“This example reads to us the salutary lesson, that private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by private extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, and to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia, which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.”

~ Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Kercheval (1816)

I have tried to cut back on posting and my penchant for punditry (say that 5 times fast) because I have come to a significant realization – the fact that I have to be so concerned about which candidate for president wins because I have to be concerned about what kind of Supreme Court justices they will appoint indicates that the federal government has far too much power over me, the average citizen.

Playing the political game only assures that the game continues. Our governance has long left the constraints of the Constitution behind and become a Ponzi Scheme, a long con, where politicians reap millions in personal wealth from the public coffers – as they continue to kick the can down the road by increasing the burden on those they rule. They are incurring debt now that won’t be paid by us or our children – or even our grandchildren – but will be borne by our grandchildren’s children and grandchildren. That is how long the structural defect we are building into our system will last – unless the system collapses. It is generational theft.

We are automatons living the senseless existence of obedience as if we are characters in Fritz Lang’s movie “Metropolis.” The fictional worlds of Orwell, Wells, Huxley and Rand are no longer fiction. In any definition, we ALREADY ARE a democratic socialist society, complete with the indentured servitude brought forth by welfare dependence of the poor, wage slavery of the middle class and tax slavery for the more successful.

Just think about it – there is not a single minute of your day that isn’t touched by a “fee”, a tax, a law, a regulation or an action that could not be subjected to some sort of review if you are unlucky enough to find yourself in front of some governing bureaucracy or agency. You are subjected to surveillance without your knowledge or approval, you are tracked based on how you handle your cash and you even are told what days you can run your sprinklers in your yard. You are controlled. Marx was right – freedom is an illusion.

The only winners are the central government and those statolatrists who worship it.

If one critically reads the US Constitution, one thing becomes clear – the Constitution is a document designed to become irrelevant. If the principles it contains are honored above all other human laws, there is no need to place “life or death” importance on who holds a particular national office because that power is vested in the individual and in smaller and smaller units of governance (that is the brilliance of federalism).

If we want to reclaim the liberty bequeathed to us by a class of people who fought a war because they believed death was preferable to a life without liberty, we have to end this slavish dependence on this candidate or that candidate and stop investing our futures in a choice between a stupid political party and an evil one.