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Dates That Destroyed America
Passage of the so-called
"health care
reform" bill in the House of Representatives this
past Sunday, March 21 (I won't even address the inferred
unconstitutionality
of Congress doing business on the Lord's Day. See
Article. I. Section. 7. Paragraph. 2.)
drove yet another stake into the heart of America. For
all intents and purposes, it is the health of the United
States that is in dire need of healing. In fact, the US
has been on extended life-support for decades. With its
condition being rendered critical, and absent major
surgery, its days are numbered. The passage of this bill
only serves to further weaken an already frail
Constitution. In fact, this one may prove to be the
fatal blow. Lady Liberty may never recover.
The decision by Congress to socialize medicine in the US
ranks among the most draconian, most egregious, most
horrific actions ever taken by the central government in
Washington, D.C. This bill rocks the principles of
liberty and constitutional government to the core. It
changes fundamental foundations; it repudiates
historical principle. Oh! The same flag may fly on our
flagpoles, the same monuments may grace our landscape,
and the same National Anthem may be sung during our
public ceremonies, but it is not the same America. The
Congress of the United States has now officially turned
America into a socialist state.
On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the
health care bill into law, and as such, this date–along
with March 21–joins a list of dates that have each
inflicted unconstitutional, socialistic, and sometimes
even tyrannical action against the States United and
have, therefore, contributed to the destruction of a
free America.
April 9, 1865
This is the date when
General Robert E. Lee
surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Grant
at
Appomattox Court House,
Virginia. Regardless of where one comes down on the
subject of the Civil War, one fact is undeniable:
Abraham Lincoln
forever destroyed the Jeffersonian model of federalism
in America.
Ever since, virtually every battle that free men have
fought for the principles of limited government, State
sovereignty, etc., have all stemmed directly from
Lincoln's usurpation of power, which resulted in the
subjugation and forced union of what used to be
"Free and
Independent States" (the Declaration of
Independence). In fact, the philosophical battles being
waged today regarding the recent health care debacle
(and every other encroachment upon liberty and State
power by the central government) have their roots in
Lincoln's tyranny.
July 9, 1868
This is the
date
when the
14th Amendment
was ratified. This amendment codified into law what
Lincoln had forced at bayonet point. Until then, people
were only deemed citizens of their respective states.
The Constitution nowhere referred to people as
"US citizens."
It only recognized
"the Citizens of
each State." Notice also that citizenship was only
recognized among the
"several
States," not among people living in non-State
territories. Until the 14th Amendment, people were
"Citizens of
each State." (Article. IV. Section. 2. Paragraph.
1.) The 14th Amendment created a whole new class of
persons:
"citizens of the United States." This false notion
of "one nation"
overturned the Jeffersonian principle that our nation
was a confederated republic, a voluntary union of
states.
February 3, 1913
This is the date when the 16th Amendment was ratified,
and the direct income tax and IRS were instituted. This
was a flagrant repudiation of freedom principles! What
began as a temporary measure to support the War of
Northern Aggression became a permanent income revenue
stream for an unconstitutional–and ever-growing–central
government.
April 8, 1913
This is the date when the 17th Amendment was ratified.
This amendment
overturned the power of the State legislatures to elect
their own senators
and replaced it with a direct, popular vote. This was
another serious blow against State sovereignty. The
framers of the Constitution desired that the influence
and power in Washington, D.C., be kept as close to the
people and states as possible. For example, the number
of representatives in the House of Representatives was
to be decided by a limited number of voters. In the
original Constitution, the ratio of
"people of the
several States" deciding their House member could
not exceed "one
for every thirty thousand." (Article. I. Section. 2.
Paragraph. 3.) And when it came to the US Senate, the
framers also recognized the authority of each State
legislature to select its own senators, thereby keeping
power and influence from aggregating in Washington, D.C.
The 17th Amendment seriously damaged the influence and
power of the states by forcing them to elect their US
senators by popular vote. The bigger the State, the less
influence the State legislature has in determining its
US senator. Senators who answered to State legislators,
each answering to a limited number of voters, are much
more accountable to the
"citizens of the
several States" than those who are elected by a
large number (many times numbering into the millions) of
people. For all intents and purposes (at least in the
larger states), US Senators are more like
"mini-Presidents" than they are representatives of
sovereign states.
December 23, 1913
This is the date when the
Federal Reserve Act was passed.
This Act placed oversight of America's financial matters
into the hands of a cabal of private international
bankers, who have completely destroyed the
constitutional principles of sound money and (for the
most part) free enterprise. No longer would the
marketplace (private consumption, thrift, growth, etc.)
be the determinant of the US economy (which is what
freedom is all about), but now a private, unaccountable
international banking cartel would have total power and
authority to micromanage (for their own private,
parochial purposes) America's financial sector.
Virtually every recession, depression, and downturn
(including the one we are now experiencing) has been the
direct result of the Fed's manipulation (again, for its
own purposes and with Washington's cooperation) of the
market.
June 26, 1945
This is the date when the
United Nations Charter
was signed and America joined the push for global
government. Ever since, US forces have spilled untold
amounts of blood and sacrificed thousands of lives
promoting the UN's agenda. Since the end of World War
II, in virtually every war in which US military forces
have been engaged, it has been at the behest of the UN.
And it is also no accident that America has not fought a
constitutionally declared war since we entered the
UN–and neither have we won one.
Furthermore, it is America's involvement in the United
Nations that has spearheaded this draconian push for a
New World Order that George H. W. Bush, Henry Kissinger,
Tony Blair, Walter Cronkite, et al., have talked so much
about. The United Nations is an evil institution that
has completely co-opted our US State Department and much
of our Defense Department. It is an anti-American
institution that works aggressively and constantly
against the interests and principles of the United
States. But it is an institution that is ensconced in
the American political infrastructure. Like a cancer,
the UN eats away at our liberties and values, and both
major political parties in Washington, D.C., are
culpable in allowing it to exert so much influence upon
our country.
June 25, 1962, and June 17, 1963
These are the dates when the US Supreme Court removed
prayer ('62)
and
Bible reading ('63)
from public schools. At this point, these two Supreme
Court decisions were the most serious affront to the
First Amendment in US history. Think of it: from before
a union of states was established in 1787, children had
been free to pray and read the Scriptures in school.
We're talking about a period of more than 300 years! Of
course, the various State legislatures–and myriad city
and county governmental meetings–still open their
sessions in prayer, as do the US House and Senate, and
even the US Supreme Court. But this same liberty is
denied the children of America. There is no question
that America has not recovered from these two horrific
Supreme Court decisions. In effect, the federal
government has expelled God not only from our public
schools, but also from our public life! And America has
not been the same since.
October 22, 1968
This is the date when President Lyndon Baines Johnson
signed the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Before this Act, the 2nd Amendment was alive and well in
the United States. The Gun Control Act of 1968 turned a
right into a privilege and forever forced the American
people to bow to the altar of government when seeking to
arm themselves. Interestingly enough, this Gun Control
Act mirrored Nazi Germany's Gun Control Act of 1938. In
fact, the Gun Control Act of 1968 is almost a verbatim
copy of Hitler's Gun Control Act of 1938.
Our Founding Fathers could never have imagined that
governments within the
"several States"
would ever be allowed to deny the people's right to keep
and bear arms. In fact, it was the attempted
confiscation of the firearms stored at Concord,
Massachusetts, that triggered the War of Independence in
1775. That the people of Massachusetts would be denied
their right to keep and bear arms, as they are today,
could not have been foreseen–and would never have been
tolerated–by America's founders.
Yet, most of the hundreds of draconian gun control laws
that have been inflicted upon the American people have
all come about as a result of the Gun Control Act of
1968.
January 22, 1973
This is the date when the US Supreme Court issued the
Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton
decisions, which, in effect, legalized
abortion-on-demand. These two decisions expunged the
Jeffersonian principle that all men are endowed by their
Creator with the unalienable right to life
(Declaration). Since then, more than 50 million unborn
babies have been legally murdered in their mothers'
wombs. Abortion is, without a doubt, America's national
holocaust. It has opened the door to a host of Big
Government programs and policies that have resulted in
the wanton destruction of human life both in the United
States and overseas. It has created an entire industry
whose express purpose for existing is the destruction of
human life. It has desensitized the conscience and soul
of America. Furthermore, it has forced men of decency
and good will to finance–with their tax dollars–the
unconscionable act of killing unborn children.
And once again, another Jeffersonian principle was
eviscerated. He
said,
"To compel a man
to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of
ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and
tyrannical." The Roe and Doe decisions violate this
principle in the most egregious manner possible.
October 26, 2001
This is the date when President George W. Bush signed
the
USA Patriot Act,
and the federal government's war against individual
liberty began in earnest. Most of the unconstitutional
eavesdropping, snooping, wiretapping, phone call
intercepting, email reading, prying, financial records
tracking, travel watching, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, by
federal police agencies began with the implementation of
the Patriot Act. The Department of Homeland Security and
the "war on
terrorism," which have resulted in the deaths of
tens of thousands of innocent people worldwide, and the
usurpation of federal power at home, have all come about
as an outgrowth of the Patriot Act. The USA Patriot Act
has forever shifted the focus of American law and
jurisprudence against constitutional government and
individual liberty, toward a police-state mentality. The
Patriot Act is even turning our local and State law
enforcement agencies into military-style
"Jackboots,"
where police officers see themselves not necessarily as
guardians of the citizenry, but, as often as not, as
adversaries, where citizens are deemed to be the
"enemy."
October 17, 2006, and October 9, 2009
These are the dates when President G.W. Bush signed and
re-signed the
Military Commissions Act.
This Act is the outgrowth of the Patriot Act but has, in
effect, terminated the fundamental protections of
individual liberty, which are found in the US
Constitution and Bill of Rights. For all intents and
purposes, the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act
eviscerated the 4th and 5th Amendments, and do serious
injury to several others. The Military Commissions Act
also expunges the constitutional right of Habeas Corpus.
March 21 and 23, 2010
These are the dates when Congress passed and President
Obama signed into law the
"Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,"
the so-called
"health care reform" bill that we spoke about at the
beginning of this column. While Social Security and
various Welfare programs have toyed with socialism in
the United States, this bill is the largest and most
expansive endorsement of socialism in American history.
This bill socializes some 18% of the US economy by
socializing the health care industry in America. The
fallout and ramifications of this bill are going to be
horrific.
When future historians review the demise of our
once-great republic, they will observe that the above
dates, including March 21 and March 23, 2010, were the
dates that destroyed America. The American people have
been far too tolerant for far too long.
Dr. Chuck Baldwin is the pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. He hosts a weekly radio show. His website is here.
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