Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.~Thomas Paine
Many times in history there have been people who have thought they could rule without consideration of the impact of their actions. Individuals and ruling factions in many countries have frequently behaved this way, sometimes over long periods of time. Ironically, they are often correct. When they act without consequence of their deeds, they may acquire the notion that they are above the law, or worse, beyond the reach of the correcting institutions in society. The longer this continues, the greater grows the arrogance of the perpetrators and the misery of their victims.
US Constitution soon became known amongst Progressives as the major impediment to achieving power over other citizens
Powerful central governments can grow this oppression to unbelievable levels. There are many examples of oppressive governments going far back in the historical record.
The Progressive movement emerged from the idea that a certain faction of American society understood far better than anyone else what the citizens had to be made to do. The Progressives decided that they wanted to grow the power of the state and federal governments in order to use the power to coerce the citizens. After all, they were the Progressives. They believed in progress, in helping people, in using government to make the workplace, the slum, the home, and the whole country a better place. They were Progressives, so they knew better than anyone else.
There were few who rose in opposition to the Progressives. As early as the 1890s, efforts to oppose the Spanish-American war and the socialist/Populist movements faded quickly. Most of the country still knew instinctively that socialism was not a good direction to go, but the Progressives were playing a long game. They settled into state and local government offices and agencies and waited. The First World War was used to advance their bigger government cause, as wars often do.
Progressive leaders emerged in both major parties. The first was Theodore Roosevelt in the Republican party. The second was Woodrow Wilson in the Democrat party. Both of these leaders pushed their parties toward a growing Progressive mindset and away from constitutional restraints. Indeed, the US Constitution soon became known amongst Progressives as the major impediment to achieving power over other citizens. They expanded the long game to the state and federal judiciary. Progressives understood long before anyone else that the Constitutional bulwark took the form of the federal judiciary and especially the supreme court. Beginning in the early 20th Century, Progressives pushed Progressive jurists into seats in the federal courts. FDR stocked the supreme court with Progressives when opposition to his court packing scheme faded in the 1940s. When Earl Warren went onto the court as Chief Justice in 1953, Progressives had a lock on the court which they held, with only a few exceptions, until only a couple of years ago.
In the 1930s under the leadership of FDR, the Progressives had a heyday. Government power and authority grew in unprecedented ways, and, for the most part, once grown it stayed in place. Then came World War II. Although the New Deal was officially discarded for the duration of the war, the power derived from it transferred to the War Department, growing exponentially there. The major New Deal agencies governing agriculture, banking, industry, and commerce came to dwarf the 1930s efforts. When the war ended, the control continued and even grew stronger.
Government had grown the way Progressives wanted it to grow for a hundred or more years
Government had grown the way Progressives wanted it to grow for a hundred or more years. When President Clinton announced in 1996 that “The era of big government is over,” it was an election year. He didn’t mean it, and everybody around him knew he didn’t mean it, and they didn’t mean it, either. Less than two years before that statement Republicans had gained a majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Clinton knew he had to say what most people wanted to hear if he was to have any chance of hanging on to power for another four years. He was successful in that, although his indiscretions and suborning of perjury caused him some grief. He knew that to say what the Progressives wanted out loud would not fly just then. He still feared the voters. Progressives laid low for a while, until it began to look like they would finally win it all. From 2009 to 2017 they were unstoppable. Their confidence grew. Then the unthinkable happened. Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016 that few thought he could win. The attacks and the undermining of the basics began immediately. In fact, they had begun before the election results were in.
Then when President Trump nominated and won confirmation of three conservative supreme court justices, Progressives understood that someone was blocking the way to their total takeover. Immediately, cries arose to pack the Supreme Court. Attacks on the citizens, on the nominees, and on President Trump increased. Those attacks continue to this day.
But there must always be a relief valve.
The founders set up a system in which the majority could rule, but which also made it easy for the minority to stop things. The idea was that the system would work, but just barely. It was acceptable and good that often times, nothing at all would get done. What had to be prevented at all costs was to have one side crush the opposition and become empowered to do anything it liked.
The foundation for this start was an agreement on the basics. There had to be freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. The American colonial experience taught the founders there must be no unreasonable search and seizure. British attempts to disarm the citizenry had to be prevented at all costs, thus the Second Amendment. Jury trials were essential, as was the right to confront one’s accusers and mount a defense. There must be no demand for self-incrimination. Punishments must be absolutely fair and meted out according to law, not according to political preference. There must be free and fair elections.
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Now we’re seeing overt attacks and limits being placed on freedom of speech and religion
There has to be a relief valve. It doesn’t work if one side can just push so hard that the other side cannot win anymore, or when one side decides to do away with any of the basics. We’re seeing this attempted in both Canada and the US now.
Now we’re seeing overt attacks and limits being placed on freedom of speech and religion. The press has, to a very large extent, voluntarily abandoned its watchdog role and has taken the side of the statists. As we’ve seen with his allies and even with President Trump himself, the prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure have been destroyed by a politicized “justice” department run by crazed partisans. The right to keep and bear arms for self protection, and particularly for self protection from bullying governments (after all, this was the experience of the founders) has come under routine assault. Recently political opponents of the government in power have been declared outlaws and have been imprisoned without speedy trials and without juries of their peers by mayors, prosecutors, and by federal law enforcement for exercising their free speech and free assembly rights. Most of those people are still imprisoned nearly two years after a new administration took control. When plea bargaining stacks the deck against the accused to the point that they admit to something they didn’t do to avoid being ruined, and when one can only choose imprisonment or false confession, all for political reasons, it’s a corruption of the basics that cannot end well.
Now abundant evidence is plain for everyone to see that, by various means, elections in the 2020 cycle were not free and fair at all in several key states. When enough people become convinced that voting, the most fundamental civic action by citizens in a democratic republic, is rigged to provide a predetermined outcome favoring one side, then the basics have been terribly undermined, perhaps fatally.
Denying the people the right to an opinion, via voting or on a street corner, is tremendously destructive and frustrating to them. They’re being told they don’t count, that they have no worth as citizens, only as slaves.
If the basics are undermined or destroyed, then the choices become very few indeed. There must be a relief valve. There must be a choice other than compliance or destruction when the basics have been challenged.
There must be a place where citizens can win some of the time, or at the very least, not lose all the time.
People cannot be crowded into inevitable self-destruction, or acceptance of their destruction by others, without expecting extraordinary reactions
There must be some basic protections that are inviolable. It’s why we have a Bill of Rights. During the covid madness, state and national governments in Canada and the US declared that people could not exercise their freedom of religion. I can hardly believe I’m writing these words in the past tense. That actually happened. People were imprisoned for exercising their religious beliefs. Do they think people will just forget this happened?
People cannot be crowded into inevitable self-destruction, or acceptance of their destruction by others, without expecting extraordinary reactions.
When people figure out the game is rigged and there is no way to win, then you’ve uncorked the bottle. There is no predicting when the explosion will come, but growing numbers of people will be watching for the spark.
Canadians and Americans are patient people, not easily angered. But when they reach their limits, there’s no predicting where it might go. It would be well to remember Admiral Yamamoto’s warning at the beginning of World War II. Many of the Japanese leadership thought the attack on Pearl Harbor would bring the collapse of the United States. Soft Americans and their equally soft allies would figure it wasn’t worth fighting the Empire of Japan in its own back yard. Yamamoto, who had lived in the United States, said, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” That was true, but it was citizen soldiers who defeated the Japanese Empire. Come to think of it, it was also citizen soldiers who defeated the British Empire. The same adage would apply to citizens of our countries today, as well. We have a long tradition of freedom in the West, and we have acted to preserve and extend it many times.
There must always be a relief valve. Without one, expect an era of war and destruction to see if the basics can be restored.
Dr. Bruce Smith (Inkwell, Hearth and Plow) is a retired professor of history and a lifelong observer of politics and world events. He holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame. In addition to writing, he works as a caretaker and handyman. His non-fiction book The War Comes to Plum Street, about daily life in the 1930s and during World War II, may be ordered from Indiana University Press.
