Americans face a strange and perilous time in our history - a time most would never have imagined possible. For almost 200 years the nation was largely a constitutional republic. But the face of this nation is changing - and radically now.

There were early problems, wedges in the major trunks of the tree, which manifested their dangers later: the Supreme Court's Marbury v. Madison decision, for example, where lawyers led by John Marshall hijacked the Constitution (see "Constitutional Hijack" link), and over a hundred years later when it really started to hurt, disastrous constitutional legal results were more clearly observed.

In following eras so-called "progressives" and collectivist thinkers began to drive nails into the Constitutional coffin in earnest. What is amazing is that so few Americans seem to have realized the creeping nature of these dangers, and now that we see a virtual onslaught of them barreling toward us like a runaway freight train the public seems paralyzed. The great mass of citizens have been fed unconstitutional doctrines and nonsense for so long that many actually believe the theories and promises of professional Washington politicians and think things really are just fine. Others are plainly so bewildered as to not realize the danger. Political correctness has reached the point that many are afraid to actually discuss politics and government any more, publicly or otherwise - a recipe for disaster.

A short recap will but highlight some nails pounded into place in earlier years:

• The Interstate Commerce Act of 1877, unconstitutional on its face, was passed and subsequently interpreted ridiculously and perversely over the years by a corrupt Supreme Court - opening the door to massive intrusions of the Federal Government into all facets of our lives under the guise of "regulating commerce."
• Turn-of-the-(20th)-century "progressives" began preaching stronger central government in clear repudiation of the Constitution's limited-government language.
• The Income Tax Act of 1913 laid the foundation for governmental confiscation and redistribution of private wealth and immoral graduated tax rates.
• The Gold Standard was abolished and establishment of the Federal Reserve was secretly plotted and then ram-rodded through Congress with lies and promises, setting the stage for unsound currency, fiscal instability, and central control of the money supply and monetary policy.
• FDR and his "New Deal" administration spawned some of the ugliest un-free legacies in history: Social Security (the great American government-sponsored Ponzi scheme), income tax withholding, and the euphemistic "Fair Labor Standards Act" which was anything but "fair" except to labor unions.
• Agriculture became a ward of central government as Federal tentacles encircled farming.
• The Federal government got into the housing business.
• Communications and transportation became Federal concerns.
• The government got into the welfare business; coerced wealth redistribution hit the big time. Today, $1 out of every $6 of government money is spent as "benefits" at federal or other levels; 2009's projected total will equal $17,000 per American household!
• Acts such as the NDEA, EDEA, NSSA, IASA, WIA, and other congressional corruptions unconstitutionally launched the government into education.
• "Occupational" safety fell under the federal umbrella.
• The "environment" malignantly metastasized into a massive Federal boondoggle.
• Disabilities exploded into a new Federal branch of definition, control, and regulation - legally creating one of America's largest "privileged" classes.
• Quasi-constitutional "Executive Orders" have grown and been illogically extended, leading to abuses by presidents seeking devious end-runs around Congress (to say nothing of the Constitution) to get whatever they want.

That list could be greatly expanded, and most entries resulted in new federal agencies or bureaucracies - for every one of which there is absolutely no Constitutional basis. Sadly, most of those excesses have been long-since accepted by an ignorant or apathetic public.

Once the wolf of governmental control gets in the door he devours freedom voraciously - always in the name of the public good. Consider this short list of more recent progressive-socialist-collectivist ravages:

• Johnson dragged us into the disastrous Vietnam War, then compounded our domestic troubles with his "Great Society."
• Nixon broke the law openly, and steadfastly felt he was above it.
• Under Reagan, who preached otherwise, government growth and spending continued to expand at rates faster than the general population.
• The first President Bush didn't exhibit enough spine to even get reelected.
• Clinton destroyed all faith in character as a national leadership trait. He and his wife also tried but failed (for the time being) to impose socialized medicine upon the nation.
• The second Bush presidency was marked by continued growth and spending, and under the 9/11 hysteria outright trampling of privacy, speech, and legal process were cemented in place. Late in his administration, Medicare changes with ballooning, irresponsible costs were legislated, and then the "bailouts" began.
• McCain-Fiengold came along and repressed political speech - a baldly unconstitutional act passed by a corrupt congress, signed by a corrupt president, and upheld by a corrupt court. Some have more correctly labeled it an "incumbency reelection act."
• Now under the Obama administration, shredding of the Constitution has accelerated with afterburners, with ongoing carnage continuously underway.

Barak Obama is the most perilous U.S. president ever elected. Truth is not important, ends justify the means, and arrogance trumps. One of the representatives of Chrysler’s debt-holders who was bullied in secret meetings with Obama and his cronies, refusing to be publicly identified because of fears of the administration, called Obama “The most dangerous smooth talker on the planet.” Obama has no conception of (or no appreciation and love for) the principles upon which America was founded. He holds no reverence for the Constitution, but tramples roughshod over it as it pleases him to obtain his purposes. Power, not freedom, is the burning issue in his heart. He is bent on making America into a socialist welfare state. The “change” he and the Democrats have brought amounts to: more debt, more taxes, more welfare, more regulation, more government, and more corruption.

Government control of healthcare is one of the greatest socializations currently being pursued. Even liberal Democrat Camille Paglia wrote (Salon.com: “Obama's Healthcare Horror”) that “The president is promoting the most colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation since” [the Bush Iraq invasion], “all nationalized health systems…eventually lead to rationing” and “the airheads of Congress will keep their own plush healthcare plan -- it's the rest of us guinea pigs who will be thrown to the wolves…” She then said on parties in general: “I simply do not understand the drift of my [Democratic] party toward a soulless collectivism” and “Both major parties have become a rats' nest of hypocrisy and incompetence. That, combined with our stratospheric, near-criminal indebtedness to China (which could destroy the dollar overnight), should raise signal flags.”

Renewed cries to “tax the rich” even more are merely a continuation of the immorality of graduated income taxes and government-enforced stealing. Everyone should be subject to the same tax rates: 10% of a poor man’s income is the same burden as 10% of a rich person’s income. Legalized, increased stealing from the rich is base selfishness, unconstitutional, dishonest, and always results in less freedom for all and destruction of the market-incentive drive that powers economic prosperity. The end result is the opposite of that originally intended: everyone is worse off. Consider this quote from Adrian Rogers:

This administration’s continued attempt to “police” the world is also troubling. Bush and other presidents in the past have been severely criticized over troops in Iraq, Somalia, Vietnam, etc. Yet soon after being sworn in, Barak Obama committed to an enlarged American military presence in Afghanistan (even while continuing to criticize the previous administration’s Iraq efforts). When will we learn? Why should the lives and resources of America continually be expended trying to expand the values of democracy and freedom in areas of the world where the predominant influences and desires are contrary to it? We have enough problems trying to preserve freedom and democracy at home.

A new (and encouraging) phenomenon today is that some 35% of voters currently consider themselves "independent" or not aligned with either of the two existing major parties. The significance of this trend is overlooked by commentators: A third of Americans no longer feel that either party is good for the country! They try to vote for the lesser of two evils, but the victor then assumes some mandate to continue or accelerate the same old ruinous practices - so the country either loses badly or loses disastrously - but we always lose!

The average salary of federal employees is now around $70,000 – compared to the private sector average of around $45,000 (not even mentioning all those cushy and expensive federal benefits v. the private sector). It can’t last. Government is a parasitic operation – it sucks money out of the rest of the productive economy to fund itself. While it’s true that there is a “diminishing recycle” effect because federal employees pay taxes and a certain amount of their income is spent in the private sector, the overall accounting is insidiously negative. When you sum the drain on fruitful sectors of society to pay federal employees, fund federal bureaucracies, the costs of free government services for all those who pay no taxes, and the costs of supporting the government welfare machine – the total equals suicidal strangulation (and that's not counting numerous indirect negative effects of government upon the GNP). It’s just a matter of time - unless the responsible elements of society awaken and insist on massive overhaul with real, viable change and huge cuts in government. If the federal leviathan isn’t bridled it is simply going to implode upon itself and drag everyone and everything else along with it.

As wholesale trampling of the Constitution and dictatorial power-grabbing runs amok in Washington amidst constant cries of "Emergency!", much of the populace seems drugged by stupidity or apathy; many precedents have anaesthetized opinion and action. Consider just a short summary of the most recent exponential, calamitous federal excesses - and check back often because the ink on this page won't dry since things are happening so fast: