“In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson
Proponents of an Article V Convention wish to use the U.S. Constitution to control the federal government…to put limitations on the federal government. Most Constitutions throughout the world bind its citizens with unnecessary responsibilities to…the state. Governments use their Constitutions as tools in suppressing rather than laws to harmonize. These societies eventually implode from the bureaucratic layers, demands upon its people and misallocated resources…to name a few links in the chain. America did not become great because of a collective vision; we became great due to the sum of its parts.
During their most tyrannical 20th Century dictators, the governments of Communist Russia, Red China and North Korea were established under a Constitution. To enforce the laws and rules, soviets and communes are used. Rule of law is instituted to control the masses rather than harmonize societal problems. America’s once passive government protecting individual rights became active in a cold, collectivization of “the People”. Discipline is an adherence and enforcement of laws where free thought, private property and individualism are shunned.
Collective societies sacrifice the individual for the greater good providing temporary benefits to the mob. The destruction of the mob mentality is obvious with the evolution of Marxism into communism, then fascism. Karl Marx made famous the saying “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” A similar principle was adopted by the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin who studied Marx and established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. Eventually, the 1936 Constitution of the USSR, Article 12 adopted “work is a duty and a matter of honor for every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the principle: ‘He who does not work, neither shall he eat.” Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev ruled under a Communist Constitution even through its dissolve in 1991.
North and South Korea demonstrates how the burdens of a Constitution can be placed upon its people. The freedom of South Korea is not the example as the oppression of the people of North Korea’s. Article 86 of North Korea’s Constitution states “National defense is the supreme duty and honor of citizens”. North Korea’s Constitution goes on to identify supreme as steady improvement of the material and cultural standards of the people, and Comrade Sung’s supreme task was reunification. As priority is placed upon a failed North Korea’s nuclear program, the hindrance of collectivization of North Korea has borders intended to keep the North Koreans in and mass famines.
In 1948, Red China has a revolution and they instituted their first Constitution in 1954. Due to the collectivization of society known as “The Great Leap Forward”, it produced one of the worst famines known to man. Is it a coincidence that when societies collectivize, they implode from ill-informed decisions and when they do “the People” are blamed.
In “The People’s Republic of York County”, county officials have abandoned a representative government for planned land use and five year plans. Most collective Constitutions require soviets or communes to enforce laws and rules from “supreme” entities. Representatives are relabeled as leaders and they have a voice when decisions are made. They’ve abandoned “Rule of Law” and the Fifth Amendment by dictating property use in taking private property without just compensation. As citizens use their First Amendment right in redressing this grievance, the collectivization of York County’s land use plans, not individual property owners, determine how property is to be used. While 37 percent of York County is federally owned land, county officials plan to use “conservation easements, clustering and other techniques to preserve open space” and the burdens and funding of such government are placed upon the people of York County. The goals and mechanisms are used to control food production, energy, manufacturing, development and other uses of property.
America is not void of leaders advocating for the collectivization of society. Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a Second Bill of Rights where government provides adequate economic means such as medical care, education and a living wage. University of Virginia Professor, Larry Sabato recently states that “…the greatest responsibility of citizenship is service. …and, within the new Constitution, there should be a new Article posing a Bill of Responsibility.” Even conservative talk show host Mark Levin advocates government be financially responsible for housing values to “a financial loss to the property owner exceeding $10,000, the government shall compensate fully and property owner for such losses.” Many local governments have implemented home rental inspection programs for blighted areas. With the state as the dictator of jobs, education, medical care, homes and property, citizens are accountable to a government with a Bill of Responsibility or upkeep of your house with periodic home inspections, when do the citizens pursue their own interests without the approval of government…whether local, state or local.
Our nation has prospered because individual rights are protected and people are free to pursue their self-understanding…and they are not burdened with the mischief of the chains of a Constitution. Our nation became exceptional because the people were able to use their property in pursuing these and fellow American’s interests and needs…and not because of mandates of third parties.
When government and fellow Americans attempt to plan, control and monitor through collectivizing society, this becomes extremely expensive, time consuming and frustrating for everyone.
Frustrating for government officials attempting to provide something they cannot and frustrating for “we, the people” for being restricted from doing something we can.