "equal" has become a "god-word" trump card in our culture and in our laws, and because it was, after all the Iowa Supreme Court, it had the right, because it had the power, to call this case however it desired.
Yes, now that the judiciary of our nation has christened itself a "queen" in the chess game of ideological propaganda politics, the game is over. Why? Because the judiciary, jealous of political power, has left vacant its own place. Consider the 2004 ruling on the detainees in Guantanamo Bay. There the United States Supreme Court took authority upon itself to write international law. The judiciary was to be the board, the system of impartial rules, on which the game is played. If courts can take it upon themselves to define our marriages and our families, to write our international laws, what else can these unelected lifetime appointees in their hubris not redefine? No law is sacred. As "equality" has already become all meaningful and "property" has become infested with "ifs" what then becomes of the words "religious freedom," or "inalienable liberties"? By accepting an unlimited jurisdiction by our courts we will have submitted to that blackest state of affairs: a government not of law but one, instead, of the lawless use of political power.
This nation will have no chance of regaining the constitutional language of our laws if we can no longer even clearly recognize the concepts of law surrounding commitments based on something as simple as human biological unity. Though a single decision may be the final tear in the fabric of jurisprudence, it would be only the last failure in the incorrect, and banal legal logic of our U.S. courts, a trend in elite hypocrisy that is far more alarming than trends in global climate change. If the world warms, a free people will yet prosper, a righteous nation will yet prevail; but if we follow blindly the foolishness of our courts we will ultimately unravel our constitutional union and descend into cowardice and slavery.
Although the legal ideology of a "living" constitution was not adulterously embraced until after the Civil War, the fruit of such inconsonant legal practices were passionately tasted from well before. Consider the judicial activism and tyranny of the Dred Scott decision. Cloaked in pious language of property and good intentions, Chief Justice Taney purposely led the court in overstepping constitutional law. To this day many say that this was an honest disagreement and that Taney was trying desperately to preserve the Union, but it was this same Taney who, in the very midst of civil war, ruled that Lincoln had overstepped habeas corpus. This action forced Lincoln to ignore the courts (an interesting precedent in itself). Taney never had any desire to preserve the Union. The abuse of power by our courts is ever disguised as "wisdom" "care" and "concern" for the citizens of these United States. Barely did this nation remain one people under God, and no thanks to the courts.
Likewise, consider the litany of state courts that, as late as 1959, knowingly legislated from the bench on matters of interracial marriage. These judges fostered resentments that live on today because they surrendered to the short-lived glories of political approval rather than to the natural law affirmed and enshrined their state and national constitutions. These jurists are monuments to the unconscionable and illegal powers our judicial branch can exert when it oversteps its constitutional authority. Only the patience of the civil rights movements of the late fifties and sixties can be credited with averting yet another blood bath poured out from "above" by men of high authority and disgraceful integrity.
It is then, most likely, if the study of history can reflect the errors of the present and the failures of the future, that if a rise of American militias does ultimately prove to be dangerous to Americans, it will not be because of the executive or the legislative branches of government; no, it will be the consequence of the failures of the judiciary to uphold the laws of the land. A free people, united in liberty, can overcome global warming, even if it is not caused by man. However, a land enslaved in lawlessness must learn to be free before it decends into fear and helpless cowardice.
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Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Last modified: Saturday, May 30, 2009
The views expressed in this article are those of Paul Benedict only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Paul Benedict is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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