The article on FCC tyranny by Marc Stevens, cited below on the Blog by Charley Hardman, is excellent but contains one flaw: The Constitution is not entirely a “negative charter of liberties.” Until 1865 it was: It prohibited Congress from doing a great many mischievous things and delegated only a precious few powers to the central government, reserving sovereignty in the free and independent states.
However, the “Civil War Amendments” — 13, 14, and 15 — all contain a clause at the end that empowers Congerss to enforce them. This created opportunities for endless power grabs by the central government, which it has taken full advantage of, especially with regard to the 14th Amendment. The mindless egalitarianism that now rules our society is a direct result of this. Thanks to these Amendments we’ve gone from “Congress shall make no law . . .” to “Congress can do whatever it damn well pleases, and if it doesn’t, federal judges can simply declare themselves dictators and legislate from the bench.”
4:31 pm on March 24, 2004
