by Al Newberry
"Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; and they said to him, "Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint us a king for us to judge us like all the nations." But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. . . "Now, then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them.
So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked of him a king. And he said, "This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. He will also take your male servants and your best young men and your donkeys, and use them for his work. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. Then you will cry out in that day because of your king you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day." (Samuel 8:4-22)
Hence, my view of government. When we trust a man to rule us, this is what we can expect. A government will conscript citizens to serve in a military, whether or not they agree with the cause for fighting. Granted, our government does not currently have a draft, but all men are required to register for selective service. Basically, our government is saying "We'll impose a draft whenever we feel like it." The government currently claims for itself or favored organizations the property of all kinds of law-abiding citizens for virtually any purpose through eminent domain. Our government takes much more than a tenth of our income. All the different kinds of taxes take almost fifty percent of our incomes. And citizens are forced to do all kinds of things at the demand of the government. We were warned.
Over two hundred years ago, a group of people engaged in discussions about what kind of government would rule over what were then the newly liberated colonies of Great Britain. Many of those people were very distrustful of any form of government. This group mostly won out.
This group of people set out to take on a dangerous task. They would form a government, and attempt to chain it down to very strict limits so it could not oppress the people. Many of them were very vocal about the danger of even establishing a government, but most saw government as a "necessary evil" for the protection of citizens' rights.
After establishing a government of small states organized by a very weak central government, many decided that they needed a stronger central government. I argue that this was a mistake, but then what they tried to do was also a good idea.
A group was formed to go back to the drawing board and out of that effort came our current Constitution. Later came the Bill of Rights.
Our constitution was meant to limit the federal government to a select few functions, while leaving all other decisions to the states and the people. It seemed like a great idea, limiting the government. But slowly, act by act, law by law, the federal government took more power. The legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the government used their powers to ignore the Constitution. The legislative branch wrote unconstitutional laws, the executive branch carried them out, and the judicial branch, when asked, gave approval of the laws. Through all this, the Constitution and Bill of Rights have been twisted, ignored, read in absurd ways, etc.
I know. Now you're saying, "This guy's an anarchist." Well, I'm not an anarchist. I am a libertarian. I would love to see a government truly limited to the constitutional limits set by our forefathers. I do believe, as Samuel did, that government is evil, and that it feeds on power. Government seeks more and more power at every turn. I am not opposed, however, to having a government if we are vigilant enough to keep it down to its limits. No exceptions. If the Constitution doesn't authorize it, the government can't do it. I don't believe in writing amendments opposed to the limits set by the original document. I am only for amendments to limit the government in ways not foreseen by our forefathers.
No, I do not trust my government. I fear it. We have a government that routinely ignores the rights of the people, and is currently discussing the possibility of establishing martial law in the wake of some disasters. If the government can even see this as a possibility, what is to stop a president from declaring a national emergency and canceling the next election. Don't think it's possible? Don't think our "leaders" would do it? Maybe not, but looking back on our leaders' record of seeking power, I wouldn't doubt it.
I don't want to sound like some conspiracy theorist here. That's not my point. But we need to return our government to the limits of the Constitution and fight to keep it there before it's too late.
