King For A Day

A comment to my recent post about the growing popularity of secession got me thinking -- I should consider the possibility that we are headed for a full-blown king/Caesar who will smother any secession attempt, at least for the near future. Though I remain confident that technology and the multi-ethnic fault lines in modern America are game changers, what would having a king be like?

Well, it might not be too bad. Hans-Hermann Hoppe explained why monarchy, for all its drawbacks, is preferable to democracy in his interesting book Democracy: The God That Failed. For one thing, there would no longer be the mass delusion that we govern ourselves; having an out-and-out king would clearly demarcate the people from the government. Moreover, at least there is a chance that a good man will be born into kingship, whereas NO chance exists that a good man will become president. The pressures of having to gratify the lowest common denominator and constantly alter one's stance make it impossible for men of character to ascend to high office in a democracy. Finally, kings have an incentive to be good rulers because the nation is their property, which they wish to preserve in good condition for their heirs. Politicians are lowly renters, who have little regard or long-term interest in the property under their fleeting care.

The historical record is pretty clear that kings, for all their faults, govern more wisely and frugally than democracies. America's own last king, George III, imposed taxes that were a micro-faction of the obscene imposts we have to deal with. No king ever plundered or slaughtered as many people as our glorious democracies have; it truly is a tragedy that World War I swept away the last serious monarchies and made the world "safe" for the rapacious form of government dominating the West now.

Only a king, for example, could impose any or all of a number of life-saving measures that the current American public would never vote for, such as the following:

• Shut down hundreds of foreign and domestic military bases, and pare back the military to its proper function, i.e., defending American territory.

• On that same score, seal the border with Mexico by any means necessary and repatriate ALL those who have entered America without advance permission.  

• Remove "birthright" citizenship, which is not authorized by the Constitution anyway. Only those whose parents are American citizens may be considered American citizens at birth.

• Abolish dual citizenship. Those who wish to become naturalized citizens already take an oath abjuring all allegiance to foreign powers, yet for some reason they are allowed to cling to their foreign citizenship and identities. End it and require people to be 100% or 0% American.

• Sever the relationship with Puerto Rico, stop sending tax money to it, and thrust it into independence.

• Terminate all governmental wealth transfers to private citizens, whether it's "bailouts," Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, unemployment compensation, or subsidies for any parasitic industry or academic endeavor. All tax money will be spent solely on government functions and compensation of services duly rendered to the government. Personal responsibility, freedom, innovation, wealth, and charity will explode.

• Eliminate employment laws, which interfere in freedom of contract and make running a business ridiculously expensive. People may hire and fire based on any criteria they wish. As for workplace safety, injuries, and the like, the tort system is more than adequate.

• Eliminate the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and all other "civil rights" laws, which attack true civil rights such as freedom of contract, private property, and freedom of association.

• Eliminate the income tax, which is far easier when the government isn't spending nearly as much money. Raise revenues as our ancestors did, through tariffs, and accomplish the other noble goal of fostering domestic industry.

• Curtail endless criminal appeals by eliminating so-called habeas corpus review. True habeas corpus takes place when a court demands to review the legality of someone's incarceration. Most habeas corpus today, however, involves serial reviews of a full and fair trial and is not mandated by the Constitution. This allows the likes of Richard Ramirez to hang out on death row for 25 years and receive conjugal visits until dying of natural causes. One trial, one set of appeals, and that's it.

• Eliminate no-fault divorce or, at a minimum, make anyone filing for no-fault divorce presumptively ineligible for alimony, distribution of property, and child custody.

• Eliminate the Federal Reserve and return to a gold-based monetary system, thereby ending the bankers' stranglehold on the economy and the constant devaluation of the money supply.

• Eliminate public schools or, at a minimum, all governmental prescription of educational content.

Does all of this sound farfetched? It shouldn't. This is the way we were under George III and during the first century of our national existence. Incidentally, it's also when we were a growing, moral, and robust country, not a shrinking, debauched, and impoverished one.