Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln: Both Rotten Bastards

Catchy title, eh? Actually, this is a post advocating Anarchism, but a good lead-in is a discussion of how Lincoln and Obama have trampled States' and individual rights.

Just as Abraham Lincoln is noted in history as having saved the Union and ended the practice of slavery (in the seceding states), the One, Barack Hussein Obama, is supposed to be the first post-racial president, the one who preserves the Union in the face of our current calamity, and sets us on a new path to prosperity. In school we were taught to idolize Lincoln, and he is considered by many to be one of our great presidents. The mainstream media idolizes Obama and dutifully reports the Obamaganda to the public, urging us to consider him to be a great president.

Lincoln and Obama do have one thing in common that qualifies both as rotten bastards: the centralization of federal authority over the states and the citizens. When the Southern states asserted their rights, the answer from Lincoln's Washington was that the States could not assert their rights and withdraw from the Union. The Union was not made up of the several States; the States were merely components of the single enormous state and were by force returned to the federal structure. Fast forward to 2010, where only fringe elements espouse the concept of the individual State having rights. In this age a gluttonous federal government taxes and regulates nearly every aspect of life in the States, and the States line up like beggars at a soup kitchen for their handouts from the federal master. Obama is the latest master to occupy the plantation mansion, taxing our lifeblood away from us and centralizing federal authority to a degree not seen in any living person's lifetime. He has the banks and financial sector answering to him, he controls two of the three remaining automakers, he has granted Interpol sweeping immunity over its actions on American soil, he is proposing limiting our energy use through cap and trade, he is taking away our rights to determine our own health care choices, he is allowing us to be overrun with illegal immigrants and siccing his federal goons on local lawmen who have enforced immigration laws, his attorneys and BATFE agents are threatening states who have enacted home-state gun laws, and he is conspiring with the United Nations and Mexico to curtail Americans' Second Amendment rights. These attempts (and successes) at conolidating federal power are frightening.

The point is not to engage in a litany of Obama's fascist agenda, although he is the current president and enemy of the States. The Obama agenda, while more audacious than that of past presidents, is a continuation of the erosion of States' and individuals' rights. The comparison with Lincoln is apt in that it shows that the conspiracy to deny the rights of the States and the citizens has long been in progress. It can be said that the enactment of the Constitution itself served to consolidate federal power at the expenses of the States and their citizens. Consider Murray Rothbard's view that the Constitutional Convention was "nothing but a 'coup d'état,' centralizing power and destroying the far more tolerable arrangements of the Articles of Confederation". If the Constitutional Convention was not a centralization of federal power at the expense of the states and citizens, why were amendments necessary to limit the new federal power?

I admit that a few of the aforementioned thoughts are not original to me. Another that is not original to me, but that I am giving serious consideration to, is the idea of becoming an Anarchist. Conservative, liberal, Democrat, or Republican is to subscribe to the current order. The order that continues and expands the federal dominance over the States and their citizens. The dominance is so entrenched and corrupt that no one can even effectively challenge its continued existence. Yes, you can protest, but you cannot take your ball and go home. The Confederate States of America found out the hard way. Even the Libertarians do not challenge the federal beast's continued existence, they only want to pare it back to necessary functions.

The Tenth Amendment, reserving all rights to the States and the people which are not expressly granted to the federal government, is effectively dead. The only route left for reclaiming and reasserting our God-given Constitutional rights is through a revolution. None of the three major political parties is a place for revolutionaries. All three parties want to run the plantation; none want to burn it down and start over. There is no place at the table for those who want to end the tyranny of centralized federal power and give the power back to the States and citizens.

That makes Anarchism attractive as a political movement. Deconstruction of the federal behemoth. Restoration of the rights of the individual. Association of individuals in governance by their consent, which may be withdrawn.

As I stated earlier, a few of these thoughts were not my own. I was inspired by the article The Reluctant Anarchist, by Joseph Sobran. A worthy read.