It’s not so much that Congress mugging the populace is all that new; it’s just that congresscritters are becoming so much more open and bold about it. *sigh* Denny Crane had a response to muggers that I fear more and more Americans might feel moved to make (following the example of the Founders):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pcVDmX4ho4
Oh, the Founders’ view on “mugging by government”?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Yep. Pretty much THE central reason for the Second Amendment. I hope it doesn’t come to a third American Revolution. (Ask me, if you wish, about the second American Revolution that overthrew the Constitution’s protections against a tyrannical central government… ) I sincerely hope the current effort to enslave citizens can be overthrown peacefully at the ballot box.
I’ll add my Amen to that last line.
I’ll bite: what was the second revolution?
Lincoln’s coup overthrowing the Constitution, “saving” the republic by violating both the spirit and actual contract of the Founders’ Constitution. Heck, libtard revisionist “historians” even trumpet the fact that the United States after Mr. Lincoln’s War was fundamentally different to the vision of the Founders. And so it goes. Lincoln’s multiple serial witting violations of the Constitution in order to “save” the nation that compact formed resulted in the view shared by congresscritters, Mass MEdia Podpeople, Academia Nut Fruitcakes and jurists *spit* that our Constitution isn’t really a definite compact of governance, but just something that can be twisted to suit whatever blowhard can convince some black robes his view could (possibly, maybe) be a “good thing” whether the Constitution actually empowers said blowhard’s desired outcome.
*feh*
Lincoln was a great man… in the sense that Genghis Khan or Stalin or any number of other despots were great men. Lincoln’s excuse? He thought (and convinced enough others) that his stated goals (and his goals never included “freeing the slaves” except as a step to sending them back to Africa. Seriously) were worth violating the Constitution to gain. He was wrong.