The Progressive Rejection of the Constitution

The only thing more difficult than starting something new is stopping something old, Russell Ackoff

The Claim

The cornerstone of Progressivism¹ has as its baseline an idea that violates any definition of a “System,” and its execution has violated the Constitution with its existence, the “Administrative,” 4th Branch of government.

Why does understanding the meaning behind the word “System” important? We have gotten so used to the idea of the word system, we do not think of it as a discipline. However, as Einstein said, “we cannot solve the problems created by current patterns of thought using current patterns of thought.” Today, we are living the consequences of actions that happened 100 years ago with Woodrow Wilson because of political ignorance about how “systems” work and the consequences of the slow process of the “paradox of the boiling frog.”

This is an effort to change the current “Patterns” of thought.

Historical Basis for the Writing of the Constitution

When “The Framers” created our Constitutional System of Government, they all had experienced life under the “Articles of Confederation” (1776–1783).

Though it had yielded to the unification of the colonies, they saw many shortcomings locally and nationally.

Nationally, after throwing out a “Centralized “ despotic government on which they had no say, they elected to create a loose union in the Articles of Confederation.

They created the exact opposite of what they had been through. Most of the power resided with the States (no longer Colonies of England) thus, the country was ruled by State Governments and State Constitutions. The thirteen states employed a pure form of “majority rule” during the elections.

In general, the states created governments with very weak Executives and very powerful Legislature.

States held legislative elections often therefore, they were very dependent on a changing majority opinion.

Further, the Country was left in major debt after the War of Independence. This created inflation. This combination of events created legislatures that were very reactive and responsive to changes in public opinion. This yielded the enacting of, “poorly considered laws” that served the loudest and richest constituents.

For example, paper money laws, allowed the debtor to change the value of paper money to facilitate paying debts. This created a natural insensitivity to individual rights. The “paper money laws” gave debtors, short-term economic relief which also means, long-term ruin for the state rich and poor. Thus proving that we cannot print our way out of economic trouble.

In 1787 James Madison wrote an essay listing the eleven vices of government, seven of which were state vices. Today, the Federal Government is giving us a very reminiscent example of this at the National level.

• It has a very strong Legislative body, backed up by 2.5 Million Civil Servants in the Administrative State (at minimum, nobody knows the exact number).
• A very weak Executive, Trumps’ Presidency’s manipulation by Congress proved it. Unethically but they made it possible.
• A Supreme Court that is scared of its own shadow and finds reasons to pass laws not otherwise legal under the “Original” Constitution.

Based on the observation made by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and, John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers which became the basis of the Constitution. The Major ones are

• 1. The States governments need to have a Union;
• 2. the new structure requires separation of powers;
• 3. the power exercised by the various parts must have checks and balances (thus rules of engagement).

The Change

With these changes our founders created a “System of Government,” the structure is shown in the figure below.

These are “The Essential Parts” of our System of Government.

In a system ALL parts are related, each has a function to serve the goal of the system.

• The Declaration of Independence. It declares our reason for being. “our” being the people. Without distinction, title, or worth. It is the ruling Moral document of the land.
• The Constitution is the Law of the Land. It is the legislative document that names all the parts of the system and how it is to work.
• The People are sovereign and enable the system. Without the people, the system is invalid and without control.

They are “Essential” because One without the other would not have existed

There is only one moral law of the Land. This makes the institutionalized “moral laws” written into regulations by the “central government institutions” illegal.

Congress is constrained by the Constitution. This forces Congress to think through very carefully ANY law they want to enact. It takes time and purpose because the LAW has to work for everybody.

Further, “The People” have the ultimate responsibility to ENACT a government that DOES follow the Constitution. This makes the people responsible for ALL governments we have had to date, regardless of ideology.

On the other hand, this makes us accomplices of ANY government ruling today. This means if the government is unethical, and WE don’t demand a better government, not only do WE deserve what we get, we are unethical as well. There is no excuse for this, for example:

• There is no blaming “Corporations” for their unethical behavior. We have “allowed” congress to have “Lobbyists.” the most POWERFUL” form of unethical behavior there is — “Temptation.” What “wolf” is being fed at the National level?
• There is no blaming “The President” — WE (according to the Constitution) voted them in. WE, ned to take responsibility.
• This makes ALL the fingers for the government point to us, the people.
• We are the drivers of this car. We are the ultimate control of the “car” called “the Government.”

One observation that can not escape from observation is that the collective of people is voting for people that WE think are better than us. What does that make us?

The Government System Needs to Be Understood By All

It is rather imperative that in this day and age “systems” are studied and understood by everybody, the People, Politicians, Historians, Economists, and other bodies of knowledge beyond system Engineers.

It is a powerful way to describe how links connect and who does what and for whom, how they interact. This is essential for social systems if they are going to work.

It is much easier to see the connections between a system and its structure when you think of a car. A car is a system, without the parts that make the car, the car cannot fulfill its purpose. Its purpose is the transportation of people and things.

It is harder to see in a “Social System” but the same rules apply.

The Root Cause of Problems Can be Found when we Define The System

System thinking involves moving from observing data from events to identifying patterns of behavior over time.

• This type of thinking will surface the underlying structure that creates those problems and reimagines more satisfying, long-term solutions to chronic problems.
• The new complexity of our social problems can only be solved if we work together and not like we used to — as silos of knowledge.

Russell Ackoff was probably the greatest and clearest system thinker of the 20th century. He defined and established all the terms I am using.

Analysis reveals structure and yields “how it works,” knowledge; Synthesis reveals understanding. “Why it works” the way it does.

Synthesis in our case is an understanding of the Constitution and the fact that it is the Law that rules Congress, not us, the people. They do not have the right to change it without an amendment for us to approve, any more than we have the right to change our laws without going through the legislative process.

System thinking is the fusion of analysis and synthesis. Depending on whether our objective is knowledge or understanding.

This thinking tells us that every Law is constrained within the environment in which it applies.

• For example, the car system behaves the same every day on earth unless it has a failure. We, the control, then take the car to get it “fixed.” We fix “how” it works by analysis.
• If we take the car to Mars, it won’t work, it is not designed for that environment. we can check all we want about “how” it works and it is perfect. So we ask “why” it does not work? We have to look at a higher system, the environment the car is in, and find out, it is not the environment it was designed for.
• By the same token, the Progressive addition of the “Administrative Government, 4th Branch, et al,” changed the “environment” our government operates in today. This “NEW” environment took control away from us. You could say, we became “excess baggage.”

Quick Review of Our System and the Change

The System As defined by the Founders

This is the System our founders created and we all understand it. The basis enabling its operation is “the people.” This is what Peter Senge calls, “our web of interdependence.

The Founders defined the Constitution as a system. With three parts and their rules of engagement. Everything inside the RED area is “The System.”

When Woodrow Wilson decided to embellish what he wrongly thought was, the “structure of government” (like adding another engine to your car to make it more “efficient”), he violated the basic rules of a system. The result of which, after 100 years of manipulation, has turned into a free for all as far as laws and regulations today.

• This Change + Time = ALL GOVERNMENTS ARE PROGRESSIVE TODAY.

The CHANGE — Woodrow Wilsons’ creation and eventual operation today.

Once upon a time, Woodrow Wilson said, “The Constitution was not made to fit us like a straitjacket. In its elasticity lies its chief greatness.” This demonstrates his poor understanding of what a “System” is.

We Need To Rethink What We Are Doing and Take Responsibility

Based on the Understanding that Our Government is RULED by the Constitution. We need to assert ourselves and take control of our government.

We Have Legitimate grievances!

We can go back to our Moral Law, the “Declaration of Independence” and say about OUR GOVERNMENT, and refer to them as “They,” as our founders said of the King back then:

• They have refused to pass Laws for the accommodation of their people unless those people would relinquish their right to representation….a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. We now live under the rule of the 4th branch of government.
• They have called together legislative bodies at places unusual (in the 4th branch), uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
• They have endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners….
• They have made Judges dependent on THEIR Will alone, tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries, through the “Confirmation Process.”
• They have erected a multitude of New Offices (now, The 4th Branch, more than 2.8 Million to rule us)
• They have combined with others (the 4th Branch) to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving their Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: • Secret Courts for the harassment of peaceful Citizens • For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury • For protecting them (FBI, CIA, Surveillance bodies), from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States • For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent (while they spend money beyond our means) • For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Government • They have plundered our Treasury, ravaged our Costs, burnt our pocketbooks, and destroyed the lives of our people (today and future generations).
• In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned (via letters to my representatives) for Redress in the most humble terms: Our (my) repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

These Grievances, though a repetition of the words in our “DOI” are real to us today. I do not know who said, “wait long enough and history repeats itself, however, as you read the DOI and see the parallels written above, it sure feels that way.

it is clear our “System” of government has been totally disconnected from us, and has rendered the people totally ineffective, subservient, and turned us against each other.

The question for all of us, “We The People” is, “What are we here for?” The government is not our parents, they are not there to feed us and make us “comfortable.” What are we here for?

Nothing will change in the next 100 years unless WE do something about it, or, somebody else does it for us.

The Progressives have successfully installed a “New and changing appendage to our System” with total authority in this nation, independent of the people. This an authority like the Mexican PRI (the Institutional Revolutionary Party) was. It stayed in power for over 70 years.

One last thought, Woodrow Wilson also said, “The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy” (Date unknown). Today, we are way past that with the surge of Congress feeding itself with “lobbyists” with the help of the new giants, Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Amazon. Sad to say BOTH parties have big bites of all that RICH low-hanging fruit. So, Woodrow Wilson, instead of getting Congress to “Regulate Business,” added another layer of bureaucracy to do it more “efficiently.”

The Lincoln government of the Constitutional Rule “of the people, for the people, and by the people,” is no longer.

We are back where we started from (the Articles of the Confederacy), except this time it is not the States that rule, it is the GIANT Progressive Federal Government.

We The People

Have two choices, we are either

• A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.” Mahatma Gandhi

OR

• A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.” Marcus Garvey

One will lead us back to the Constitution, the other will keep us where we are, as people in ancient Egypt, wandering the desert of ignorance, looking for a savior.

People are making choices, whether they like it or not.

The choices are clear. We lead. We follow. or, we get the hell out of the way!

Footnotes:

1. The word “Progressivism” in the article asserts both parties, Democrats, and Republicans are Progressive.