On to Victory!
July 4, 2002

by Joe Sobran

     I want to express my deep gratitude to the American 
public for its overwhelming and encouraging response to 
my candidacy for the presidency of the United States in 
2004. Thank you, Wanda, Donna, Greg, and Tom!

     At this rate, victory appears well within reach, 
without the need for campaign tours, financing, media 
exposure, and hype. How am I planning to defeat the 
forces arrayed against me? Simple: the chain letter.

     If each of my supporters acts now, each sending my 
message to two others who would like to live under the 
U.S. Constitution again, and each of them in turn 
recruiting two more, we can build a majority well before 
November 2004. Do the math. The Internet will greatly 
accelerate our progress.

     Swelling numbers of Americans now realize that the 
United States is ripe for "regime change," and that 
President George W. Bush has already proven himself a 
"nonessential government employee." One can hardly 
imagine a more radical regime change than a return to 
lawful government.

     Under my administration, as I have already made 
clear, the Federal Government will cease to collect 
income taxes, and monies already appropriated will be 
impounded and returned to the taxpayer. As soon as 
possible, taxpayers will virtually cease to exist. At 
least nobody will pay taxes above the level Americans 
paid under the reign of King George III.

     A modest tax on tea should suffice to finance the 
legitimate operations of the government. What is the 
point of celebrating our independence from England, 
unless our own government is at least as mild as that of 
King George?

     The Constitution forbids depriving people of their 
property without due process of law. Punitive taxes at 
current levels, levied on people who have committed no 
crime, flagrantly violate this principle. In fact, such 
taxes would constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" 
even for most convicted criminals.

     Worse yet, the "national debt," now in the trillions 
of dollars, means that every American infant born today 
"owes" about $120,000. Where is a child supposed to get 
that kind of money? If this "debt" has been imposed on 
him without his consent, before he was even conceived, it 
is a shameless lie to tell him he enjoys "self-
government." Indeed, nobody has the right to impose debt 
on anyone else. I will demand the repudiation of the 
"national debt."

     But won't this destroy the credit of the United 
States? That's the idea. The government will never again 
be able to borrow money and bequeath its debt to another 
child. The technical name for this is "liberty."

     Now let's briefly take up a few other issues.

     What about the words "under God" in the Pledge of 
Allegiance? I would delete them. Lest you suspect I'm 
pandering to the atheist vote, I would repeal the entire 
Pledge. Americans should not be taught that they owe 
their allegiance to the government; the government is 
supposed to be their servant, not their master. The 
Pledge has helped make Americans the submissive sheep 
they are today.

     Gun control? The Second Amendment, like the rest of 
the Bill of Rights, limits the powers of the Federal 
Government. It clearly forbids any Federal gun control. 
Its chief purpose is to enable "the security of a free 
state" -- which is what the original states were. They 
were supposed to be able to defend themselves, by taking 
arms if necessary, against Federal usurpations of power.

     Today, of course, this would be impossible. In 
contrast to the days of the Civil War, when the states 
could defend themselves for several years, state 
resistance to the Federal Government would be crushed 
within hours. The purpose of the Second Amendment can 
only be realized when the Federal Government itself is 
disarmed. It must be deprived of all weapons and forces 
that enable it, or might enable it, to exercise tyranny 
over the states. This would entail a drastic reduction of 
the entire U.S. military establishment and the misnamed 
"defense" budget.

     Such a reduction would leave the U.S. Government 
harmless. It would no longer be capable of antagonizing 
people, including "terrorists," all over the world. Why 
do so many Americans fear the loss of imperial power? 
We'd be much better off without it, like all the formerly 
imperial nations of Europe, which were spared last 
September 11. Why should we be taxed to buy ourselves so 
much trouble?

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"http://www.sobran.com/columns/020704.shtml".

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