Of Certain Peculiar And Accidental Causes Which Either Lead A People To Complete Centralization Of Government, Or Which Divert Them From It 11-12-2010 (3)

 [Continued from “Of Certain Peculiar And Accidental Causes Which Either Lead A People To Complete Centralization Of Government, Or Which Divert Them From It 11-12-2010 (2)” sch 8/25/2024.]

I admit de Tocqueville's centralizing power also works through the judiciary. The NRA nationalized the Second Amendment through the courts, and we will have to live with that.

...Men who live in the ages of equality are naturally fond of central power, and are willing to extend its privileges; but if it happens that this same power faithfully represents their own interests, and exactly copies their own inclinations, the confidence they place in it knows no bounds, and they think that whatever they bestow upon it is bestowed upon themselves.

Chapter IV: Of Certain Peculiar And Accidental Causes Which Either Lead A People To Complete Centralization Of Government, Or Which Divert Them From It 

The NRA may not find nationalizing the Second Amendment, since this will also allow for federal legislation. Perhaps, all gun owners will be required to join the state militia. But applying the Second Amendment to the states makes lobbying now easier for the NRA — they need only to shovel money into the federal Congress.

You can call yourself a constitutionalist, but do you know what the Framers were trying to with the Constitution? Have read the Supreme court cases? How does the current Constitution match our current needs?

If you see a mismatch between the Constitution and current needs and do not want a revolution, then you understand why I advocate amending the federal constitution. I will bet no one reading this will advocate a second American Revolution to create a new Constitution. [I will not take this bet, not after Trump and not looking forward to his losing this November. sch 8/25/2024] This proves my point that we have concentrated our power in the federal constitution rather than an American Bonaparte. [I cannot think of anyone so unlike Bonaparte as Donald J. Trump; the comparison goes beyond a travesty of Bonaparte's talents. sch 8/25/24.]

Not that we can give up vigilance against an American Bonaparte — or a Robespierre. Those most concerned with a Big Government despotism should donate healthily to the ACLU, and remember this from de Tocqueville:

...A revolution which overthrows an ancient regal family, in order to place men of more recent growth at the head of a democratic people, may temporarily weaken the central power; but however anarchical such a revolution may appear at first, we need not hesitate to predict that its final and certain consequence will be to extend and to secure the prerogatives of that power. The foremost or indeed the sole condition which is required in order to succeed in centralizing the supreme power in a democratic community, is to love equality, or to get men to believe you love it. Thus the science of despotism, which was once so complex, is simplified, and reduced as it were to a single principle.

sch