Andrew P. Napolitano expresses gratitude for what he considers under governmental assault: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the exercise of free will and human reason.
Turkeys on the White House lawn on Monday, before their ritual presidential pardoning. (White House / Oliver Contreras)
“Government requires make-believe. Make believe that the king is divine, make believe that he can do no wrong or make believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God. Make believe that the people have a voice or make believe that the representatives of the people are the people. Make believe that governors are the servants of the people. Make believe that all men are created equal or make believe that they are not.”
— Edmund S. Morgan (1916-2013)
What if the government’s true goal is to perpetuate its own power? What if the real levers of governmental power are pulled by agents, diplomats, bureaucrats, donors, central bankers and arms manufacturers? What if they have power no matter who is elected president or which political party controls either house of Congress?
What if the frequent public displays of adversity between Republicans and Democrats are just a facade? What if both major political parties agree on the fundamental issues of our day?
What if the leadership of both political parties believes that our rights are not natural to our humanity but instead are gifts from the government? What if those leaders believe the government that gives gifts to the people can take those gifts away?
What if the leadership of both parties gives only lip service to Thomas Jefferson’s assertions in the Declaration of Independence that all persons “are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” and that when the government assaults our natural rights, we can “alter or abolish” it?
What if the leadership of both parties quietly dismisses those ideas as Jefferson’s outdated musings? What if Jefferson’s words are core American values that all in government have sworn to uphold?
What if the leadership of both political parties believes that the constitutional requirement of due process somehow permits mothers to hire doctors to kill babies in their wombs, out of fear or convenience? What if the leadership of both political parties believes that the president may lawfully kill any foreigner out of fear, because due process is an inconvenience?
What if the last four presidents — two from each political party — have used high-tech drones to kill innocent people in foreign lands with which America was not at war and claimed that they did so legally, relying not on a declaration of war from Congress but on erroneous and secret legal arguments that claim American presidents can kill with impunity?
What if the Constitution requires a congressional declaration of war or due process whenever the government wants anyone’s life, liberty or property, whether convenient or not, and whether the person is American or not? What if due process means a fair jury trial, not a secretly ordered killing?
What if most members of Congress from both political parties believe in perpetual war and perpetual debt? What if the political class believes that war is the health of the state? What if the leadership of that class wants war so as to induce the loyalty of its base, open the pocketbooks of the taxpayers, gain the compliance of the voters and enrich its benefactors? What if the government has been paying for war by increasing its debt?
President Joe Biden expressing continued support for the war in Ukraine on Jan. 25, 2023. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on left, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on right. (White House, Cameron Smith)
What if the $36 trillion current federal government debt has been caused by borrowing to pay for wars and false prosperity? What if the federal government collects about $4.4 trillion annually but spends about $6.1 trillion? What if the feds borrow money to pay $1 trillion in interest annually?
What if it is insane to borrow money to pay interest on borrowed money? What if American taxpayers are still paying interest on debts incurred by Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and every post-World War II president?
What if the banks have borrowed the money that they lend? What if they can’t pay it back? What if the stock market was once soaring on money borrowed at artificially low interest rates?
What if the government demands transparency from us but declines to be transparent to us? What if government leaders assert the make-believe that they work for us but they know that we work for the government?
What if the federal government has access to all our electronic communications, bank accounts, medical and legal records, and utility and credit card bills? What if the government knows more about us than we know about it?
National Security Agency headquarters, Fort Meade, Maryland. (NSA, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
What if the federal government stays in power by bribing the states with cash, the rich with bailouts, the middle class with tax cuts and the poor with welfare?
What if the government thinks the Constitution is make-believe and doesn’t apply in bad times? What if it thinks it can cure disease by forcing experimental drugs on the healthy? What if it mocks the Bill of Rights?
What if the government the Founding Fathers gave us needed our permission to do nearly everything? What if today we need the government’s permission to do nearly anything?
What if, on Thanksgiving Day, our gratitude is not to the government that assaults our freedoms and steals our wealth but to God, who gave us our freedoms and our ability to earn wealth?
What if, on Thanksgiving Day, our gratitude is for life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the exercise of free will and human reason? What if these are integral to our humanity, despite the government’s assaults on them?
What if the Thanksgiving holiday has become a four-day oasis from a fractious government that is blind to the consequences of its borrowing, killing and assaults on freedom?
What if, on Thanksgiving Day, we are most grateful that we are free creatures made in God’s image and likeness?
What if, on Thanksgiving Day, we begin altering or abolishing the government, make-believe or not?
What if less government will bring a happier Thanksgiving?
Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, was the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel and hosts the podcast Judging Freedom. Judge Napolitano has written seven books on the U.S. Constitution. The most recent is Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Lethal Threat to American Liberty. To learn more about Judge Andrew Napolitano, visit https://JudgeNap.com.
Published by permission of the author.
COPYRIGHT 2024 ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
A good question to ask on Thanksgiving Day …..
“What happened to all of those Indians?” “There used to be so many of them, where did they go? Didn’t they hear there was free dinners at the Food Bank?”
Thankful for you, Judge Napolitano, this Thanksgiving. As Roy Bourgeoise would say (and Ray McGovern) “in solidarity” that is for your advocating for PEACE in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Why do we still celebrate Thanksgiving? It’s a holiday based on the lie that native Americans and the European invaders sat down to feast together in a friendly atmosphere. Even if that were the case, Europeans went on to exterminate as many natives as possible in order to steal their land and monetize it. That policy continues to this day in other countries like Palestine. Not much has changed except the sophistication of the technology we use to continue the slaughter.
What if there is no god?
What if there is a God, but He expects us (His children) to take the initiative and fight for our own rights ourselves?
Seems more likely there is no god, just a bunch of hokum to make some monkey groups feel superior to others…to the extent that they can commit whatever crimes they choose, and be excused. As far as I am concerned, “biblical” texts are pure fairy tales. Also, keep in mind that I am under NO OBLIGATION to “respect” the religious beliefs of others. At most, I am obligated to respect their right to believe as they choose. There’s a big difference. When they try to impose their hokum on me, I have a right to oppose their efforts in that regard!
Words are god. What if words didn’t exist? No politicians, No lies.
Adam and Eve should have kept there mouth shut. ;-}
“The scripture “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” appears in the Bible in John 1:1:”
What if abortions were mandatory? Imagine that! The child doesn’t get to vote he, she has no *words*?
What if …
“… we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. ”
What if?
The quote is from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, in his Beyond Vietnam speech.
hxxps://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKapr67.html
I agree with your take on Libertarians mind set. I consider them a pretty religious bunch who have sore shoulders from patting themselves o n the back. Which is my opinion from personal experience working and living close to those who identify as such.
Personally I’m a agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac who lies awake at night wondering if their really is A Dog (ma).
I do have a heads up for you though. About four days ago the Judge provided on his yo tub an interview with Ray McGovern back in 2003. I think you might be pretty interested in seeing this interview.
Maybe not!
I can’t help but notice that this Libertarian says that I have to believe in his God. What if I am polytheistic? Will he deport me for that? In the name of Liberty? What if I disagree with what he says must be because he says that his God tells him that this must be, but I don’t hear the same thing from the spirits of the woods?
His wiki page says he believes in some form of legal ‘originalism’, but what does he consider the original meaning of ‘freedom of religion?’ What if I think his God is full of bleep? What if I don’t believe in a God that now has America on at least its 3rd Genocide? Do I have the “liberty” to do that? Or does he believe that the government has the power to force religious beliefs upon its citizens? He apparently believes that such a course would make for a ‘happier Thanksgiving.”
What if a nation that only says Thank You on one day a year is actually an evil place? I suspect the good judge would sentence me to Gitmo for saying such a thing … in the name of Liberty.
What if most of this was already true, or in progress, back 25 years ago when I was supporting Nader for just such a list of reasons? Meanwhile, while I was out fighting for a better America, Judge Napolitano was in the early stages of his career on Fox News.
One problem is that the time to be fighting against this stuff was back in the 90’s. But the ‘right’ back then was more worried about Monica’s blue dress than the parts of this list that match up nicely with the Nader campaign.
What the heck does this mean?!
“What if the leadership of both political parties believes that the constitutional requirement of due process somehow permits mothers to hire doctors to kill babies in their wombs, out of fear or convenience? “
I gather Napolitano is anti-abortion.
It could very easily be interpreted as anti abortion. Why it appeared is unknown to me. Maybe the guy opposes abortion…
It means this Libertarian wants to get into the exam room with the Doctor and the woman to make sure that all that is said meets with government approval.
And that this Libertarian wants prisons full of such doctors and women so they can pay for their crimes.
Remember, the one thing the Libertarians never seem to propose is closing the prisons and freeing the prisoners. I search this page for “prison”, and 3 of the 4 hits are in my comment … with the fourth on the list of topics to the right. There is no line that reads … “What if this government decided to lock up more people than any other country on Earth, and call it Freedom?”
Exactly…
Life…liberty…and the pursuit of happiness…Yeah…but only if your skin is white.
Or if your bank balance is large.
Libertarians always believed in getting the ‘government out of the way’, so you and Bill Gates or George Soros or Charles Koch or Elon Musk can have a ‘fair fight’. You hire your lawyers out of your bank balance, they get to hire theirs out of their bank balances, then everything is equal between you has you head off for your day in court against their legions of high-paid lawyers.
That was always the trick behind Libertarian-ism. They want to get rid of the government, but they want the rich to keep all their money and have free reign of using it to coerce you. You lose the power of democracy to get together with other people to protect yourself by empowering a government. You are told that you are powerless and alone. So is Elon Musk, but he gets to not only keep his $trillion, but now all the rules and limits on what he can do with it are gone.
The only way Libertarian-ism makes sense is if it begins with a Leveling of all people, to make it fair. This of course is hated by the Libertarians and would be viewed as exactly the sort of thing they want to stop and prevent.
Excellent commentary, Judge Napolitano! You hit the bullseye on this Thanksgiving Day message to our fellow Americans!
Unfortunately, 98% of the people who do vote. Keep the turkey vultures of the Republican and Democrat duopoly in power, increase their wealth and power, while diminishing ours.
Thomas Jefferson was prescient about the public’s right to overthrow the government operatives when they no. Longer served ” we the people.”
Must we have a government to stop killing each other, or can we stop killing each other and live peaceably without such domineering government?
Your choice, Pilgrim.
What if… We form a Recall Election Party?
What if… We could terminate any political person found to violate a constitutional provision including PAC’S that represent foreign interest… What if…?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A recall election (also called a recall referendum, recall petition or representative recall) is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official’s term of office has ended. Recalls appear in the constitution in ancient Athenian democracy.[1] Even where they are legally available, recall elections are only commonly held in a small number of countries including Peru, Ecuador, and Japan.[2] They are considered by groups such as ACE Electoral Knowledge Network as the most rarely used form of direct democracy.[3]
Process
The processes for recall elections vary greatly by country and can be originated in different ways.
Initiating a recall
This can be done in two ways:
Indirect (also known as a “Mixed”[4] or “Top-down”[5] recall): A recall may only be triggered by an official authority such as a government, parliament, or president.
Direct (also known as a “Full”[4] or “Bottom-up”[5] recall): A recall may be triggered by the public directly by the collection of signatures.
Judge Nap,
The question article are the best way
to get into peoples’ minds.
You’re a genius.
Happy Thanksgiving to you
and may you prosper in what you are doing
for our nation and its people.
Biden didn’t free those turkeys. They outsmarted him.