The Games Gods Play — Outlaw Sports

The American experiment is one of self-governance. Whereas most civilizations consisted of top-down governance, by contrast, the Founders envisioned a society where individuals could largely govern themselves, and all forms of centralized government required the consent of the governed. In order to prevent the tyranny that naturally forms from top-down governments, the Founders devised a system of checks and balances to counteract any one person(s) from seizing power. The result, in theory, would be a country of individual self-determination largely free from government interference.

For the most part, this system was largely successful during America’s early years. With the exception of Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus, the three branches of Government generally held each other in check, and most Americans were more concerned with Local and State matters. However, culminating with the election of Woodrow Wilson to the Presidency in the early 20th century, progressives began to see the American system of self-government as outdated and in need of reformation.

We are not bound to adhere to the doctrines held by the signers of the Declaration of Independence: we are as free as they were to make and unmake governments. We are not here to worship men or a document….Every Fourth of July should be a time for examining our standards, our purposes, for determining afresh what principles and what forms of power we think most likely to effect our safety and happiness. That and that alone is the obligation the Declaration lays upon us.

Woodrow Wilson

For Wilson, our government and Constitution should not be viewed as fixed. Rather, he saw them as living entities that should be molded to meet whatever challenges society faced.

The trouble with the theory [of limited and divided government] is that government is not a machine, but a living thing. This is where the living and breathing constitution comes from. It is modified by its environment, necessitated by its tasks, shaped to its functions by the sheer pressure of life.

Woodrow Wilson

Wilson saw checks, balances, and constitutional restrictions on government power as ill suited for a modern America. He and other progressives sought to replace the idea of limited government with an ever-expanding administrative bureaucracy where a government program would stand in between the individual and misfortune. In the decades that followed, the large administrative government progressives sought, one free from the constraints of the Constitution, was born.

In Wilson’s view, Constitutional Amendments were too cumbersome because of the large scale agreement required.

The chief instrumentality by which the law of the Constitution has been extended to cover the facts of national development has of course been judicial interpretation, — the decisions of the courts. The process of formal amendment of the Constitution was made so difficult by provisions of the Constitution itself that it has seldom been feasible to use it; and the difficulty of formal amendment has undoubtedly made the courts more liberal, not to say lax, in their interpretation than they would otherwise have been. The whole business of adaptation has been theirs, and they have undertaken it with open minds, sometimes even with boldness and a touch of audacity..

Woodrow Wilson

Thus, Wilson and other progressives proposed that the Constitution be amended through judicial interpretation rather than legislation. Put simply, the words in the Constitution should be interpreted like poetry and their meaning transformed to achieve the ends required by those in power in the given moment. A sort of end-around that could avoid the gridlock of the traditional legislative process.

Woodrow Wilson was successful in his endeavors to reshape our government and his efforts largely explain the current climate in our country. Currently, political elections are being sold as the “election for our lives”. Both sides of the aisle promise that if elected, they will wield their power to save our souls and deliver us from evil.

As president, I will make you this promise: I will protect America. I will defend us from every attack. Seen. And unseen. Always. Without exception. Every time.

Joe Biden

Joe Biden is not the saviour of America’s soul. He is the destroyer of America’s jobs, and if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness.

Donald Trump

Woe unto those who choose their opponent. For only darkness, despair, and eternal damnation lie upon that path. All they require to transcend from mere mortals-is unchecked Governmental power.

This is why Supreme Court nominations have become so important. The Supreme Court, as originally conceived, was to be the least powerful branch of government.

Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.

Alexander Hamilton-Federalist NO. 78

However, with the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it’s clear that Hamilton’s vision of the Court no longer exists. This is because the philosophy of Woodrow Wilson and the progressives have changed the very nature of the Court. No longer do Justices merely sit in judgment as Hamilton envisioned. Instead, they have become a nonelected super-legislature that executes the will of political parties Which is why the political parties have such a large stake in judicial nominations because in America today-the judicial branch possesses both the force and will to determine its citizens’ fate.

The problem with this is self-evident. We are no longer self-governed because unelected judges do not possess the consent of the governed. Much like the Israelites in the desert, we have fashioned our Justices into golden calves to be worshipped for both protection and blessings. This is how, despite most people being unable to recall an actual legal opinion authored by Ginsberg during her time on the Court-her status as a judicial icon amongst large swaths of the population is nevertheless-cemented.

Today’s progressives are right about few things, but in this, they are: America is not living up to the promises of its founding. This is not because we are an evil country born on the backs of slaves, but rather, it is because we are a country meant for a free people, and a free people would not tolerate self-fashioned gods and their games.

Originally published at https://theoutlawsports.com.