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and, of course, spend ever greater amounts of deficit dollars.
There are but few ways to slow, much less stop this trend from becoming a permanent roadmap for how cities, states, and federal governments operate.
Most important, we need to start electing the right people. We need to find and elect true conservatives; not faux populists who only oppose broad emergency powers because it is not in furtherance of their emergency. Genuine, limited government conservatives recognize and understand the danger in capricious use of sweeping government edicts and mandates, particularly those that violate the separation of state and the private sector, as well as those violating fundamental principles of federalism.
We also must use the judicial system – federal and state courts – to bring sound and constitutionally based legal challenges to instances of government overreach. Importantly, this method of righting the ship of state should not be viewed as the first option, but rather a tool to be used in those instances where the political fails have failed to self-correct. Turning to the courts to solve every new or recurrent problem disrupts the carefully crafted tripartite system of governing, and eventually plays right into the hands of the Left.
Finally, we must demand that those individuals already in office, both elective and appointed, do their jobs and not let them off the hook when they fail to heed our demands. None of this is new or rocket science. However, in today’s environment, where the government has tasted unlimited, “emergency” power and will fight tooth-and-nail to keep it, every means at our disposal must be turned to the goal of defeating such an occurrence. As they say, failure is not an option.
Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He served as the United States Attorney in Atlanta from 1986 to 1990 and was an official with the CIA in the 1970s. He now practices law in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as head of Liberty Guard.
