Political myths that are destroying freedom: The myth of a limited-government Republican Party (Part 1)

(NaturalNews) I will be doing a series of articles exposing commonly held political myths that many Americans have come to accept as historic fact. These myths were intentionally created by those directly involved in government and by its admirers who benefit from the expansion of state power. Over time, these relatively small groups, compared to the general population, have learned that controlling the public perception of government is essential to achieve their agenda. History teaches that, when government grows in size and power, freedom is destroyed for those subject to its rule. Only a few elite enjoy its benefits at the expense of the majority. It's vitally important that the focus needs to be on the supremacy of individual freedom. It must be considered the most precious possession that we have. The critical lesson of human history is how rarely individual freedom has been obtained, and how relatively easily it is for it to be taken away.

The primary reason why America is rapidly transforming into a totalitarian police state is that a majority of Americans are ignorant of history. This has led to a lack of interest in the political system. America has become a victim of it's own success because modern generations don't understand the sacrifices it took to develop the economy that has produced this great abundance we have known all our lives. This ignorance of the political system has allowed the government, by it's nature a parasite, to grow so large that it threatens to kill its host. Governments do not create wealth; they profit from the work of others. To put that in simple modern terms, government is the ultimate welfare recipient.

Thomas Paine said, "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." The Federal Government has long ago passed the point of being intolerable. It's only relatively recently that a significant number of Americans have started to realize just how intolerable it has become.

The central government, created by the Constitution, has become the most powerful government in human history. It has amassed the greatest debt in human history. It's on track to become the most dangerous government in human history. The Constitution that was intended to limit the Federal Government has become a dead letter. I believe Americans face a similar situation that the German people faced in the 1930s. They too were manipulated through government-created crisis and elected the Nazi Party out of desperation. In our case, we have two tyrannical political parties that are only superficially different from each other. The deception has to be sophisticated because of the American tradition of individual freedom.

Both political parties use the Fabian Socialist technique of incremental change using the political system. The Stalinist approach is to use brute force against its people to achieve their goals. Fabian Socialists only resort to violence in very limited ways. It's heavily cloaked with legislation to give the appearance of legitimacy. They take over the political parties, education system and media in a coordinated effort to keep the general public ignorant of reality. Unfortunately, they have been extremely successful.

The purpose of this article is not to be an in-depth analysis of the entire political system but to reveal the truth behind the facade of the modern Republican Party. A party that has been in decline for years and appears to be on the path toward extinction. I don't believe that it's going disappear in the near future but, rather like the expansion of government, decline incrementally until it reaches the finally stages where the collapse accelerates.

The simplistic narrative that has developed over the years, and amazingly persists today, is that the Democratic Party is Liberal and the Republican Party is Conservative. Those who know the history behind the words Liberal and Conservative are aware that the meaning related to their political use has changed.

Since I'm analyzing the history of the Republican Party, I'll start with conservatism's definition. Traditional Conservatism -- or as it's also referred to as, Paleoconservatism or "Old Right" -- believes in Laissez-faire capitalism, limited government and a non-interventionist approach to foreign policy. To many, that might sound like a modern Libertarian. There are lots of similarities, but there seems to be a few important differences. Paleoconservatives tend to be devout Christians, usually Non-Zionist Christians. They are critical of the libertine attitude of many modern Libertarians. They tend to agree with Libertarians that government should not intervene in most of these social issues but will speak out in the court of public opinion against those values. The major dividing line is over abortion. A significant amount of Libertarians are pro-choice, while Paleoconservatives tend to be pro-life.

The history of Paleoeoconservatives is best summed up in the abstract of an article by Sheldon L. Richman, "New Deal Nemesis: The 'Old Right' Jeffersonians" published in The Independent Review: "The Old Right began as a diverse group of politicians, writers and activists awakened by a common threat: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his unprecedented accretion of executive power. The Old Right was not truly right-wing or conservative, drawing as it did from the ranks of "progressive" isolationists, Republican "conservative" isolationists, libertarian iconoclasts regarded as leftist radicals in the 1920s, conservative Democrats, social democratic historians, and free-market liberal economists and journalists."

For a more in-depth look at Paleoconservatism, I recommend the book Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement by Justin Raimondo.

That's the history of Conservatism and what it used to mean, but that's not what modern mainstream conservatism represents now. The Democratic Party lost its Jeffersonian heritage with the infiltration of Progressives in the late 19th century. They were in reality Marxists who called themselves Progressives. This may be a shock to modern Republicans, but there was a time when Democrats, though not perfect, were the ones who were strong on state sovereignty, for low taxes and limited government. They weren't the Marxist extremists that they have become.

In my opinion, based on historical facts, the Republican Party didn't really have such an infiltration. They already were, for all practical purposes, "Progressives." From its birth in 1854, the Republican Party didn't respect state sovereignty and wanted an all-powerful central government. They were for high taxes. In the early days, that meant high tariffs. They promoted mercantilism, now referred to as "corporatism," or often called "crony capitalism." They wanted a national central banking system similar to the current Federal Reserve System, which is at the center of the destruction of the financial sector and threatens our entire economy with inflationary fiat dollars and all the distortions of the economy that it causes. Republicans created the first fiat dollar; in the United States, they were called "greenbacks" and were not backed by gold or silver. They enacted the first income tax in 1861, which was repealed in 1871. With deceptive tactics, they started an unconstitutional war of aggression against fellow Americans. I will talk about the war in more detail in part 2. I'll explain why what we call the "Civil War" was unnecessary to end slavery and wasn't even about ending slavery. The primary reasons involved tariffs and Southern independence.

Two concepts of government emerged after the American Revolution, or more accurately called the war of secession from the British Empire. There was Thomas Jefferson's concept, summed up by Professor Thomas DiLorenzo, author of Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution -- and What It Means for America Today. As The Mises Review states:

"Thomas Jefferson supported the American Revolution in order to promote individual liberty. To secure this end, it was essential that the central government be strictly limited in its powers. America, in the Jeffersonian view, was an alliance of sovereign states, and the adoption of the Constitution, though it increased the power of the national government, did not fundamentally change this arrangement."

Professor DiLorenzo describes Hamilton's concept from his book Hamliton's Curse: "Hamilton proposed a kind of "king" who would yield supreme power over all people, who in turn would have essentially no say in how their government was run. The states would be mere provinces whose governors would be appointed by and loyal to the "king."Under such a regime, all political power in the nation would be exercised by the chief executive and his circle of advisors, which would undoubtedly have included Alexander Hamilton as perhaps the chief advisor."

Professor DiLorenzo points out that Hamilton did not secure what he wanted at the Constitutional Convention and called the Constitution "a frail and worthless fabric."

Hamilton's economic concepts were just as troubling. Professor DiLorenzo, in his article "The Founding Father of Crony Capitalism," describes his economic ideas: "It was Hamilton who coined the phrase 'The American System' to describe his economic policy of corporate welfare, protectionist tariffs, central banking, and a large public debt, even though his political descendants, the Whig Party of Henry Clay, popularized the slogan. He was not well schooled in the economics of his day."

Professor DiLorenzo shows the connection between Hamilton's "American System" and the Whig Party of Henry Clay. The Whig Party base fractured, and eventually the party failed. It was replaced by the Republican Party. The name was changed, but the philosophy didn't.

In part two of "The myth of a limited-government Republican Party," I will expose the greatest myth in American history. It has proven to be one of the most dangerous to liberty.

Phil Pepin
Host of Pursuit Of Freedom
Natural News Radio Wednesdays 12pm EST
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