What If November Changes Nothing?
What If November Changes Nothing?
by
Andrew P. Napolitano
Recently
by Andrew P. Napolitano: Abortion
and Rape
What if the
principal parties’ candidates for president really agree more than
they disagree?
What if they
both support the authority of the federal government to spy on Americans
without search warrants? What if they both support confining foreigners,
uncharged and untried, in Guantanamo Bay? What if they both believe
the president can arrest without charge and confine without trial
any American he hates or fears?
What if they
both believe in secret courts – kept away from the public and the
press – that can take away the rights of Americans? What if they
both think the president can disregard the Constitution when it
comes to the rights of those the government has confined to speedy
trials, to confront witnesses and evidence against them, and to
counsel of their choosing? What if they both believe the government
can use evidence obtained under torture at trials in American courts?
What if they both think the president can incarcerate those he once
prosecuted, even after acquittal?
What if both
major presidential candidates believe they can fight any war, assassinate
any foe or assault any country using the military or the CIA, and
they need not ask Congress for a declaration of war as the Constitution
requires, nor account to Congress or the public as the law requires?
What if they both want American troops to remain in Afghanistan,
even though no foreign country in history has successfully done
so, and even though the culture in Afghanistan is as lawless, as
vicious to women and children, and as harmless to America today
as it was when President Bush invaded it in 2001?
What if they
both think this costly and fruitless war – the longest in American
history – is somehow good for American freedom and security, even
though most Americans do not? What if they both refuse to understand
that the longer we are killing people in foreign lands who can cause
us no real harm the more likely will people from those lands come
here and bring us real harm?
What if they
both believe in adding to the government’s $16 trillion debt and
letting future generations deal with paying it back? What if they
both want to have the feds spend more money next year than the feds
are spending this year? What if they both accept FDR- and LBJ-style
entitlements, even though they are nowhere authorized by the Constitution
and there are not enough present-day workers to tax in order to
pay for them?
What if President
Obama wants to raise taxes by increasing some tax rates on the rich?
What if Gov. Romney wants to raise taxes by eliminating some tax
deductions available to the rich? What if raising taxes on anyone
in a recession will cause higher unemployment?
What if they
both believe in borrowing newly printed money from the Federal Reserve
in order to fund the government? What if Obama is of the view that
the federal government can tell you how to live and keep you from
becoming too rich? What if Romney wants to make the same federal
government more effective and efficient at what it does?
What if Obama
is really a Marxist who rejects personal freedom, natural rights
and private property? What if Romney is really an empty suit who
doesn’t know or won’t say what he believes? What if Obama really
wants all health care providers to work for the federal government?
What if Romney spent the entire presidential primary season condemning
Obamacare, only to say this past weekend that there are parts of
it he really likes and will endeavor to retain?
What if Obama
wants federal bureaucrats to ration health care and decide who lives
and who dies? What if Romney spent the entire presidential primary
season running against conservative and libertarian opponents and
arguing that only the free market or the states should address health
care, but earlier this week accepted a major federal role in its
management?
What if Obama
will have the feds tell you what doctor to see and tell the doctor
what procedures to administer? What if Romney consistently blasted
the concept that Congress can constitutionally force you to buy
health care coverage you don’t want to buy, but now accepts the
concept that Congress can constitutionally force insurance companies
to sell you health care coverage they don’t want to sell?
What if the
system is fixed? What do we do about it?
Reprinted
with the author’s permission.
September 13, 2012
Andrew P.
Napolitano [send
him mail], a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey,
is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano
has written six books on the U.S. Constitution. The most recent
is It
Is Dangerous To Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case
for Personal Freedom. To find out more about Judge Napolitano
and to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists,
visit creators.com.
Copyright
© 2012 Andrew P. Napolitano