FEDERALIST PAPERS REDUX:

The Real Threats to National Security: a Manifesto

It remains my conclusion, that under our present political system (as in 1776 and 1787), this can only be accomplished by We the People working through the leadership of our State governments.

Joseph J. Romm, in his 1993 book Defining National Security--The Nonmilitary Aspects, defines "an adequate definition of National Security in the post-Cold War era":

"A threat to National Security is whatever threatens to significantly (1) degrade the quality of life of the people, or (2) narrow the range of policy choices available to their government."

1. Government of the People, by the People, and for the People, has been displaced by a money- and power-driven, failed, two-party system.

2. The internal organization and procedures of the Congress establish and keep in place the failed two-party system rather than preserving true democracy and pursuing the objectives in the Preamble to the Constitution.

3. The Judiciary fails to limit its role to judgment only. It, in effect, legislates laws and amends the Constitution, in contradiction of assurances given in the Federalist Papers in 1787-8.

4. The Checks and Balances among our three federal branches, and the States, are by-passed and neglected, and are used as excuses for lack of performance.

5. Continuation of the "spoils" system of nominations and confirmations of Justices and Judges, cabinet secretaries and other executive branch appointments, ambassadors and other foreign service officials, preclude the selection and retention of the best qualified candidates to effect our National Security.

6. The presidential nominees and their parties select the vice presidential nominees based on their potential value in elections, rather than their qualifications and ethics to perform effectively at the right hand of the President, and to readily succeed the President in case of his death or incapacity. The power-wielding Chief of Staff position is vested in a non-elected person, rather than the Vice President.

7. The internal procedures of the Supreme Court, and its existence as a single panel, (1) makes it vulnerable to biased and manipulated decisions, and (2) limits the number of cases that it can handle each year, thereby precluding the assurance of timely justice.

1. Our Supreme Court has fostered and condoned immorality by inventing and, in effect, legislating rights and privacies that are at odds with the general welfare.

2. Our nation has advanced little in 214 years in insuring worthy qualifications of our members of Congress, and in punishing their "disorderly behavior," to the extent of inhibiting recurrence.

3. The Congress continues to neglect its duties, to establish the criteria for, and carry through impeachment of, Presidents whose conduct constitute "other high crimes and misdemeanors."

4. Wholesale slaughter continues of developing human beings in the womb, with in vitro fertilizations, and now by stem cell research. The Presidents, the Congresses, and the States continue to fail in their duties to correct this judicial error. As required by the Constitution, only We the People through the Amendment process can define "person" (i.e., when life begins).

1. The executive and legislative branches have bankrupted our nation, and have laid the burden of emerging from insolvency on future generations.

2. The ability of the nation to cope with economic recessions or depressions, or other severe national emergencies, is compromised or foreclosed by the over 6 trillion national debt. This is compounded, to an even greater extent, by actual or implied federal obligations that would devolve onto the national government, coincident with its limited ability to maintain or increase tax receipts.

3. Over the 215 years of our Constitution-based history, our federal government has drifted ever further into omnipotence in its appropriations and taxation powers at the expense of property rights and justice for all.

4. In its omnipotence, the government has failed to establish within the law the just definitions of whose (individuals and families, employers, or government) responsibilities it is to provide which protections and which benefits.

5. The nation has failed to establish corporation management structures that properly balance the welfare of the various contributors to business success and longevity. These include executives, shareholders, employees, lenders, communities, and the several levels of government.

6. The terrorism acts of 9/11/2001, and the government reactions thereto, demonstrated again the lack of a consistent and equitable policy for disaster relief.

7. There are continuing economic wars among the States (and among cities within States), that cause injustice in taxes and appropriations at the expense of the general welfare.

1. Government has permitted and fostered the freedoms of speech and the press to be extended, by the entertainment and communications industries, to the degradation of individuals and families.

2. Government has placed so great an emphasis on non-"establishment of religion", that it in effect prohibits "the free exercise thereof."

3. Notwithstanding the $26 billion education bill enacted by the 107th Congress and former President Clinton, the nation continues to fail to face up to the necessity for a complete overhaul of our education system.

4. The nation continues to inadequately face up to the National Security effects of various health hazards. These include abortion, euthanasia, suicide, sexual mores, public nudity and pornography, divorce, drug and alcohol abuse, gun discipline and controls, gangs, motor vehicle driving competence, tobacco, et al.

5. Failure to achieve adequate universal health care continues to degrade the quality of life of our people, and to limit the policy choices for the use of government revenues.

6. Litigation, the threat of litigation, and settlements out of court, are a horrendous drag on our general welfare.

7. The nation fails to set a steady course to eliminate and preclude poverty and its consequences.

1. Since the end of the Cold War (and often in our history), our nation fails to meet Publius (John Jay in the Federalist Papers of 1787-8) conditions that would cause foreign nations to "be much more disposed to cultivate our friendship than to provoke our resentment".

2. The nation continues the failure of the League of Nations, of the limited successes through the United Nations, and of the over reliance on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to achieve peace, security and welfare for all nations throughout the world. In 2003, this has resulted in our nation threatening to "go-it-alone" by war against nations who are responsible for, or aid and abet, "terrorism" and/or the "proliferation of weapons of mass destruction". In March and April 2003, the United States and a number of "coalition" nations successfully waged war in Iraq, without the full backing of the United Nations nor NATO. The roles, in the maintenance of peace and welfare throughout the world, after the end of the continuing conflict in Iraq, of the United States, other coalition nations, NATO, and the United Nations, is yet to be determined.

   Within weeks of our "victory" in Iraq, it was evident that we had gotten in a "quagmire". Belatedly, questions are being asked as to why we had gone to war. Although some would deny the "parallel", it might be said that the nation had experienced its second Congressional "Tonkin Gulf" resolution. It appears that the reasons were not clearly enunciated, nor adequately explored by Congress. The President, and the Congress, did not sufficiently consider where the war would lead us, particularly when we lacked the support of much of the rest of the world.

   "It is high time that the War Powers Resolution of 1973 be revisited. The Congress (Republicans and Democrats) must insist on its responsibility to 'To declare war,' under Article I Sect. 8 of the Constitution, whenever the United States is to conduct war against another nation (or entity)."

   In its history, our nation has conducted over 200 military actions against other nations, with only five Congressional declarations of war. It is high time that the "War Powers Resolution of 1973" be revisited. The Congress (Republicans and Democrats) must insist on its responsibility to "To declare war", under Article I Sect. 8 of the Constitution, whenever the United States is to conduct war against another nation (or entity), beyond "immediate" "defensive" "sorties" deemed necessary by the Commander in Chief, that cannot await thorough examination and deliberation by the Congress. Any declaration of war should clearly communicate the reasons why our nation must exercise this "last resort", and what conditions will constitute the ending of the war, to the citizens of our nation, to the people of our adversary, to potential supporting nations, and to the United Nations.

3. The nation continues to fail to establish firm and long term foreign and domestic policies with respect to immigration.