Maybe They're Really Confederates
A combination of two things: a West Wing episode from a few years ago where the White House's Supreme Court nominee turns out to be opposed to a fundamental (and Constitutional) right to privacy; an excerpt from America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction about how the Founders f*cked up on their first go at a Constitution.
Now, lifting literal references from a dramatic television show and/or a surprisingly sober (yet humorous) "parody" book would be tantamount to, say, listening to Rush Limbaugh without doing your own reference checking or painting Hannity & Colmes as a fair and balanced debate show. So no, I'm not doing that.
However, I do get inspiration usually in the form of synthesis, where two rather disparate ideas are nonetheless juxtaposed, insisting that I find some commonality or at least relationship between the two. This is what I'm talking about here.
What I'm talking about is two seemingly separate thrusts by the current Republican regime. The first, an attack on privacy. Oh, not their own, because they have privatized measures of protecting their own privacy. Think Patriot Act.
The second, they wish to unilaterally disarm everything about the Federal government, except for those programs that will keep them strong. They gut education, claiming localities handle it better—tho, if that were true, small towns would learn nothing about the outside world except to avoid it, and urban schools would teach that rural areas are full of uneducated cousin fuckers. And no one would learn that the USA is part of a bigger world that has its own ideas of what's valuable and what's not. They gut social programs because, although they claim to want a smaller government, they only believe in entitlements that show up at their own doorsteps, dressed up as well-earned rewards.
Consolidation. That was my goal in entertaining these two facts side by side. Cosolidation. Of Power. That's what the Republicans are doing, except not for all Republicans, just the regime inner circle. A conservative government is not enough. Oligarchy is the goal.
I invite you to read the text of the Articles of Confederation. It's a good read. And by the time you get to Article VI, you'll see why it failed: they wanted to have their cake and eat it too: State Sovereignty was explicit. Federal Power over them was implied. It's never good to pigeonhole your own power while giving jurisdiction in abstract, exploitable terms, to someone else. That's why, when the Constitution rolled around, the claim wasn't that the feds owned catch-all power, but rather that the feds stated their own power, only giving latitude to those explicitly subordinate.
The presumptive oligarchy in this country isn't about to assume only powers not explicitly stated by the Constitution. That's why they're out to change it, or gut it. Or silence the life's breath of it: the American People.
Look around at all the ennui. Look around at all the division. Look around at all the paradoxical support for larger government while stating they're for smaller government. Look around at all the tax "relief" being doled out like bubblegum from a parade float while spending obscene amounts on war. Look at all the nation building going on while idealizing self-determination.
Look at it.