The revolution triumphed because Americans are a constitution-loving people. If the court said it, they accepted it. From Nixon to Reagan to Bush 1, Republican presidents sought to nominate justices who would return the court to constitutionalism. Only in the administration of George W. Bush did they begin to succeed. By then, however, the revolution was written into precedent, and conservatives respect precedent.
In the conflicts that come out of our clashing beliefs, conservatives should work to re-empower Congress and corral the Court. Given the current balance, with four constitutionalists (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito) and four liberals (Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan), Republicans should block any liberal activist Obama sends up, even if that leaves a vacancy on the Court until the next president.
Congress should also append to every law dealing with social policy, such as the Defense of Marriage Act, a rider that this law is not subject to judicial review. The Founding Fathers never intended that judges should be making the decisions they are making today.
Jefferson declared the Alien and Sedition Acts null and void. Jackson said of the Chief Justice, “John Marshall has made his decision; now, let him enforce it.” The Founding Fathers of the Democratic Party would never have accepted judicial supremacy. Nor would the father of the Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln, who declared, in his first inaugural address:
[I]f the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court … the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.
As racial discrimination is still among the most divisive issues polarizing our country, Congress should settle the question with finality by enacting into law Ward Connerly’s Civil Rights Initiative, which has won the support of the electorate in every state but one where it has been on the ballot: “The state shall not grant preferential treatment to or discriminate against any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.” Three dozen words, written into the Constitution or federal law, would bring down the evil empire of reverse discrimination, while conforming to the letter and spirit of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Americans supported that act because this is what they thought it said, and this is what Hubert Humphrey said it said.
With judges ignoring written constitutions to declare their opinions to be law—it was the Massachusetts Supreme Court that imposed same-sex marriage on the state—governors need to begin challenging court usurpations by defying court decisions. Had Governor Romney told the Massachusetts Supreme Court that he, too, took an oath to defend the state constitution and same-sex marriage is nowhere mandated in that constitution, and had he refused to issue the marriage licenses, he would have been the Republican nominee in 2008.
As Martin Luther King wrote, in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust law,” for, as St. Augustine said, “an unjust law is no law at all.”
How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.27
In the time of Governors Faubus in Arkansas and Wallace in Alabama, states rights became a synonym for southern resistance to desegregation. It remained so for decades. This is no longer the case. State attorneys general like Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia have gone into federal court to challenge the individual mandate of Obamacare. State legislators are talking of defying federal firearms authorities who come to enforce gun laws that exceed state law. Books are being published lauding the ideas of Jefferson and Madison at the time of the Alien and Sedition Acts, when they wrote of interposition and nullification of national laws that exceeded the federal authority granted in the Constitution. In Iowa, voters dismissed three renegade judges of the state supreme court. A counterrevolution may be in the offing, and the times may call for a more radical conservatism.
Washington and Adams were conservatives in 1770, rebels in 1775, and conservatives again when they led the country as presidents. Hamilton was a teenage firebrand in the early 1770s and a conservative secretary of the treasury in the early 1790s. Jefferson and Madison, free traders as young men, became economic nationalists when British merchants began dumping goods to kill the infant industries born in the War of 1812.
The natural conservatism of the American people, their reverence for the Constitution, their respect for the Supreme Court and the rule of law, have all been exploited by judicial radicals like Earl Warren and William O. Douglas, William J. Brennan and Harry Blackmun to impose a revolution those earlier Americans abhorred. When judges become dictators, citizens become rebels.
America is entering a time of troubles. The clashes of culture and creed are intensifying and both parties are perceived to have failed the nation. Republicans were repudiated in 2006 and 2008, Democrats in 2010. And the crises that afflict us—culture wars, race division, record deficits, unpayable debt, waves of immigration, legal and illegal, of peoples never before assimilated, gridlock in the capital, and possible defeat in war—may prove too much for our democracy to cope with. They surely will, if we do not act now.
Notes
Introduction: Disintegrating Nation
1. Kahlil Gibran, The Garden of the Prophet (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1933).
2. Lee Congdon, George Kennan: A Writing Life (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2008), 154.
3. David Ignatius, “An Old-School Trick: Put Country First,” Washington Post, Sept. 16, 2010.
4. Joe Stumpe and Monica Davey, “Abortion Doctor Shot to Death in Kansas Church,” New York Times, June 1, 2009; Mark Guarino, “Killing of Anti-Abortion Protester Has Both Sides Questioning Violence,” Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 12, 2009.
5. William McGurn, “Harry Reid’s ‘Evil’ Moment,” Wall Street Journal, Aug. 18, 2009.
6. Dana Milbank, “The High Ground Feels a Little Lonely,” Washington Post, Sept. 16, 2009.
7. Rich Benjamin, “Inside the Mind of Joe Wilson,” Salon.com, Sept. 11, 2009.
8. Greg Bluestein, “Carter Sees Racism in Wilson’s Outburst,” New York Times, Sept. 16, 2009.
9. Ewen MacAskill, “Jimmy Carter: Animosity Towards Barack Obama Is Due to Racism,” The Guardian, Sept. 16, 2009.
10. “MTV Awards: West Disrupts Swift’s Speech; Tribute to MJ,” cnn.com, Sept. 14, 2009.
11. Ronald Brownstein, “The New Color Line,” National Journal, Oct. 10, 2009.
12. “Vast Majority Believes America Today Is Deeply Divided (10/30–11/4),” USA Network Poll, Dec. 1, 2009.
13. Ross Douthat, “Scenes from a Marriage,” New York Times, Jan. 16, 2011.
14. Ignatius, “An Old-School Trick.”
15. Gus Lubin, “Jimmy Carter Says US Is More Polarized Now Than During Civil War,” Business Insider, Sept. 21, 2010.
16. “Jerry Brown: California, Country Facing Regime Crisis Similar to the Civil War,” CBS, April 10, 2011.
17. Fred Barnes, “The Republicans’ Best Weapon,” Weekly Standard, Feb. 2, 2009.
18. “Obama: Critics Talk About Me ‘Like a Dog,’” Daily Intel, New York magazine, Sept. 6, 2010.
19. Theodore Roosevelt, Before Knights of Columbus, New York City, Oct. 12, 1915, quoteland.com/author/Theodore-Roosevelt-Quotes/120/?p=2.
20. Charles K. Rowley, “Adam Smith Would Not Be Optimistic in Today’s Economic World,” Daily Telegraph, Sept. 6, 2009.
1. The Passing of a Superpower
1. Robert A. Pape, “First Draft of History: Empire Falls,” National Interest, Jan./Feb. 2009, 21.
2. Leslie H. Gelb, “Necessity, Choice and Common Sense: A Policy for a Bewildering World,” Foreign Affai
rs, May/June 2009, 56.
3. Ben Geman, “Obama Defends Escalation of Afghan War in Address to 2010 West Point Class,” The Hill, May 22, 2010.
4. Michael Settle, “If Money Isn’t Loosened Up, This Sucker Is Going to Go Down,” Herald Scotland, Dec. 30, 2009.
5. Lawrence Kudlow, “Bush Boom Continues,” Human Events, Dec. 11, 2007.
6. “‘We’re Greece’ in a Few Years: Sen. Gregg,” cnbc.com, Nov. 3, 2010.
7. David Malpass, “Near Zero Rates Are Hurting the Economy,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 4, 2009.
8. Gelb, “Necessity, Choice and Common Sense,” 58.
9. Pape, “First Draft of History,” 21.
10. Ibid., 27.
11. Neil Irwin, “Aughts Were a Lost Decade for U.S. Economy, Workers,” Washington Post, Jan. 2, 2010.
12. Harold Meyerson, “Why Germany and China Are Winning,” Washington Post, July 1, 2010.
13. Patrick J. Buchanan, “The Metrics of National Decline,” Feb. 17, 2009, msnbc.com (Source: Charles W. McMillion, MBG Information Services).
14. “Fox News Poll: 57% Think Next Generation Will Be Worse Off,” foxnews.com, Apr. 9, 2010.
15. David M. Dickson, “Volcker Blames Recession on Trade Imbalances,” Washington Times, Feb. 5, 2009.
16. Buchanan, “The Metrics of National Decline.”
17. Mark Drajem, “China’s Trade Gap with U.S. Climbs to Record, Fueling Yuan Tension,” bloomberg.com, Oct. 14, 2010.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. “Persons Obtaining Legal Permanent Resident Status: Fiscal Years 1820–2009,” Department of Homeland Security, dhs.gov; “Persons Obtaining Legal Permanent Resident Status by Gender, Age, Marital Status and Occupation: Fiscal Year 2009,” Department of Homeland Security, dhs.gov.
21. “New Data Shows China Responsible for 78.5 Percent of U.S. Trade Deficit in Manufactured Goods in 2009; Figure Up from 27.3 Percent in 2001,” press statement, American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, Washington, DC, Aug. 18, 2009.
22. Senator Fritz Hollings, “Fifth Column: The Enemy Within the Trade War,” huffingtonpost.com, Oct. 16, 2009.
23. Charles W. McMillion, “Globalization and America’s Lost Decade,” MBG Information Services, March 2010, 1, 40; “Lost Manufacturing Jobs in Decade,” MBG Information Services, Jan. 2011, mbginfosvcs.com.
24. James R. Hagerty, “U.S. Factories Buck Decline,” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 19, 2011.
25. Stephen Moore, “We’ve Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers,” Wall Street Journal, Apr. 1, 2011.
26. Warren E. Buffett and Carol Loomis, “America’s Growing Trade Deficit Is Selling the Nation Out from Under Us. Here’s a Way to Fix the Problem and We Need to Do It Now,” Fortune, Nov. 10, 2003, cnnmoney.com.
27. David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, Henry Clay: The Essential American (New York: Random House, 2010), 240.
28. Dan Molinski and John Lyons, “China’s $20 Billion Bolsters Chavez,” Wall Street Journal, Apr. 18, 2010.
29. John Pomfret, “More Political Ads Portray China as Benefiting from Weak U.S. Economy,” Washington Post, Oct. 28, 2010.
30. Peter Whoriskey, “As Cheaper Chinese Tires Roll In, Obama Faces an Early Trade Test,” Washington Post, Sept. 8, 2009.
31. Larry Elder, “The Soft Bigotry of President Bush,” Jewish World Review, July 4, 2002.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Betty Liu and Matthew Leising, “U.S. to Lose $400 Billion on Fannie, Freddie, Wallison Says,” bloomberg.com, Dec. 31, 2009.
35. John Weicher, “Closing the Gap: The Quiet Success of the Bush Administration’s Push for Minority Homeownership,” Weekly Standard, Oct. 11, 2006.
36. Karen Kwiatkowski, “An American Tale,” lewrockwell.com, Dec. 16, 2003.
37. “The Coming Debt Panic,” Washington Post, Dec. 14, 2009.
38. David M. Walker, Rosenthal Lecture, Institute of Medicine, Nov. 9, 2009, pgpf.org; Dennis Cauchon, “U.S. Owes $62 Trillion,” USA Today, June 7, 2011.
39. Ben Pershing, “Democrats Clear Spending Bill in Senate,” Washington Post, Dec. 14, 2009.
40. Patrick J. Buchanan, “Fat City,” townhall.com, Dec. 15, 2009.
41. Pershing, “Democrats Clear Spending Bill.”
42. Jeff Zeleny, “Obama Weighs Quick Undoing of Bush Policy,” New York Times, Nov. 9, 2008.
43. “FY10 Omnibus Disclosed Earmark Numbers,” Taxpayers for Common Sense, Dec. 10, 2009, taxpayer.net.
44. Andrew G. Biggs and Jason Richwine, “Those Underpaid Government Workers,” American Spectator, September 2010, 14.
45. Ibid.
46. Dennis Cauchon, “For Feds, More Get 6-Figure Salaries,” USA Today, Dec. 11, 2009.
47. Ibid.
48. Dennis Cauchon, “More Fed Workers Pay Tops $150K: Number Doubled Under Obama,” USA Today, Nov. 10, 2010.
49. Lena H. Sun, “D.C. Area Tops in Well-being Survey,” Washington Post, Nov. 10, 2010.
50. Dennis Cauchon, “Federal Pay Tops Private Workers: Compensation Gap Doubled in Decade,” USA Today, Aug. 10, 2010.
51. Dennis Cauchon, “Obama’s Pay Freeze for Federal Workers Only Limits Raises,” USA Today, Dec. 1, 2010.
52. Garet Garrett, The People’s Pottage (Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1958), 1.
53. Andy Soltis, “Tax Refugees Staging Escape from New York,” New York Post, Oct. 27, 2009.
54. Kenneth Lovett, “New Yorkers Under 30 Plan to Flee City; Cite High Taxes, Few Jobs as Reasons,” nydailynews.com, May 13, 2011.
55. Gerald Prante, “Summary of Latest Federal Income Tax Data,” Tax Foundation, July 30, 2009, taxfoundation.org.
56. “Policy Basics: The Earned Income Tax Credit,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Dec. 4, 2009, cbpp.org.
57. Edwin S. Rubenstein, “The Earned Income Tax Credit and Illegal Immigration: A Study in Fraud, Abuse and Liberal Activism,” Social Contract, Spring 2009, 3.
58. Stephen Ohlemacher, “Nearly Half of U.S. Households Escape Fed Income Tax,” Associated Press, April 7, 2010, finance.yahoo.com.
59. John D. McKinnon, “High-Earning Households Pay Growing Share of Taxes,” wsj.com, May 3, 2011.
60. Barack Obama, Reclaiming the American Dream Speech, Bettendorf [IA], Nov. 7, 2007, “Barack Obama and Joe Biden: Making College Affordable for Everyone,” barackobama.com.
61. Lawrence W. Reed, “A Subtle Destroyer,” Mackinac Center for Public Policy, April 8, 2005, mackinac.org.
62. “Food Stamp Rolls Continue to Rise,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 8, 2010.
63. Anemona Hartocollis, “New York Asks to Bar Use of Food Stamps to Buy Sodas,” New York Times, Oct. 6, 2010.
64. Christine Armario and Dorie Turner, “Nearly 1 in 4 Fails Military Entrance Exam,” Washington Examiner, Dec. 22, 2010.
65. John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (London: Macmillan, 1919), 220.
66. “Cheap Cigarettes from Cigarettes Below Cost,” cigarettes-below-cost.com.
67. Thomas E. Woods, Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2009), 1.
68. Lawrence W. Reed, “The Greatest Spending Administration in All of History,” Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Jan. 1, 1998, mackinac.org.
69. Paul Krugman, “Franklin Delano Obama,” New York Times, Nov. 10, 2008.
70. Woods, Meltdown, 103.
71. Robert Dell, “What Fiscal Pain? Budget-Cutting Misery Is More Imagined Than Real,” Washington Times, Apr. 29, 2011.
72. Woods, Meltdown, 26.
73. Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions, 1798, etext.virginia.edu.
74. Ernest Hemingway quotes, thinkexist.com; “Hemingway on the Costs of War,” Ludwig von Mises Institute, blog.mises.org.
75. Elizabeth MacDonald, “Bernanke Re-ignites Inflation-Deflation Debate,” foxbusiness.com, Oct. 15, 2010.
76. Brady D
ennis, “In Capitol Hill Hearing, Bankers Remain Torn on Their Role in Crisis,” Washington Post, Jan. 14, 2010.
77. Jackie Calmes, “Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds Fear of a Debt Crisis,” New York Times, Feb. 16, 2010.
78. John Adams quotes, brainyquote.com.
79. “Quotes on Liberty and Virtue,” complied and edited by J. David Gowdy, president, The Washington, Jefferson and Madison Institute, liberty1.org/virtue.
80. Tom Piatak, “The Necessity of Christianity,” Chronicles, October 2009, 39; George Washington, Farewell Address, Rediscovering George Washington, Claremont Institute, 2002.
81. Piatek, “The Necessity of Christianity,” 40.
82. “Quotes on Liberty and Virtue.”
2. The Death of Christian America
1. James C. Russell, Breach of Faith: American Churches and the Immigration Crisis (Raleigh, NC: Representative Government Press, 2004), 10.
2. Carl Pearlston, “Is America a Christian Nation?” Catholic Education Resource Center, catholiceducation.org.
3. Toby Harnden, “Barack Obama in Turkey: U.S. ‘Will Never Be at War with Islam,’” Telegraph, April 6, 2009.
4. Rick Warren’s Inaugural Invocation, christianitytoday.com, Jan. 20, 2009.
5. President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address, The White House Blog, Jan. 21, 2010, whitehouse.gov.
6. Church of the Holy Trinity v. the United States, 143 U.S. 457, 1892, wikipedia.org.
7. “Rev. Joseph Lowery Delivers Benediction at Inaugural Ceremony,” CNN, Jan. 20, 2009, politicalticker.blog.cnn.com.
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