The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #8: How much government power is too much?

Governments have to have SOME power, but not too MUCH power. A government with too little power cannot govern at all and so we don’t get the benefits a government is supposed to provide. A government with too much power can become tyrannical and infringe on the freedom of the people beyond what is proper and necessary to protect citizens and maintain an orderly society.

One of the endless struggles in the modern history of representative governments is to find the right balance between too little power and too much, between a government that is helpless and a government that is dangerous.

One of the attendees at the US Constitutional Convention in 1787 said the delegates gave the president strong powers, and sometimes not-well-defined powers, because they trusted George Washington, and they knew he was likely going to be the first president of the new country.

In a similar way, I think Americans should look around now, at the current crop of political leaders, and realize that it would be better for us to REDUCE presidential powers.

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It is hard for me to understand why, but there was actually just a bill in the House to INCREASE the president’s power!

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HR 9495 would allow a president to take away a non-profit organization’s tax-exempt status if that organization “supports” terrorism. The problem with the bill is that it doesn’t require the government to tell an affected organization why the decision is being made or what the evidence is that supports the decision.

How could an organization defend itself against an accusation without knowing exactly what the accusation is?

Today this bill was blocked in the House. 204 Republicans voted for this bill and 1 voted against. 52 Democrats voted for this bill and 144 voted against.

Notice that 256 people voted for this bill and only 145 voted against, so, why was it blocked? Due to the rules of the House this particular bill needed a 2/3 vote of 270 to pass and it did not reach 270…. But it came close!

More than 130 tax-exempt organizations, including the ACLU opposed this bill and I think they were right. We shouldn’t want the government to be able to penalize people, or groups of people, or organizations, based on shady and secret accusations and without due process of law.

Sadly, a majority of House members DO want the government to have this power, so I’m afraid we might see some form of this bill revived.

One of the things that should make us suspicious of this bill is that it would give the government power to penalize organizations that are "supporting terrorism," but we should wonder: if the government believes a group is supporting terrorism, why aren’t they bringing criminal charges against it? It almost looks like the government wants power to harass organizations even if they don’t have evidence the organizations committed any crimes at all….

That kind of power would certainly make a great tool for a tyrant.

I believe we are in a time when presidential powers should be reduced and, yes, I did write about this years ago, when a Democrat was moving into the White House.

I am certainly happy this effort to increase presidential power has failed, at least for now. If we want to defend liberty, we should not give the government MORE powers, especially not UNECCESSARY powers, and most especially not SECRET unnecessary powers.

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #7: Terminating the Constitution. Piece by Piece.

Trump is not even in office yet and he is already busily trying to terminate rules in the Constitution.

We sure were warned! Trump’s own Vice President four years ago said Trump tried to put himself above the Constitution. Trump’s own Chief of Staff and his Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman BOTH told us he was a fascist. In 2022 Trump himself said the rules of the Constitution should have been terminated to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election.

Now Trump is at it again.

One of the rules in the Constitution is this one, from the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Trump doesn’t like this rule that anyone born in the United States is a citizen. He says he is going to end this Constitutional right with an executive order.

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Can presidents just eliminate Constitutional rights with executive orders? Can presidents just decide who is a citizen and who isn’t, regardless of what the Constitution says? I don’t think so! But Trump says he will do it anyway.

And that’s just the beginning.

Here is another rule in the Constitution: “He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law….” Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2

This important clause puts a limit on presidential power by requiring him to get the “Advice and Consent” of the Senate for the appointment of high government officials.

There is an exception to this rule as follows: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.” Article 2, Section 2, Clause 3

By reading the two clauses above we can see that the normal procedure is for the president to make appointments with the advice and consent of the Senate. If a vacancy occurs when the Senate is in recess the president can make temporary appointments without advice and consent.

Trump has now demanded that the Senate treat ALL of his appointments as recess appointments. This would simply terminate the Constitutional rule requiring the advice and consent of the Senate for presidential appointments and vastly increase the power of presidents to rule like autocrats.

So, Trump wanted to terminate the Constitutional rules that prevented him from staying in office after losing an election. Now he wants to terminate the Constitutional rule that everyone born in the United States is a citizen. Now he also wants to terminate the Constitutional rule that requires presidents to get the advice and consent of the Senate for high level appointments….

I wonder which Constitutional rules he will want to terminate next. Something in the Bill of Rights, maybe?

Let’s keep our eyes open!

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #6: Will Trump’s Administration Support Freedom in Ukraine?

I am sure Trump will give us plenty to worry about once he takes office, but in the meantime let’s keep our eyes and ears open for signs of what is coming.

During the campaign Trump promised that if he was elected, he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. That would happen even before he took office, he said. It hasn’t happened yet, which is actually a good thing because many people suspect Trump wants to let his hero Putin keep his conquests in Ukraine.

During the campaign Trump said the President of Ukraine was a great salesman for getting aid from the United States, which sure sounds like a hint that aid might stop once Trump is president.

Recently Don Jr. posted a video saying that Ukraine’s allowance is about to be cut off, which also sounds like there is a plan to cut off aid from that country which is currently fighting for its freedom against the Russian dictatorship.

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Our Enemies Will Vanish

One of Trump’s campaign advisers recently said that Ukraine will have to accept that the Crimea is gone, meaning Putin will get to keep this territory he invaded back in 2014.

Trump people say this adviser does not speak for the new administration, but they did not contradict his statement that the Crimea is gone, so maybe that campaign adviser speaks the truth.

I would like American presidents to support freedom around the world. Especially when a country like Ukraine is willing to do the fighting for itself if we just supply them with the tools they need to do the job.

If the new president will not support freedom in Ukraine, where else will he not support it?

We should be vigilant and pay attention to this issue.

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #5: Floating Race Lines on Buses

If you only believe in freedom and rights for yourself, but not for other people, that is the same thing dictators believe. To really believe in freedom and rights you have to believe in freedom and rights for EVERYBODY.

If the government is leaving your group free, but threatening the rights of others, then, if you really believe in freedom, you have to stand up for those others. In a free country every group should be telling the government: “if you go after them, you are coming after us, and if you go after them, we are going to defend their rights the same way we would defend our own.”

I am reading this great book about the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement in America. That was a time when most black people did not have freedom or rights, and most white people just ignored the problem. Especially in the Southern states.

This book explains how, for a long time after the Civil War it was a CRIME in many Southern states to teach black people to read. How is that not a dictatorship?

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Parting the Waters

This book also explains some about that whole “back of the bus” thing. White people were allowed to sit in the front of the bus, but black people had to sit at the back. But there also had to be separation between them. Drivers would create a “floating line” on the bus to separate white people from black people. As the bus filled up drivers might order a whole row of black people to stand up to make more room for one white person.

Black people couldn’t even walk through the white section of the bus. They had to pay for their tickets at the front and then walk around to the back to reboard the bus in their own section….

How could these black people have been treated so unjustly for so long? How could so many white people have not cared about that injustice for so long? How is that not a dictatorship?

If one person can be deprived of his or her rights without due process of Constitutional laws then no one is free. We all have to stand together and back each other up.

Make sure the laws are Constitutional and make sure the government is following the laws. That’s how we defend liberty and justice for all.

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #4: The Danger of Christian Nationalism

This morning, I read an interesting article in the best religious freedom magazine in the world. This article is about a group called the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) which wants Christianity to dominate society.

The NAR got its start in 1989 when C. Peter Wagner, an expert on church growth, met Cindy Jacobs, who claimed to be a prophet who organized “prayer campaigns to dislodge high-level demons.”

This group believes that God is bringing back prophets and apostles to lead Christians in the modern world. Not surprisingly, Wagner soon decided that he must be one of the new apostles.

Up to this point, I would have no serious problem with this group. I may not agree with their ideas, but they don’t seem dangerous.

In 2001 they started to turn dangerous.

That year, the NAR adopted the Seven Mountain Mandate (7M) idea from Lance Wallnau. This idea is that Christians should aim to dominate all the major institutions of society which are defined as:
Religion,
Government,
Media,
Arts and Entertainment,
Education,
Family,
Business.

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The Violent Take it by Force

NOW I have a serious problem with this group. In a free country, no religion, and no other group, should “dominate” the major institutions of society. In a country that believes in freedom of religion, Christianity should not even dominate religion! Christians should live their lives, and other religious people should live their lives, and non-religious people should live their lives, and there should be no talk of any group dominating the others.

Naturally, the NAR has started working its way into politics. According to this article, one of Ted Cruz’s parents is a 7M proponent. Sarah Palin was mentored by an NAR prophet in Alaska. In 2015 the NAR became Trump supporters.

In 2020 various NAR leaders were involved in organizing or encouraging the events that developed into the attack on the Capitol. One NAR speaker in Washington DC on January 6, 2001 said, “We are going to rule and reign through Donald Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ.”

I think anyone who talks about ruling and reigning does not really understand the American system of government and is not a defender of freedom for all. These words are especially bizarre coming from a follower of the man who said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

For people who want to be free, the NAR is a dangerous group. Be vigilant!

You can read more about the NAR here: https://www.libertymagazine.org/article/americas-spiritual-warriors

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway