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October 18, 2005

Government, Vigilence and Freedom

Mark Safranski has a long excerpt from Bruce Kesler on what the recent attempts to move Internet oversight to the UN, and to license journalists (essentially preventing bloggers from commenting on politicians near elections), mean for freedom. At the end of the quote, Mark provides this bit of commentary:

The admirable vigilance of Mr. Kesler is the price of liberty. We need to watch our Congressmen closely. Republican or Democrat, both kinds of elected officials are by definition insiders. Some of whom have forgotten where they came from and why they are there.

Indeed, such vigilance is laudable. It is just a shame that it is so necessary. And the reason that it is necessary is that government has massively overrun its bounds. The whole point of the American system of governance was that the Federal governments would not interact often or decisively with individuals; it was to be indirect governance. By so strictly constraining Federal powers and abilities, the Constitution as originally written made it unnecessary for individuals to be concerned with the day to day machinations of government at the Federal level.

But the increasing interference of the Federal government in everything, particularly following the removal of Federal limits on spending (16th Amendment) and political limits (17th Amendment) , requires every citizen to be well informed about the minutiae of not only the Congress' actions, but also those of the myriad Federal bureaucracies and courts. Otherwise, you could easily wake up and find that the First Amendment no longer protects your right to political speech, or that the Fourth Amendment no longer prevents the government from taking your property and giving it to your neighbor.

Sadly, the anti-Federalists appear to have been right in their criticisms of the Constitution (not limiting enough on government, so that government would grow into tyranny over time), even while they were unable to articulate a way of keeping the US together as a single nation in the absence of a stronger national government.

Posted by jeff at October 18, 2005 9:43 AM

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