Outflanking the Kakistocracy

But are We the People themselves to any worthwhile degree in charge of protecting “the continuity of government”? No. NSPD-51 mandates that We the People are to be subject to the President’s “guidance”—or, more realistically, to the “guidance” of those bureaucrats and other nameless, faceless, conscienceless operatives the President appoints to carry out his “directives,” “executive orders,” “proclamations,” and other ukases. Which means that, when the “[c]atastrophic emergency” the Establishment is obviously expecting finally occurs, We the People are likely to lose every vestige of control over their own government, as that government is transmogrified before their very eyes into an hydrocephalic monster.

C. So, what is the solution? To require that plans for maintaining “the continuity of government” must build, not upon the ever-shifting political sands of the Leader Principle, but instead upon the same constitutionally firm foundations as have supported the General Government from the beginning.

These foundations certainly do include a central role for the President. The Constitution requires that the President “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Article II, Section 3.

To enable him to fulfill this duty, the Constitution appoints the President as “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into actual Service of the United States.” Article II, Section 2, Clause 1. And to make effective the President’s authority in that particular, the Constitution mandates that Congress “provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions,” whenever “necessary and proper.” Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 18.

As far as maintaining “the continuity of government” goes, however, Americans need not worry about the readiness of “the Army and the Navy of the United States.” Doubtlessly, the Pentagon has already drafted multiple contingency plans for all conceivable —and many inconceivable—emergencies. Moreover, prudent patriots will want to minimize the participation of the Armed Forces in the process. For true “continuity of government” will be ill-served by anything that smacks of “martial law.”

Therefore, America’s plans for maintaining “the continuity of government” must look, first and foremost, to “the Militia of the several States.” And rightly so. For, self-evidently, a critically important component of what the Second Amendment calls “the security of a free State” must be “the continuity of government.” But the Second Amendment teaches that “[a] well regulated Militia,” based upon “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,” is “necessary to the security of a free State.” Consequentially, such a Militia must be necessary to “the continuity of government.”

“[T]he Militia of the several States” are the only institutions to which the Constitution explicitly assigns the responsibilities “to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” Article I, Section 8, Clause 15. This is because the Constitution recognizes only “[a] well regulated Militia” as being “necessary to the security of a free State.” And that is because We the People knew in the late 1700s, and ought to know now, that “the Militia of several States” are the only governmental institutions We the People can completely trust—inasmuch as they are the only governmental institutions that completely identify with the people through being composed of the people.

To be sure, for purposes of obtaining uniformity where it is “necessary and proper,” the Constitution empowers Congress “[t]o provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States.” Article I, Section 8, Clauses 16 and 18. Nonetheless, whatever Congress does or fails to do, the Militia remain permanent constitutional institutions, each part of its own State government, to be organized and deployed on a Local basis from among all able-bodied Americans from 16 to 60 years of age.

Moreover, “the Militia of the several States” are not, and can never be, part of “the Army and Navy of the United States.” This is obvious, not only from the dual role of the President as “Commander in Chief” of both “the Army and Navy of the United States” and “the Militia of the several States,” but also from the separate and distinct powers of Congress with respect to these entities. Compare Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 with Article I, Section 8, Clauses 12 through 16.

So, by employing “the Militia of the several States” to preserve “the continuity of government,” Americans can rely upon:

• • the true source of sovereignty—We the People;
  • both the separation and the cooperation of powers among the States, Congress, and the President, under constitutional standards — federalism;
  • control over and participation in operations from the bottom up—the subsidiarity and decentralization necessary for rational economic calculation;
  • avoidance of entanglements with “martial law;” and
  • the Constitution’s assurance that their course of action is not simply expedient but is “necessary to the security of a free State.”

In addition, reliance on “the Militia of the several States” would guarantee a real, permanent “continuity of government” in actual practice— because the Militia in all fifty States are not subject to being entirely knocked out by any conceivable attack or natural disaster (short of an epidemic that eradicated most of the human race).

Finally, if Americans turn to “the Militia of the several States” before a “[c]atastrophic emergency” occurs, they can rest assured that actual “continuity of government” will be maintained, not only in form, but also in substance. Because of the Militia’s identity with We the People, no plan for maintaining “the continuity of government” that involves the Militia can possibly operate as a mere cover for the organization and deployment of a National police- state apparatus, let alone for the elaboration of a full- blown Fuhrer state. For with the Militia in the process, it will be the President’s constitutional duty to employ them, and their constitutional duty and ability to ensure that he does so—in all cases, constitutionally.

The present situation, however, is far from this ideal. Nothing that corresponds to “[a] well regulated Militia” exists in any State of the Union today. To the contrary: Rather than being organized, armed, disciplined, governed, and trained as the Constitution requires, most Americans have been consigned by Congressional and State statutes to the constitutionally oxymoronic “unorganized militia.”

Of course, NSPD-51 does not address revitalization of, let alone reliance on, “the Militia of the several States,” because its authors want to impose “guidance” from the top down, not organize and empower We the People from the bottom up. And apparently no one else in public office within the Disgrace of Columbia—or in any of the States, for that matter— is giving any consideration to what the Constitution tells America is “necessary to the security of a free State.”

What needs to be done at the National level is obvious. If the President wants to issue “directives” that constitutionally address the problem of maintaining “the continuity of government”, he should promulgate one, in his capacity as “Commander in Chief * * * of the Militia of the several States,” that establishes an All-American Militia Commission, consisting of representatives of the Executive Branch, representatives of the Governors of each of the fifty States, and a staff of suitable experts—to meet in the area of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. The Commission’s task should be two-fold—

First, to draft a model State statute for revitalizing the Militia in each State, leaving each of the State’s delegations to: (i) add whatever special provisions may be necessary for their own State’s peculiar situation or needs; and then (ii) adapt the whole to their State’s code of laws.

Second, to draft a model Congressional statute, complementary with the model State statute, that: (i) sets out the “necessary and proper” uniform National standards for organizing, arming, disciplining, governing, and training the Militia; and (ii) delineates the Militia’s role in the General Government’s programs of “homeland security” and “the continuity of government,” when “employed in the actual Service of the United States.”

The Congressional bill should also provide for fifty Militia Aides de Camp and one Commandant of the Corps of Militia Aides de Camp to be appointed by the President to serve as his liaisons to each of “the Militia of the several States.” These Aides de Camp would be experts in “homeland security” and “the continuity of government” who would transfer the President’s orders to the States’ Militias, see that those orders are carried out, and otherwise observe, report, advise, and assist in whatever ways might prove necessary, proper, and expedient.

The President and the Governors would then use their best offices to see these bills enacted into law in Congress and the several States’ legislatures without delay.

If begun now, and with sufficient expenditure of effort—especially in the form of political pressure applied by the President and the Governors—this project might be completed before 2009. Should that happen, it would constitute a positive legacy of the Bush Administration that all patriotic Americans would applaud.

On the other hand, if a Presidential candidate included this proposal as a major plank in his (or her) platform for the 2008 election, it would surely garner widespread support—although perhaps only Representative Ron Paul would be believable as an advocate for revitalizing the Militia.

Notwithstanding that convening an All-American Militia Commission would constitute perhaps the most straightforward, the simplest, and the constitutionally safest way to preserve “the continuity of government” while simultaneously avoiding a Fuhrer state, even I doubt that my recommendation will become an issue in the National forum, let alone actually be adopted by the incumbent President or promoted by any Presidential candidate. (Of course, if in February of 2009 President Ron Paul appoints me to preside over his All-American Militia Commission, and thereafter to serve as the first Commandant of the Corps of Militia Aides de Camp, I shall not disappoint him.)

Just as with monetary and banking reform, and many other issues critical to America’s survival, the problem with revitalizing “the Militia of the several States” all at once, on a National scale, is that too many of the good people who should be working to implement the Constitution in their own and their country’s interests are ignorant, apathetic, beaten down, tired, and frightened.

To a large degree this is because, day in and day out, they tune in on, believe, and conform their behavior to the self-contradictory, defeatist nonsense that pours from the mouths of media propagandists—rather than investigating, thinking, and acting for themselves. The degenerative process that grips their minds could be styled “intellectual spongification:” They passively absorb the propagandists’ drool to the point of saturation and stultification, apparently unable or unwilling ever to wring themselves out.

On the other hand, certainly not all Americans, and probably not even commanding majorities in each State, suffer from terminal intellectual spongification. Which explains why—although the exercise sometimes resembles an attempt to swim up Niagara Falls in a barrel—I continue to promote revitalization of “the Militia of the several States” by We the People themselves, on a State-by-State basis. If enough Americans can be found in even one State to start the ball rolling, it will prove that an aristocracy of patriots in private life can outflank the kakistocracy in public office.

This strategy is not with precedent. In 1913, attacking the Federal Reserve bill and the Money Power behind it, Representative Charles Lindbergh observed that

[t]he political cowardice existing in this Capitol will prevent adequate reform until the people themselves realize more fully the burden that is placed on them by the interest, dividends, rents, and profits allowed by law, and collected by banks and others who control centralized wealth.

The money power overawes the legislative and executive forces of the Nation and of the States. * * * [T]he people can secure no help from Congress until public sentiment is directed to a specific bill in the people’s interests. There has been a strong sentiment for reform, but it has not been directed to a specific remedy, and, therefore, the Money Trust has taken advantage of the sentiment, and under disguise has put forward its own bill—the bill that is about to become a law. Had the people presented a bill and demanded Congress to pass it, Congress would not dare to pass this bill as a Christmas present to the Money Trust. * * * * *

* * * [T]he greatest prospect for reform is for the people themselves to frame concrete measures and present them to Congress and demand their adoption. If it is left to Congress to draft bills, they will be drafted in the interest of the Money Trust as the present bill has been. The people have much more to gain from their own work than they generally realize. They are paying for all the things that are being done, and they have the opportunity, if they will avail themselves of it, to so organize that they may secure the fruits of their own industry, instead of letting the parasites enjoy it.

How right Lindbergh was! If Americans had taken his advice, this country would not now be facing a monetary and banking crisis of unprecedented proportions. But, as the old adage has it, “We grow too soon old, and too late smart!” Well, maybe not yet “too late”…

Of course, Lindbergh’s recommendation probably no longer holds for the present-day Congress. Congress is too deeply in the clutches of vicious special-interest groups, both domestic and foreign, to turn its attentions to “the common defence” or “the general Welfare” by revitalizing “the Militia of the several States” at We the People’s request. But some of the State legislatures are another matter—for a while at least.

So patriots cannot allow what may prove to be their last fleeting opportunity to go by the boards. If they do, the Fuhrer state waiting in the wings will impress upon them the error of their ways. For part 1 or 2 click below.