Limiting Governments by Limiting a Party
Everywhere, power is exerted over people’s life, liberty, and property by governments.
Limiting Governments
In tribes, power was exerted by chiefs. In larger agricultural civilizations, power was exerted by kings. The person who used the most power reigned.
In Israel initially, laws were given by God and administered by judges, and collective self-defense was organized under military leaders. In Israel later, power was exerted by kings, and people soon fell away from God.
The Dutch Republic, then England, and then the American Colonies had printed Bibles in people’s native tongues, and had reformed churches. These innovations helped people individually grow close to God. People’s natural envy was better-controlled, so people were able to add more value. Naturally, people chose to make themselves freer. The American Colonies started out with the world’s lowest taxes and greatest freedom.
The Constitution’s ratifiers needed support from people who had lived in freedom, experienced abuses of power by government people, and fought for freedom. To earn acceptance, the ratifiers took the best-available theory and transformed it into rules and sanctions.
The Constitution’s foremost rule is that no person shall be unduly deprived of life, liberty, or property.
Rules are followed more fully when sanctions get used.
The Constitution’s sanctions are that government powers must be separated into national and state jurisdictions, and that within jurisdictions, government powers must be separated into legislative, executive, and judicial branches. In each separated power, each person is required to support the Constitution by using his powers against other powers to offset and therefore limit the other powers.
Separate and offset. Divide and limit.
But after ratification, the drafters and their distinguished colleagues slacked off.
They never spun off analogous constitutions that would limit other powerful groups. They began working within parties to disuse the Constitution’s sanctions.
The Constitution’s sanctions now get systematically disused by government people. These people collude using parties.
Limiting a Party
Parties control governments. Parties’ people therefore exert government power over people’s life, liberty, and property.
We need at least one major party to have enumerated, limited powers. Some rules must be in a party constitution:
The [republican Constitution party] congres
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
