Michael Wolfe

President Barack Obama has lamented in the past that the US Constitution did not say “what the government must do on your behalf.” The US Constitution was different from others in a sense it is a “charter of negative liberties,” in the sense that it limits the ability of the government to control the lives and choices of its citizens, who were not subjects, but were endowed with inalienable rights; not from the government, but from Almighty God. However, he focused solely on the negative while ignoring the fact that positive liberties were recognized as belonging to the people such as: Freedom of speech, Press, assembly, bearing arms, due process, and many others. He had to create a false dicotomy (eg the constitution is “negative” in order to offer what he considers to be positive things the government “must do on your behalf”).

There is another Constitution, that was written much more recently than our own, which sets forth a different kind of government. One that had no negative liberties, that told explicitly what the state must do on your behalf. Before I tell you the name of the country, read through this exert and look at the broad governmental control and authority that lurks behind each of these lines:

Chapter 3: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND CULTURE

Article 19.  The social basis of the (country name) is the unbreakable alliance of the workers, peasants, and intelligentsia. The state helps enhance the social homogeneity of society, namely the elimination of class differences and of the essential distinctions between town and country and between mental and physical labour, and the all-round development and drawing together of all the nations and nationalities of the(country name).

Article 20.  In accordance with the communist ideal–”The free development of each is the condition of the free development of all”–the state pursues the aim of giving citizens more and more real opportunities to apply their creative energies, abilities, and talents, and to develop their personalities in every way.

Article 21.  The state concerns itself with improving working conditions, safety and labour protection and the scientific organisation of work, and with reducing and ultimately eliminating all arduous physical labour through comprehensive mechanisation and automation of production processes in all branches of the economy.

Article 22.  A programme is being consistently implemented in the (country name) to convert agricultural work into a variety of industrial work, to extend the network of educational, cultural, and medical institutions, and of trade, public catering, service and public utility facilities in rural localities, and transform hamlets and villages into well-planned and well-appointed settlements.

Article 23.  The state pursues a steady policy of raising people’s pay levels and real incomes through increase in productivity. In order to satisfy the needs of (country name)’s people more fully social consumption funds are created.  The state, with the broad participation of public organisations and work collectives, ensures the growth and just distribution of these funds.

Article 24.  In the (country name), state systems of health protection, social security, trade and public catering, communal services and amenities, and public utilities, operate and are being extended. The state encourages co-operatives and other public organisations to provide all types of services for the population.  It encourages the development of mass physical culture and sport.

Article 25.  In the (country name) there is a uniform system of public education, which is being constantly improved, that provides general education and vocational training for citizens, serves the communist education and intellectual and physical development of the youth, and trains them for work and social activity.

This government, organized on communist principles took it upon itself to provide for every need of the people, and by the provision of said needs, gains absolute control over the people. Within this brief section, we see the state mandate for its duties: wealth redistribution (“eliminating class”), national health care, public schools, public jobs, state funding of culture, art, social security, sports, even shaping the mental health of the people (personality development). Ask yourself, how many of these same things do we see our own government engaging in today? Our Constitution, with its charter of negative liberties, has been ignored and subverted to grant the government the same types of power that are codified into the constitution exerted here. This constitution is none other than the constitution of the Soviet Union, as rewritten in 1977 by the Soviet Party bosses. In our quest to eliminate fear and insecurity, we almost guarantee tyranny by allowing the government to ignore and destroy the limits that have been placed on it by our Constitution.

We must immediately stop the government’s rapid lurch towards totalitarian control. The healthcare bill, the Consumer credit bill, the cap and trade bill- they are not about healthcare consumer protections or environmental stewardship, as some would lead you to believe. They are cold blooded federal power grabs, wrapped in language which conceals their true nature.

Think about what they create:

New government bureaucracies.

New government regulations.

New requirements to be lawful citizens

New products that must be bought by companies to remain lawful.

They are propped up by two lies: The free market system has failed, and carbon dioxide is a pollutant. Consider these facts:

Government regulation created the housing bubble by forcing banks to loan to people who could not afford it. Government regulation creates localized monopolies for insurance companies preventing open and honest competition. Carbon Dioxide is the gas of life, released by humans and animals and recycled by plants for oxygen. If we let them get away with such lunacy, it won’t be long until it will literally be: “Every breath we take, every child we make, they’ll be taxing us.” China was just at Copenhagen pushing for a global “one-child” policy, and this claim is echoed by “progressives” around the globe.

A few other exerts from the Soviet Constitution worth considering:

Chapter 2:11.The land, its minerals, waters, and forests are the exclusive property of the state.  The state owns the basic means of production in industry, construction, and agriculture; means of transport and communication; the banks; the property of state-run trade organisations and public utilities, and other state-run undertakings; most urban housing; and other property necessary for state purposes.

Even today, we see the state separating mineral and oil rights from our property rights. Also, consider “ANWAR” and other places where the feds refuse to issue PERMITS to tap into our own natural resources. Banking? How about the Unconstitutional granting of the powers of congress to “regulate and coin money.” Housing? How about Housing and Urban Development. Are these federal agencies and quasi agencies doing anything that is constitutional? Where in the constitution do we find the authority for the government to contract a monopoly on the money supply? Provide housing at tax payer’s expense? Forbid people to use their own resources?

Chapter 2:13.  Earned income forms the basis of the personal property of Soviet citizens.  The personal property of citizens of the USSR may include articles of everyday use, personal consumption and convenience, the implements and other objects of a small-holding, a house, and earned savings.  The personal property of citizens and the right to inherit it are protected by the state. Citizens may be granted the use of plots of land, in the manner prescribed by law, for a subsidiary small-holding (including the keeping of livestock and poultry), for fruit and vegetable growing or for building an individual dwelling.  Citizens are required to make rational use of the land allotted to them.  The state, and collective farms provide assistance to citizens in working their small-holdings. Property owned or used by citizens shall not serve as a means of deriving unearned income or be employed to the detriment of the interests of society.

Even today, we see private property rights being run over when some other use is deemed “in the interests of society.” How about eminent domain to seize private homes to build a company because it will give more taxes to the government than the private dwellings?

Chapter 2:14 The state exercises control over the measure of labour and of consumption in accordance with the principle of socialism: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his work”.  It fixes the rate of taxation on taxable income. Socially useful work and its results determine a person’s status in society.  By combining material and moral incentives and encouraging innovation and a creative attitude to work, the state helps transform labour into the prime vital need of every Soviet citizen.

Even now we see consumption being controlled. Punitive taxes on cigarettes, proposed taxes on medical devices, soft drinks and so forth. The peacetime permanent federal income tax saw the beginning of regulation of incomes, small at first, it has grown to consume and redistribute ever larger chunks of our private wealth and is in the form prescribed by the Communist Manifesto:  A heavy progressive income tax.

The more power we grant government, the less freedom we have. A government, as outlined in the Soviet Constitution has unlimited power. The people under it, therefore, have no power and are little more than slaves or serfs. If we fail to check our government, if we fail to understand and stand up for our own rights, not only on election day, but every day, we will lose them to men who are working around the clock to gather to themselves absolute power.