On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Jim Choate wrote:
Forwarded message:
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 08:53:44 -0800 From: Michael Motyka <mmotyka@lsil.com> Subject: Re: CLT&G Update: 29 Dec 98
The entire point of a consitutional democracy is to avoid >centralization.
That would be a valid point if we were living in that arrangement. I like to be a little more specifc. We are living in a democratically elected reprentative constitutional republic. The point of that constitution is to shackle the tendancy of a bureaucracy from assuming authority over matters never assigned to it and using its enforcement powers to assure it. Eventually the people, wallowing in ignorance, forget the infraction and the bureacracy assumes de facto control. More eloquently stated: "Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go... In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." --Thomas Jefferson: Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. ME 17:388 jim