Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. – Daniel Webster
I’ve been saying the same thing, in different phrasings, for so long that it begins to bore me. Yet the message is as important as it ever was, and the threat has never abated. Indeed, the main reason for the Establishment’s unrelenting assaults upon President Donald Trump is that he, the first president to oppose Washington’s drive toward total hegemony since Reagan, is sincerely focused upon reducing government’s power over us.
All that’s changed over the decades since the Reagan years is the power elite’s choice of methods.
About ten years ago, back at Eternity Road, I wrote:
Alongside the threat from Islamic demographics, and synergistic with it, is the threat of Transnational Progressivism. This ideology completely dominates the power structures of the states of Europe, and has made significant incursions in the English-speaking countries as well. For a full exploration of its substance and import, please read John Fonte's stunning exposition on the subject. If you haven't the time, a reasonably accurate summary is: the ideology that considers nation-states obsolete, and considers the relocation of all power into the hands of a "wise elite" the ultimate political imperative. That "wise elite" is animated by socialist or social-fascist convictions, which are hostile to individual freedom, free-market economics, federalism, and the limitation of political authority. It is irremediably America's enemy.Our status in that third war is even harder to assess than the War on Terror. In part, this is because attitudes are difficult to capture quantitatively, even after a brace of national elections. In larger measure, it's because the effects of attitudinal transitions on objectively perceptible events are often delayed well past the transitions themselves. In largest measure, it's because the Old Media, which remain the most potent of the conduits that bring information, analyses, and opinions to the consumer, are aggressively biased against their own side.
If you haven’t read the Fonte essay, one of the most important pieces of political analysis in the postwar years, let me know and I’ll email you a copy. More recently, I noted a supremely ominous development in local government:
Authority is a heady thing. It intoxicates many who are granted it, to the point that they forget their bounds and lose their way. This story provides a chilling example:“It has been frighteningly apparent that we in this city have given our freedoms up in ways that we never really saw coming,” [Columbiana, OH resident Tony] Dolan wrote in the Columbiana for/against Chickens Facebook page.
Dolan also posted copies of ordinances council was expected to discuss during last week’s meeting. One of those ordinances was to amend section 1260.16 of the planning and zoning code to include language pertaining to the planting and growing of fruits, vegetables and grapevines.
The other related to the keeping of chickens in town.
The garden legislation would amend the zoning code to allow gardens on residential property, but Dolan and others at the meeting believed it was just another effort on the city’s part to restrict their rights.
The proposed amendment originally stated that residential gardens would need to be confined to rear yards, but that wording was later removed by a motion of council during the meeting.
Municipal Attorney Daniel Blasdell said the garden issue came about as a result of the chicken issue.
He explained that people were asking why chickens couldn’t be allowed in the community while gardens were.
The city had no laws pertaining to residential gardens, which means they were technically not allowed.
According to the city’s laws, if something is not permitted it is prohibited.
“Right now, if there is not something expressly in this code that says that you can have one, you technically can’t,” Blakeman confirmed.
He went on to say that the city’s effort to make a law allowing gardens is something that should be seen as a good move by residents.
“The intention of it is to not to take away, it is to give,” he said.Please read it all. Note especially the parts emphasized above. Note the attitude embedded in the statements by Columbiana Mayor Bryan Blakeman. He sees the Columbiana city government’s authority as unbounded, such that Columbiana’s residents have only such latitude of action as the city code expressly provides.
That’s not quite “Everything not compulsory is forbidden,” but it comes close enough to be lethally chilling. And an elected official of an American city has proclaimed it.
And today, courtesy of Western Rifle Shooters, we have this:
WRSA advises that you read the whole thing. I concur.
There’s no way to miss the common thread in the above.
They who desire power above all other things will always have, as an instrumental objective, the elimination of other power centers and alternate sources of authority. The wars against family and community autonomy, against affiliation with traditional American religions and their institutions, and against American national sovereignty are all of a piece. Regional or limited power is no good to our would-be masters. They won’t be satisfied until their rule is unopposed.
Any means toward that end will be part of their arsenal. Even if some measure should seem contradictory to their ultimate aims – for example the importation of Islamic totalitarian savagery – if it appears useful in the weakening of some bastion of Americans’ freedom or traditions, they’ll strive to bend it toward their purposes. Much that appears insane about the Establishment’s various campaigns suddenly appears evilly rational in that view.
The loci of opposition to the transnational progressives and their drive for absolute hegemony are dwindling. Some are straining to rally their forces. Others are merely making their peace with what they see as inevitable. A survey of American Christianity, with specific focus upon the preachments of priests and ministers and the causes their congregations are exhorted to support, is particularly revealing – and depressing.
It’s unclear what means of resistance remain upon which we who desire to remain free can rely.
I have a full day ahead of me and can’t spend much longer at the keyboard before I address my necessities and obligations. However, I wanted to get the above out before I did so, if only so I don’t need to tell my Gentle Readers about another day off.
The main point is what it’s always been. Daniel Webster has already said it:
There was more substance, metaphorically at least, to James Cameron’s Terminator than many might have imagined.
Duty calls. Perhaps I’ll be back later. Have a nice day.
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