1 Great Divides

by Michael S. Rozeff

The heated debate over a presidential address to schoolchildren is a symptom of the great divides
among Americans of good will.

Good will, however, cannot bridge these great divides. There are two basic reasons. First, the
differences among Americans are too firmly entrenched. Persuasion, education, smoothing over
differences, compromises, and reconciliation are all, in my opinion, not about to alter the firmly-
held positions that divide people. Second, the American form of government has been drastically
changed since 1861, and it does not provide a system within which such compromises and
reconciliations are feasible. The system now runs toward its own maintenance and enlargement,
and that will never satisfy the very many Americans who want various changes. These tendencies
cannot be altered without altering those fundamental changes that brought it about in the first
place, and that is not politically feasible.

In short, there is too much water under the dam.

There really is no one or single "We the People." The political system is holding together, but
beneath the surface lie great divides. They suggest instability and an eventual major
discontinuity. In plain English, the U.S.A. is going to undergo a major restructuring or else break
up. There is lots of handwriting on the wall.

But before it breaks up, it has to reach the breaking point. The water has to be heated up before it
boils and changes to steam. The temperature is rising. Maybe it’s 180°F. It’s headed for 212°F.

Having expressed my pessimism concerning the reform and retention of the existing system,
allow me to back up and mention what I see as the major possible directions.

The first one I’ve already mentioned. Continuation of the existing system is continuation of
movement toward totalitarianism. The other three directions are return to the original
Constitution, dissolving the Constitution altogether, and implementing key changes that restore
the most important elements in the Constitution so as to generate a dynamic that leads to further
restoration.

Lysander Spooner’s arguments show that the Constitution does not legitimate the U.S.
government. But even to the extent that the U.S. Constitution might express some sound
principles of limited government, the U.S. has deviated constitutionally against that standard,
which means it has deviated legally. Although the Constitution has severe defects and can be said
to have failed us, we have failed it too. We Americans are encountering severe problems –
retrogressing in important ways – because we are not governing ourselves properly. There are
several ways to get back on course, of which one is getting back to the Constitution or restoration
of the original Constitution. That option requires bringing about important and basic changes in
thought and action. We’d have to change our ways. We’d have to take charge of our government.
We’d have to build a republic. We’d have to alter radically our foreign policies. We’d have to
stop military offensives and shift to defense. We’d have to rebuild militia and make it an integral
component of government. We’d have to end the welfare state. We’d have to create a proper
money and monetary system. We’d have to end a great many interferences in commerce.
Congress would have to impeach Supreme Court justices. And all of these kinds of changes
would require that we change attitudes, beliefs, and underlying philosophies. We’d have to throw
off decades of mis-education and replace it with sound thinking, principles, and ideas.

This menu is such a tall order that I believe it to be highly improbable. Nevertheless, it is not
impossible. If the political pressure from below gets large enough or if events such as financial
failure begin to shape reality, the situation can change dramatically. If the Soviet Union can shift
from being a communist dictatorship to a federal republic, why can’t the U.S. likewise shift? If
the U.S. government is forced into such desperate measures as appropriating savings from 401k
plans, then maybe We the People will re-unite in protest and apply enough pressure to the 50
states that they greatly cut back the powers of the U.S. and bring about a federal republic shorn
of international empire and vastly reduced in its domestic empire.

Getting back to the Constitution requires such fundamental changes in the status quo that they
may never be brought about. We the American People may be so insurmountably divided, as I
have mentioned, that we are no longer able to account ourselves as one people and govern
ourselves by the original Constitution. If that is the case, then another option is to dissolve the
Constitution. The individual states acting together can legally do this. Americans can do this by
ignoring federal laws. Cities and counties could ignore federal mandates and rulings. Businesses
could ignore regulations. Americans can create a more fluid social and political situation in
which a number of peoples can re-constitute themselves. We could follow out the principles of
the Declaration of Independence and aim at a more radical degree of freedom of association in
which every person is free to choose his or her own government.

The last direction is to look for other viable and vital options to alter the situation. If the key
levers being used by state and empire to rule us can be politically disabled and thwarted, then the
nature of government can be altered. There are those Americans who are focusing on the state’s
financing via the banking system. They urge us to change the monetary system. Others urge that
we amend the Constitution to stem government taxation, borrowing, and spending. Others urge
us to revitalize the Militia within individual states for any number of purposes, the most general
one being, in the words of the Constitution, that “A well regulated Militia [is] necessary to the
security of a free State.”Yet others urge us to replace public with private education.

This direction of action is bound to meet with determined resistance at every turn. I am
pessimistic that it can succeed at its goals. But one can never say never in such matters, and so I
recommend the following.

Those who want to alter America’s course in these specific ways and who are currently trying to
implement these and other options as individuals and through individual organizations and
parties can form a coalition, a nation-wide movement to reconstitute America’s national
(commonly called federal) government. They can convene. They can find a means of broad-
based communications and financing so as fully to engage grass-roots America. They can, after
due consideration, state principles of action. They can select a few, probably no more than four
or five, directions to support, such as instituting a proper monetary system, revitalizing the
Militia, electing state legislators in key states, key constitutional amendments, and private
education. Such a coalition might, in my opinion, stand a better chance of success than disparate
movements.

If the U.S., as state and empire, is not brought under control by these alternative directions, it
will either break up or undergo a major phase shift. Failure of its financing is likely, and that may
be combined with its becoming more and more totalitarian. These kinds of things will lead to its
demise.