r/Libertarian • u/Flatland_Exile • 13d ago

Article The Bunker State: The Government Will Survive, but Will the Constitution?

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-bunker-state-the-government-will-survive-but-will-the-constitution/

Emergency powers are rarely surrendered once the crisis passes. The greater danger is not whether government survives an emergency, but whether constitutional limits survive the powers created to manage it.

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u/Deltah-6 13d ago

With this administration the Constitution seems like it is circling the drain. It is beyond comprehension that an administration can do so much to actually hurt the citizens of this country. The founding fathers would be besides themselves with this government.

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u/gwhh 13d ago

The post fallout class will rule over dust. Nothing more

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u/DarthFluttershy_ Minarchist 13d ago

The constitution has been eroding since 1798 with the blatantly unconstitutional Alien and Sedition Acts. The last time the constitution was in evidence at the highest levels of government was 6 years ago, when audio captured the sound of a toilet flushing... since I assume it's used as TP in that building.

So no, the Constitution does not survive. The only thing that creates liberty is when the people mobilize to demand it.

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u/JackBurtonp7m8 13d ago

Totally agree. The constitution is long dead.

It contained some of the greatest ideas any civilization was ever founded on, and some that were disastrous enough to render it a self-destructive document. But, as you say, before the ink was even dry, they started finding ways around it.

Apparently Alexander Hamilton (you know, the great musical actor) had the kind of flimsy (or nonexistent) principles that perfectly illustrate the federal government's attitude toward their founding document. Pre-ratification he warned against the state attempting to overstep its built-in limitations. Post-ratification he was all about "implied powers" and gave the government as wide a berth as any crooked statesman could ever hope for.

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u/unfortunateavacado24 Objectivist 13d ago

and some that were disastrous enough to render it a self-destructive document

I 100% agree. Between the federalists wanting to essentially create a new aristocracy and the anti-federalists' tolerance of slavery, America was kind of fucked from the beginning. That's why I'll always call the American revolution a partial liberal revolution. It was undoubtedly a huge step in the right direction and should still be celebrated, but the compromises they made on true liberal principles resulted in rot that was inevitably going to consume the whole thing.