Reblogged: Sunstein On How to Bypass "The People"

[Gus Van Horn blog]

Cass Sunstein -- whose book advocating government meddling shares an interesting similarity in its title with an Ayn Rand essay against the same -- has posted a warning to Americans who value rule of law and individual freedom.

However, sensing that the cause of freedom is on the ropes, Sunstein casts his information as a prescription, rather than the list of vulnerabilities that it is. Basically, Sunstein wants an autocratic President to "get Washington working", and sees three ways to achieve this: (1) fast action by any recently-elected President; (2) "broad grants of authority", such as George W. Bush obtained after the jihadist atrocities of September 11, 2001 (Curiously, Sunstein is mum on how well the NSA surveillance that started then has been "working".); and (3) "creatively designed laws" that allow the President and Congress to pass the buck to others.

Note that all of these remove debate and careful deliberation from the political process -- both at the time of the passage of a law, when disaster might be averted and long after disaster has become apparent or has occurred and a course correction the President might not agree with might be called for. Ayn Rand hit the nail on the head in "Have Gun, Will Nudge", when she showed the following about that the motives of Sunstein and his ilk:

That such is the ultimate goal of our present trend, is indicated in Mr. Minow's "vast wasteland" speech of May 9, 1961. While all the concrete-bound, range-of-the-moment modern mentalities have been clamoring over the issue of Westerns versus spelling-bees, the ominous key-sentence of that speech has been passed by in comparative silence: the threat to "those few of you who really believe that the public interest is merely what interests the public."

Sunstein regards the American public at large as cattle to be prodded, rather than sovereign individuals with rights.

It is up to us to push back by seeking to reestablish proper limits on the government in general and the executive branch in particular if we are to live once again as free men.

-- CAV

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