Plunging Towards Gomorrah
Posts tagged Federalist Papers
RE: U.S. Census Notification
Mar 10th
Before becoming President, Barack Obama was a "community organizer" who taught groups like ACORN a special type of math that would ensure their "fair share".
Like Henshaw, your venerable Daily Plunge host, Club Soda received a notice from the Census Bureau stating that the Bureau would soon invade my home with a form to fill out with such pertinent information as my race, gender and so on and so forth. As noted in Henshaw’s earlier post about the Census Bureau notification, it reads in part:
Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share.
As with the Henshaw notice, the words “fair share” made an appearance on my notification form. I immediately picked up my copy of The Federalist Papers, which also includes The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation and The Constitution, to see what the founders had to say about getting my “fair share”.
Shockingly, the phrase “fair share” does not make an appearance in either The Constitution or in any of the letters that constitute the founders’ defense of the new Constitution, The Federalist Papers. However, I did find some interesting notes about the census, its purpose and why the founders believed a census was a crucial element of the republic.
“As the accuracy of the census to be obtained by the Congress will necessarily depend, in a considerable degree, on the disposition, if not on the cooperation of the States,” wrote James Madison in Federalist No. 54, “it is of great importance that the States should feel as little bias as possible to swell or to reduce the amount of their numbers. Were their share of representation alone to be governed by this rule, they would have an interest in exaggerating their inhabitants. Were the rule to decide their share of taxation alone, a contrary temptation would prevail. By extending the rule to both objects, the State will have opposite interests which will control and balance each other and produce the requisite impartiality.”
With the ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913, which established the personal income tax, these “opposite interests” – taxation versus representation – no longer applied. Now, the temptation to exaggerate essentially doubles with the added incentive for everyone to grab their “fair share” when it comes time for the Feds to dole out cash.
As Madison implied, without some type of counterbalance to ensure an accurate and unbiased census, corruption would taint the entire process as the states and various special-interest groups within those states would look for ways to make the numbers come out in their favor. This is fertile ground for ACORN-like groups that are not above filling out forms on behalf of dead people, movie stars and professional athletes in order to get their “fair share”.
Countdown to Fascism: The Butter Police
Feb 12th
In Federalist No. 84, Alexander Hamilton argued that the Constitution was “merely intended to regulate the general political interests of the nation,” not, as Hamilton put it, “the regulation of every species of personal and private concerns.”
Founding Father Alexander Hamilton was a smart guy, but he should have avoided Aaron Burr.
Contrast this philosophy, which guides the spirit of the American people’s compact with the federal government (the Constitution), with this gem from the good people at Smart Balance (they make some kind of delicious buttery spread): “Denmark is the first country to legally ban artificial trans fats. The Danish people seem to be doing just fine without it… Sounds like a pretty good law.”
You know what, Smart Balance people, whoever you are? You can have my trans fats when you pry them out of my cold, dead hands. Apparently, if the Smart Balance people had their way, the feds would be regulating how much fat, or what kind of fat, I decide to eat each day, a.k.a., regulating “every species of personal and private concerns.” Even Doctor McCoy is saying, “Good God, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a Constitutional lawyer!”
You don’t have to be a Constitutional lawyer to see plainly that the Smart Balance people (whoever they are) are perfectly fine with violating the rights of every American in order to benefit their business. The term “fascism” is typically associated with murdering tyrants, but in the early 1900s it simply described the state’s relationship to the individual. It did not have the connotation it does today until the very nature of the system made it easy for tyrants to be tyrants and start murdering their people en masse.
And, in such a system, the government has a very cozy relationship with corporations, favoring certain ones over others, as well as certain industries over others. So, at one time it was called “fascism”, but in today’s topsy-turvy, girls will be boys and boys will be girls, mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world they call it “progressive”.
