Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.
This book calls for such an adversarial stance toward the federal government that, as the Declaration of Independence instructs me, a decent respect for the opinions of my readers requires that I should declare the causes that impel me to this position. Those causes are most assuredly not “light and transient.” America’s political system has been transmuted into something bearing only a structural resemblance to the one that the founders created. The substance is nearly gone. The purpose of Part I is to convince you, as I have found myself convinced, of these truths:
The founders’ Constitution has been discarded and cannot be restored, for reasons that are inextricably embedded in constitutional jurisprudence.
Aspects of America’s legal system have become lawless, for reasons that are inextricably embedded in the use of law for social agendas.
Congress and the administrative state have become systemically corrupt, for reasons that are inextricably embedded in the market for government favors.
The federal government is in a state of advanced sclerosis for reasons that are inextricably embedded in the nature of advanced democracies.
Inextricably embedded means that solutions are beyond the reach of the electoral process and legislative process. The citizenry must create new counterweights.
Strong claims. The next five chapters attempt to justify them.