David

Karki

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July 29, 2009

GOP Only Needs One Argument: Obama’s Agenda is Unconstitutional

As much time as I have spent in this column space on President Obama's big government intentions, especially as revealed in the awful cap and trade and health care bills that must be stopped in their entirety at all costs, the way Republicans have responded to them – or not responded to them, as the case may be – is telling in its own right.

There is only one justification the GOP should be citing in opposing these two bills: That they are completely and totally unconstitutional, through and through. Not one article, section, or clause gives the federal government the power to so thoroughly invade our liberty, property and privacy the way these bills do.

Since each and every member of Congress has taken an oath – however disingenuously – to uphold that document as written, no matter how they may personally feel about the limitations which it proscribes, there can be only one correct way for them to vote on these bills: NO. (Of course, were they of that mindset at all, these bills would never have been submitted to begin with.)

But this isn't what the GOP “opposition” is saying. They argue about the costs, or that free-market solutions would be more effective, or some such similar policywonk blather. In other words, about details that do not matter a whit given the bills' inherent unconstitutionality. In so doing, they are making a fatal tactical mistake – giving the bills legitimacy they simply do not have. By going right to the details, they are conceding out of the gate that it's correct and proper for government to stick its nose into areas of a free people's lives that it has no earthly business or authority to touch.

Also, the fact that they are in such a distinct minority and don't have the numbers to do anything about this – the only way either bill will fail is if Democrats so badly overreach in their lust for power that their own right flank fears going along will cost them re-election in 2010 – should actually be a liberating thing for them. When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose, after all.

The GOP should thus have no fear in opening up with both barrels verbally, and calling these bills for the assault on the Constitution and both the rights and responsibilities of the American people that they are. Tactically it makes political sense, to inflict hits on the Democrats, take a pin to the balloon of Obama's media-manufactured image and start rebuilding their own credibility which the Republican-led Congress and President Bush stupidly flushed down the toilet.   

But most of all – and really, the only reason that should be considered – the GOP should say it because it's the plain truth. Yet they have not been saying anything like this, nor will they.

This means that the GOP has no more moral difficulty with rampaging through the Constitution's limitations on the federal government's power than the Democrats. They may go about it a bit more slowly, putting a velvet glove on the fist so to speak, but they're punching you just the same. When push comes to shove, and a principled stand must be taken, they've already forfeited the match.

It's why I've come to call them the Vichy Republicans, after the German puppet government of France during World War II that was located in the city of Vichy. They too preferred the illusion of fraudulent vestiges of power under a dictatorial master than to fight for what was right.

So in the end, it falls to us . . . as perhaps it always has. I'm beginning to see Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi and what they represent – what the health care and cap-and-trade bills are really about, which isn't in the least your health or the environment – as something of a Rorschach test for the American people. Or perhaps a big mirror being held up to us all.

We often mouth the words, but do we really believe in them? Enough to give up some of the comfort with which we've probably grown too enamored and defend the America for which so many have bled and died? Enough to stand against those who would forcibly and radically remake it into something that would render wasted the sacrifice so many have made? Enough to wage a resurgent domestic Cold War?

It would appear – barring some kind of unforeseen “Road to Damascus” conversion in the near future – that the Republican Party and its leadership fail the test.

We the people cannot do so.

Or else we will have failed to keep the Republic, and owe Benjamin Franklin and all the Founders our gravest apologies.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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