The True End of the Republic?

Today—or some day in the very near vicinity—might very well be remembered by future historians as the day the United States became a republic in name only.  Today might very well be the day historians note that the United States officially became a militant empire.

Of course, this has been a long, long time in the making.  From the standpoint of the U.S. Constitution, common law and natural rights, and the general Anglo-American traditions of liberty, the last four presidential administrations have proven disastrous.  A general, if unofficial, alliance between the neo-conservatives and the liberals has led to nearly permanent war, a “security state” that is so bloated as to be unmanageable, and a welfare state that forces the middle class to slave for immense banks and corporations (“too big to fail”).  We are in a truly sorry state of affairs.  And, I’ve not even mentioned the debt.  Well, now I have.

As if the state of liberty in North American couldn’t get any worse. . . .

If all goes according to plan, the president will sign into law the National Defense Authorization Act.  It provides provisions for the U.S. Government to detain American citizens indefinitely.  Probably the last time the government passed a bill this heinous was through its creation of the first federal police force to capture runaway slaves with the Fugitive Slave Act (1850).

http://www.infowars.com/indefinite-detention-bill-heads-to-obamas-desk/

Should the House pass this bill, and the president sign it, we will have witnessed not just a brutally significant moment in American history but a terrible moment in the whole of western civilization.

Shortly before his assassination by Marc Antony’s men, the Roman senator, Marcus Cicero, recorded his own thoughts on the loss of his republic.

Before our own time, the customs of our ancestors produced excellent men, and eminent men preserved our ancient customs and the institutions of their forefathers.  But though the republic, when it came to us, was like a beautiful painting, whose colours, however, were already fading with age, our own time not only has neglected to freshen it by renewing the original colours, but has not even taken the trouble to preserve its configuration and, so to speak, its general outlines.  For what is now left of the ‘ancient customs’ one which he said ‘the commonwealth of Rome’ was ‘founded firm’?  They have been, as we see, so completely buried in oblivion that they are not only no longer practiced, but are already unknown.  And what shall I say of the men?  For the loss of our customs is due to our lack of men, and for this great evil we must not only give an account, but must even defend ourselves in every way possible, as if we were accused of capital crime.  For it is through our own faults, not by any accident, that we retain only the form of the commonwealth, but have long since lost its substance [Cicero, The Republic, Book 5, Section 1]

Ironically, today is also the anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Bill of Rights, December 15, 1791.  Almost every provision of the NDAA goes against the spirit and form of the Bill of Rights.  Not surprisingly, only a very few—the Pauls and Justin Amash—have really fought this thing in Washington.

A truly sad moment for anyone who cares about human dignity and liberty.

Read more at CatholicVote.org