To say that the country is coming apart at the seams may be an exaggeration, compared to the race riots of the ’60s or the anti-war demonstrations of the Vietnam era. Nevertheless, the growing division between the left and the right has the potential to be as destructive as any era in our history.
The division is not simply between the Democrats and Republicans, although this division gets the most media attention. The current filibuster of the Estrada judicial nomination is a perfect example: The Democrats are as stubborn as the jackass in their party’s symbol.
The division is much deeper than party affiliation. On one side of the divide, are people who believe that the people should control government; on the other side, are people who believe that government should control the people. Both sides are populated with people from every political party.
The U.S. Constitution specifically authorizes the federal government to exercise enumerated powers, and all unspecified powers remain with the states, or with the people. This principle, set forth in the 10th Amendment, clearly limits the power of government, and places the ultimate authority to limit governmental power in the hands of the people.
Judging by their actions, the political left are the folks who believe that government should control the people; the political right believes that the people should control the government. This difference in fundamental belief is the basis of all political conflict, regardless of party affiliation.
Nowhere has the political left been more successful in ignoring the 10th Amendment than in shaping the nation’s land-use management policy. Congress has the constitutional responsibility to manage federal lands. The reality is that the management policy has been shaped by the judiciary, resulting from lawsuits filed by left-leaning environmental organizations. It was just such a lawsuit that redefined “waters of the United States” to include virtually every mud puddle in the country, on both federal land and on private property.
Now, through a maze of environmental regulations and government programs, governments at every level not only dictate how private property may be used, but also what color a house may be painted, the dimension and colors of business signs and even which plants may be used for landscaping. This power is not among those enumerated in the Constitution.
The Constitution quite clearly enumerates the purposes for, and conditions upon which the federal government may own land. This limitation has been totally ignored, and now federal, state and local governments own more than 40 percent of all the land. Moreover, nearly every legislative body in the country is appropriating tax dollars to acquire even more land for government’s growing land inventory.
The political left has been responsible for ignoring the 10th Amendment, and forging policies that require government to control people. The political right, until recently, has allowed this to happen, with little opposition.
Now that the political right is organizing, and exerting its will, the other side is resorting to tactics that most generously can be described as “the end justifies any means.” These “means” range from the arson of ski resorts, and research labs, to the ludicrous filibuster of Estrada, to the ridiculous propaganda claims that the earth will crash and burn unless we get rid of cattle grazing, stop all logging and abandon automobiles in favor of bicycles and mass transit.
Of even greater concern, is the notion advanced by the political left, that the United States must get U.N. approval of its foreign policy. It’s not enough for the federal government to control its citizens, these people want the U.N. to control the federal government.
This division between the political left and right is not limited to the United States. Most of the people in the world have never known life under a government that actually recognizes the inalienable right of people to limit the power of government. Therefore, most of the world’s people agree with the political left that the U.N. should control national governments, especially the United States government.
This conflict between political ideologies is coming to a head, at both the national, and international levels. The political left is much better organized, and better funded, than is the political right. But the right is finally realizing that fundamental principles of self-governance are at stake. The determination spawned by this realization has overcome overwhelming odds in the past, most notably during the American Revolution.
The time has come for every American to look beyond party affiliation, and decide whether government should control its people, or the people should control their government.
