Darrell, those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it, right? Does history have singularities? Is not American Constitutional, Limited Government such a singularity?
When studying past tyrannies, the one thing that we have, that none of them had, is the ability to remove issues from regulation by the Government.
This difference is known to science as the difference between a closed system and an open. Entropy would have killed the earth had it not been for the sunbeams leaking in. This is what happened to earlier governments. They merely shifted their power around till it was disipated. Our system seeks to get the power out of the government. The mechanism is not sunbeams but Constitutional Limits.
Religion was so removed 200 years ago, slavery was so removed 100 years ago, women's slavery of their bodies was removed recently. The Limits of Government were moved inward. The 1st was in the original document, the 2nd was by amendment, the 3rd was by federal court. Perhaps, circumstances needed to change to allow the limiting.
These actions were all taken by the Central government: the few drafters, the congress, the few justices. The further away from the central government, the more layers must be fought back through to put it up for consideration of limitation.
Decentralizing power to the states is merely shifting power around, till our civilization's power is disipated. Furthermore, the lack of Federal hands-on assures the issues will take longer to come under review for the final limiting disposition. Moreover, the difference between having a voice within 220 million, and having a voice within 10-100 million is pretty moot. Local power is a worthwhile decentralization, but these powers are nearly permanently governmental.
Taxation does not depend on where the power is located - Federal, state, local - but on the scope of the task, and minorly, inefficiencies. If the task is to improve circumstances such that government need not regulate some areas, then, I suspect, the scope will expand again to address new circumstances that could be deregulated. A better outlook on Government's baliwick is not soon, but the alternative is deregulation by fiat, regardless of reality. Abortion seems to be this kind of case.
As to executive orders, Darrell, I wish I understood the context and parameters better. As you know, with me, simply because Clinton does it, does not make it necessarily bad. |
