Our Constitution Has Been Suspended

Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of
declared NationalEmergency.
Senate Report 93-549

This country started out as a constitutional republic,
that is, a union of sovereign nation states.
The federal government was to be an agent of the states.

Government Now rules by Decree

..As a safeguard, the constitution provides that during times
of rebellion or invasion, the president may assume all powers.

These emergency powers should end after the crisis.
President Lincoln assumed all powers during the Civil War.

Since he was dealing with a rebellion, we may say that he
established a constitutional dictatorship.

Since then, however, the definition of "emergencies" requiring
total control has been stretched to include economic problems,
social imbalances, and perceived threats to the US by a foreign
country's actions on another continent.

When authoritarian control is exerted during times other than
rebellion or enemy invasion,
it is an unconstitutional dictatorship.
The federal government has overstepped the bounds placed on it
by the constitution.

Through the insidious, yet steady encroachment of
"emergency powers," the government has now achieved the ability
to rule the people by statute or decree,
without the vote or consent of the ruled.

Through a maze of political maneuvers, the emergency powers
granted to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to deal
with an economic depression
have become part of the US Code as permanent everyday powers.

America has continued under the "unconstitutional dictatorship"
of war and emergency powers to this day, more than 60 years later.

Emergency Rule Means Government Owns All Rights

In reality, under this "unconstitutional dictatorship," the roles
have been reversed.
We have no rights except those the government grants us.

Under our constitutional government, we the people had all rights
except those specifically granted to the government.

We have lost our constitutional rights. How did it happen?
What does it mean?
What can we do about it?

Increasingly, US citizens are unwilling to be the pawns of
arbitrary and capricious decrees.
We have both the right and duty to reclaim our country.

The government today, with its inflated bureaucracy, political
posturing, and ineffectual programs, would be a laughingstock
if it weren't for the sinister side -
arbitrary seizure of property without proven cause by many
government agencies,
federally mandated but unfunded programs that choke the states'
right to rule themselves,
an unsound money system, and a de facto economic depression
for the last 10 years.

Add a growing separation between "haves" and "have nots"
and we have a powder keg on a short fuse.

Government has grown so big, so unreachable, that the ordinary
citizen feels helpless to influence it.

Government by the people?
Even those with clout and political savvy, such as state governors,
seem unable to sway D.C.

Government acts like a tyrant gone rampant, wilfully imposing its
policies on citizens, protecting its image,
and covering up its mistakes.
Fear sets in when we realize that the government can play
kickball with our lives - and there is no one to stop it.

Today, with our constitutional rights effectively suspended,
we are at the mercy of the giant.

Hitler used Germany's emergency powers clause (Article 48) to
perpetrate his atrocities.
Granted, no US president has even approached Hitler's dictatorship,
but he has the power to do so.
The difference is the degree of benevolence with which the US
government has ruled/ and with which Hitler ruled.

The US constitution provides for the president to be granted
emergency powers in times of war or enemy attack.

The fatal flaw in the constitution, however, is that once the
president has these powers, he himself must give them up.

Eleven presidents, both Democrat and Republican, have failed to
reinstate the constitution and give up these emergency powers.

Today we see the president and entrenched bureaucracy passing rules
through the executive branch's many agencies
without challenge from the other two branches of government -
the congress and the judiciary.

We Have Been Under Emergency Rule for 61 Years