By the People: rebuilding liberty without permission - Charles Murray

An intriguing recently (05/15/15) published book by Charles Murray should have its title tweaked to By the Wealthy.  Because that's what he clearly means.  "The people" usually denotes the general citizenry.  Mr. Murray has little to no faith in such hoi polloi.  

But he sees hope for our nation's salvation - “The emergence of many billion-dollar-plus private fortunes over the last three decades has enabled the private sector to take on ambitious national or even international tasks that formerly could be done only by nation-states.” 

Mr. Murray sees this as a great opportunity to restore sane governance to the USA.  All that's needed to fix our broken system is for just one mega wealthy patriotic American to "care enough to contribute, say, a few milion dollars" to a legal defense fund that could then tie up in endless, costly law suits the current laws & regulations that are keeping our country from its birthright of capitalist democratic glory.  Murray, one of Jeb Bush's favorite authors, rallies conservatives to declare "limited resistance to the existing government,” which he believes has lost any legitimacy. 

All we need is for a plutocrat white knight to ride to our rescue & we can bid farwell to those profit-killing, freedom-destroying regulatory hob goblins commonly known as the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (my business owner father considered OSHA a 4-letter word), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission & Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  Aka the agencies responsible for worker safety, for fair hiring & employment practices and protecting the environment.  My guess is he considers the recent Wyoming law making it illegal to obtain evidence of environmental calamities is a key step to restoring governing as the Founders had intended.

As a Washington Post review describes,  Mr. Murray believes that "A Republican president and GOP congressional majorities would not set things right. The system is too ingrained, and besides, Murray admits, Republicans are no better than Democrats at constraining government or upholding individual liberties. (This is not an anti-Obama book; Murray sees the current president as symptom, not cause.) Tired of waiting for America to do the right thing, he wants it to do the wrong thing in service of a righteous cause."

Doesn't that sort of define coup?

Now, that sounds more like a Shel Adelson or David Koch stepping forward rather than an uprising of the electorate.  What does Gov. Bush think about his favorite author advocating flat-out oligarchy over democracy?  

  

As a historian, am fascinated by Mr. Murray’s fixating on James Madison’s view of the Constitution – one far more restricted than the majority of the rest of the Founders.  And he is correct in thinking that if Madison’s views had prevailed, we wouldn’t be saddled with things like the EPA, or for that matter, Social Security & Medicare.  

  

But the Constitution, for good or ill, does reflect a more expansive reading.  He’s correct in writing,  “[i]f we could restore limited government as Madison understood it, all of our agendas would be largely fulfilled.” What he ignores is that Madison’s understanding is not embedded in the Constitution.  

 

  

What would James Madison think about having a legal defense fund dedicated to thwarting (while falling short of overthrowing) the government named about himself?  Would he applaud Mr. Murray or shrink in horror?

It should be remembered that while Congressman Madison fought against the creation of the First Bank of the United States (it went completely against his principles & view of good governance), President Madison didn’t veto the federal law creating a Second Bank.  Wait – he not only signed the law, he supported it.

 

Another howler in the book is how a staunch conservative – a party 100% behind litigation reform – would use law suits to hamstring the government’s ability to enforce regulations & laws that the funding white knights deem just awful while leaving unharassed those they like. 

As an historian with radical centrist leanings, am unsure if I’m bemused or horrified at how Mr. Murray reveals his utter lack of faith in the American people, in the House & Senate (both controlled by the GOP), in the Supreme Court.  He places all his faith in the wisdom of one, several or a small circle of unimaginably wealthy men & women using their riches to make right what he considers all wrong with our current federal government.

And this is the author Jeb Bush claims helped shaped his thinking.  Amazing.