A Lesson in History

Historians give George Washington credit for being America's number one president. He won American independence from England. At the time, the majority of the American people were loyal to England. Being independent changed the way Americans thought about themselves. Historians give Abraham Lincoln credit for being America's number two president. At the time, there was great division in America. Lincoln is known as the Great Emancipator. He, too, gets credit for changing the way Americans think. Historians give Franklin D. Roosevelt credit for being America's number three president. Roosevelt took office during America's Great Depression. Roosevelt gets credit for rekindling hope in America. That's not the full story.

Before the Great Depression, Americans demanded that government stay out of personal lives. Roosevelt caught Americans at a weak moment, when pain was acute. He convinced the American people that government had a duty to the individual. Roosevelt: "While it isn't written in the Constitution, nevertheless, it is the inherent duty of the Federal Government to keep its citizens from starvation." Roosevelt: "The balance of power between the three great branches of the Federal Government has been tipped out of balance by the courts in direct contradiction of the high purposes of the framers of the Constitution."

The Supreme Court's test as to a right, before Roosevelt, was whether the right at issue was "of the very essence of a scheme of ordered liberty," by reason that neither liberty nor justice would exist if such a right were sacrificed. A Roosevelt appointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Brandeis,  had this to say: "property is only a means. It has been a frequent error of our Court that they have made the means the end." Keep Brandeis' idea in mind.

After Roosevelt's election, for eleven years America remained in the Great Depression. Her unemployment rate was higher than Europe's. America's depression ended with World War II. The American people were put back to work building weapons of war. In the interim, while there were public works projects, there was redistribution of the wealth-the duty of government to help the needy with individual grants in aid. Dependence on government was building throughout the depression years.

I came home from World War II to a booming economy. The duty of government prevailed. Redistribution of the wealth continued and grew to astronomical proportions. The right to property was replaced by dependence on government, the engine of enterprise diminishing, and all the time the power to control the individual growing with elected representatives. Power is mindless. The current economic crises is the consequence of mindless power.

The answer the Federal Government gives the American people, based on Roosevelt's duty of government philosophy-the "inherent duty of government"-is the biggest government spending of all times, the Federal Government content with letting the future take care of itself. We're looking at tax tyranny.

What's the answer? Quit giving full attention to the symptoms of the problem Roosevelt created and look at the cause, the government stealing the individual's independence. Look at the cure, George Washington's and Abraham Lincoln's legacy-individual independence.

The economy produces wealth. Government spends. It's a gross distortion of the truth to say Barrack Obama's "economic stimulus package" is to create jobs. The prime motivation is to increase dependence on government.

Am I right or wrong? What was the Court's position when Roosevelt told the American people the Court was in direct contradiction of the high purposes of the framers of the Constitution? The court's position: "A tax to promote the general welfare cannot be wrested out of its setting and legalized by ignoring its purpose as the mere instrumentality for bringing about a desired end." US v. Butler. Justice Brandeis: "property is only a means. It has been a frequent error of our Court that they have made the means the end." Thus, Roosevelt's philosophy: The means is justified by the end. Is that right? It's the philosophy of every tyrant who ever lived.

In Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, he identified due process with the doctrine of vested rights drawn from natural law. The father of modern law, Cicero, made his distinction in "right reason"-common law-in, "We are born for justice, and right is not the mere arbitrary construction of opinion, but an institution of nature," hence his statement: "the laws are the foundation of the liberty which we enjoy; we are the laws' slaves that we may be free." Is Roosevelt right or is Cicero right?

In the "Bill of Rights," in Amendment Five, we read that the individual may not be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. From Roosevelt's legacy, the powers that be have granted the IRS the authority to take every cent of the worker's property-leave him on the street. The only recourse the worker has is to prove the IRS wrong in court. I attempted that. I was told I was a "Fifth Amendment freak." No court in America would hear my case. The Palm Beach Post took my case. The IRS admitted on the front page that it had been mistakenly taking my property for 11 years.

We constantly hear about the need of government to do something to avoid an economic disaster. Why don't we hear about the case of the worker being deprived of his right to exist on the fruits of his labor? We're being brainwashed. Roosevelt's legacy is a virus eating away at independence, personal responsibility, and self-reliance. Someone once said, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. I suggest that you read my yesterday's post "The light at the End of the Tunnel."

The next great change of thinking, now in its embryonic stage, is known by myself and a growing number of people all over the world. Roosevelt's legacy is prefaced on external authority. The change will be from external to internal, to our internal source of power. All things are subject to the Higher Law-We create our reality.