Time to End Legal Plunder
Based on Frederic Bastiat Definition of Legal Plunder
by JoAnn Fleming
Frederic Bastiat |
The rise of the constitutional conservative movement confounds pundits and status-quo defenders in both parties. Some predict we'll disappear once the economy improves. Others wrongly define the movement as a mere reaction to the Obama Presidency or as a temper tantrum by Caucasian-only seniors and baby boomers.
Fiercely devoted to country, liberty, and to those who defend it, the movement believes citizens should strive to protect the foundations of liberty from all enemies – both foreign and domestic. This conviction compels citizens from all walks of life to study our nation’s founding documents and the first principles which served as the underpinnings of Liberty.
A deeper understanding of these principles is shaping the movement; thus, a battle looms between constitutional conservatives and those accustomed to advancing projects through “legal plunder.” Since some Republicans favor this approach as much as any Democrat, the battle will be intense.
Frederic Bastiat, a political economist (1801-1850), defined legal plunder as when “…the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong.” He advised such a law be abolished without delay, for if allowed to remain, it would “spread, multiply, and develop into a system.”
Our established system of legal plunder sometimes champions noble causes, but whether in the form of subsidies, earmarks, or legislation serving “regional/local interests,” legal plunder is an attack on Liberty. By chains of debt and government dependence, it steals tomorrow’s freedom and opportunity.
With $14 trillion in federal debt, growing state debt, a state budget shortfall from $16 to $27 billion, and increasing local property taxes, we cannot afford officials who game the system to advance local/regional interests beyond basic protections of life, liberty, and property and constitution-defined duty. The People must assume responsibility and dismantle the system of legal plunder.
JoAnn Fleming
Volunteer Executive Director, Grassroots America – We the People
903-360-2858
Grassroots America - We the People is a non-profit, non-partisan constitutional conservative group of citizens whose mission is to encourage personal responsibility, good citizenship, defense of traditional family values, and a return to the U. S. Constitution and the Judeo-Christian Principles of the Founding Fathers.
GAWTP sponsors training on America's Founding Principles and Documents, the Constitution, Free Market Economic Principles, Monetary Policy, Government 101, and A Citizen's Guide to Open Government. GAWTP sponsors conservative activist and candidate training and local government watchdog committees in active support of constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free market economic principles.
Comment
Tea Party Articles Directory