Monday, August 17, 2015

Hey George Will, This is No Longer Madison's Constitution





Are you ticked off at the ineffectiveness and incompetence of the Republican leadership in Washington D.C.?  Well, if you are, George Will has some advice: Get over it!  According to this beltway courtesan, we should be angry at James Madison for establishing a separation of powers in our Constitution.





I have news for Mr. Beltway: This is no longer James Madison’s constitution.


If James Madison had the ability of time travel, he wouldn’t recognize our form of government.  When he was alive, States had representation in the Senate.  That was until the 17th Amendment.  Now it’s as populists as the House of Representatives only with a longer term.


In James Madison’s constitution, only Congress was vested with legislative powers and raising revenue.  Today, we have federal bureaucracies passing rules and regulations that have the force of law.  They also originate and collect penalties and fees.  Some agencies have the power to adjudicate their own cases.  I do believe James Madison wasn’t around in 1946 when the Administrative Procedures Act was passed.


In James Madison’s constitution, there are enumerated powers that limited the scope of the federal government.  Now we have the Supreme Court manufacturing rights for special interest groups while striking States’ constitutions for noncompliance.  The 10th Amendment mattered in James Madison’s constitution.  Today, States are mere vassals bowing and scraping to the all powerful central government thanks to the 14th and 16th Amendments and establishment of the Federal Reserve.


This is not James Madison’s constitution anymore, Mr. Will.  This is President Woodrow Wilson’s constitution.  Here is what the Progressive Era president had to say about the administrative state:


But where has this science grown up? Surely not on this side of the sea….American writers have hitherto taken no very important part in the advancement of this science. It has found its doctors in Europe. It is not of our making; it is a foreign science, speaking very little of the language of English or American principles….It has been developed by French and German professors.


So Mr. Will, this is not James Madison’s constitution.  What we have is an invasion of the Progressive constitution.


 

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