It’s been two weeks since the unfortunate Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare and most of the pundits are still studiously avoiding any serious analysis about the decision and what it means for the future of our Republic.
 
The Left of course is thrilled – the court did the right thing, time to move on. Most moderates are still bogged down with is it a tax or a mandate?
 
And among conservative voices, too few are focused on the obvious. Or what would have been obvious just a few short decades ago. Too few are asking the critical questions:
 
• Isn’t this precisely what tyranny looks like?
• If so, is it even possible to restore our Constitutional Republic?

 
Thankfully there are still some with the correct historical perspective and the personal courage to point out the implications of the SCOTUS ruling, and the growing irrelevance of “We the People” as participants in our own governance.
 
In an insightful article, “The Duty to Throw off Such Government,” Rev. James V. Schall, S.J. reflects on where America finds itself 236 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed ~

The American founders saw that the kind of limited government that they formed was likely to be strong enough to withstand most external enemies. What some of them also recognized was that the most dangerous threats to the country’s future would come from within and not without. The American system was put together to prevent despotism…
 

 
…The American Republic was established so that a people who could rule themselves did rule themselves also in the public order. But it was also a Republic based on the idea that such a thing as virtue of soul and order in human affairs existed. They were not simply created in any form we wanted…
 
…Reflecting now on the Fourth of July 2012, we have to wonder about a regime now manifesting a growing list of abuses to the fundamental nature of human worth. These abuses are put into effect by elected rulers themselves. They are accepted by many citizens who themselves are “democratic” in the classic Greek sense, that in their soul they have little principle of order…
 
…Constitutional rule derives from a people who understand the nature and demands of the virtues and their relation to our final end. It is aware of an order transcendent to politics. Arbitrary rule arises when a leader, seeing that the people have no real order of soul, sees himself able to impose whatever form of rule that he thinks good for the people. Unless they acquiesce in this rule and its decrees, they are no longer citizens, whatever a written Constitution might say.
 
In 2012, when we read the Declaration of Independence and its appeal to the judgment of mankind, it seems more addressed to our own government rather than to the British Crown.

 
I’ve excerpted just some key parts of Fr. Schall’s article, but the whole thing is definitely worth reading. I only disagreed with one phrase; “…we see that the Supreme Court may still function as a check on governmental depostism.”
With all due respect Father, I’m not seeing it.
 
I agree with Frank Turek’s view on the implications of the Supreme’s ruling. He’s asking some very pointed questions:

Why Not Treat SCOTUS Opinions Like They Treat the Constitution?
 
“Oh, but the Constitution is a ‘living’ or ‘evolving’ document!” say the liberals. Nonsense! Do your rights evolve?
 
If the Court can misinterpret or rewrite Obamacare and certain clauses in the Constitution, what’s to stop them from misinterpreting or rewriting the Bill of Rights?
 
Why have a written Constitution if we can interpret it anyway we want?
 
Why have red lights if drivers are free at anytime to interpret them as green lights?
 
Justice Scalia: “What is a moderate interpretation of the [Constitution]? Halfway between what it really means and what you’d like it to mean?”
 

 
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If we want to preserve our freedom – and recover what’s been usurped – we must, as Turek says, “conserve our founding principle that elites do not rule us, we do. The King is not law—the law is king.”
 
It’s Lex Rex – not Rex Lex.
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Related:
If We Took the Constitution Seriously, Obama Would Be Impeached