No Longer a Republic

Well! First we have an admission by a sitting Supreme Court Justice that the Court is no longer "chained or bound by the text of the Constitution. All it takes is five hands."

Now we have admission by a U.S. Senator that America is no longer a Republic:

The individuals are not so much at fault as the rotten and decaying foundation of what is no longer a republic. It is the system that stinks. And it's only going to get worse because that perfect balance our brilliant Founding Fathers put in place in 1787 no longer exists."

So says Georgia Senator Zell Miller. That's pretty strong verification (like it was needed) of Randy Barnett's thesis behind Restoring the Lost Constitution.

Sen. Miller said this in connection to a Senate resolution he introduced to repeal the 17th Amendment, something I've supported for quite a while.

But he and I agree on something else: we both know it'll be a cold day in hell before the Senators and the special interests give up the power that popular election of Senators gives them.

There was, of course, backlash to Sen. Miller's resolution:

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., suggested Miller and others were treating the Constitution as a "rough draft" by proposing a series of recent amendments to require a balanced federal budget, define marriage and criminalize flag burning.

"We are the example of representative self-government in this world that works," Dorgan said. "It's messy, the noise of democracy is annoying sometimes, but it works."

The problem, Sen. Dorgan, is that Sen. Miller points out that the system has been so damaged over time the question is how much longer will it work? The structures that enabled it have been damaged or destroyed or altered out of all recognition. The mechanisms of tyranny have been constructed and simply wait for final assembly.

And more of us are waking to that fact.

Hat tip: Ravenwood
UPDATE 4/30: This should be a post all its own, but I want to leave Trees? Meet Forest up at the top for a while. When someone as obviously whacked out as Ted Rall states:
A: John Kerry "would be wise to break ranks with his party's liberal base by declaring his enthusiastic support for the Second Amendment"
and
B: "(A)bolishing handguns is a lost cause. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, roughly 70 million Americans own more than 200 million guns--with four to five million new weapons manufactured annually. Even if Congress authorizes police to break down every door in the country to confiscate them--a task our military can't carry out in occupied nations subject to martial law, like Afghanistan or Iraq, let alone in Wyoming and New Jersey--the gun genie is never going to get stuffed back into the bottle"
and
C: "For too long, both parties have treated the Constitution like a Chinese menu. Republicans whittle away at the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and smear opponents who exercise their First Amendment right to free speech. Democrats rail against the states rights expressed by the Tenth Amendment and absurdly argue that the placement of a comma reflects the founders' original intent to limit gun ownership to members of 18th century militias. Aside from its fundamental intellectual dishonesty, our politicians' take-some-leave-others attitude deviates from most citizens' belief that every section of the Constitution holds equal weight"
one is forced to grab onto the nearest stable object to make sure the world hasn't shifted under one's feet.
Who are you, and what have you done to Ted Rall?
Oh, wait. We know Kerry would be lying, so Rall is recommending that Kerry lie to the electorate in order to trick them into voting for him. I don't know how much of what Rall states in this piece reflect his actual beliefs and how much of it is a lie, but given Rall's history...
But it's damned disconcerting when someone as foul as Rall states opinions I agree with. I feel like I ought to take a shower and scrub with steel wool.
(Link via SayUncle.)