I suspect that most of those, who read this, will expect that my
subject is the consistent stands that Ron Paul has taken in
Congress and throughout his public life, against the increasing
American dependence upon Government; against the waste of
resources, by expanding the scope of Government, expanding the
intrusiveness of Government. That we intend to call attention
to the fact that Ron Paul represents a desire that many of us
have to restore
the image--the hope, the self-confidence, even the swagger, if
you will--of the
American free man and woman; the self-reliance, which once
characterized the typical American. Of course, all that is true
about Ron Paul, but that is not my point.

If one reads the Constitution carefully, in full and in context,
and tries to find one word that characterizes the intention of
the Founding Fathers with respect to American Domestic policy,
that word would be predictability. That we even have a carefully
constructed, carefully detailed, written Constitution, is the
first facet. The mother country has what is called a
"Constitution," but it is whatever each generation of British
subjects choose it to be, politically. It is a "living"
concept. But that was not what the Founders wanted. They
wanted the Rule of Law, not the whim of politicians. And that
is an important facet of predictability.

Then there are the specific domestic powers granted. These
include providing for "uniform" weights and measures, "uniform"
laws relating to Bankruptcy, etc. (Article I, Section 8). If
you cannot contract for things that are certain, all deals are
to that extent uncertain, unpredictable. So the founders sought
predictability, and to safeguard that predictability, the member
States, by that same Constitution, gave up their rights to "make
anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts,"
or to pass any "ex post facto law, or law impairing the
obligation of contracts" (Article I, Section 10).

In other words, the Federal Government was entrusted with
adopting standards for measurement, including the definition of
the dollar--the way Americans measure money--and the States were
prevented from interfering with the predictability of all such
measures--the certainty with which citizens
could interact with one another, or make economic decisions,
based upon as much predictability as was possible, given the
vagaries of human existence.

In the past century, the most important measure for Commerce,
for the retention of the value of savings and investment, for
just about everything the relates to productive human action and
interaction, the measure of the Dollar, has decline by about
97%, precisely, because of reckless spending, much of it on
schemes never actually authorized by the Constitution. The
predictability on which we were supposed to be able to make long
term plans, to engage in productive enterprise, to rely on in
planning our respective futures, has been terribly and
repeatedly compromised by a Government, which acts like the
British Government--one governed by the whim of each generation
of politicians--rather than that intended, as reflected by the
scrupulously drawn strictures and authorizations of our
Constitution.

Thus we still have a bushel that means a bushel, a ton that
means a ton, an
acre that means an acre. But the measure on the other side of
every
transaction, of every definition of past transactions, of the
fruits of generations of American effort and ingenuity, has been
radically altered.

Today, January 16, 2008, has our financial markets wrestling
with the worst spike in dollar price inflation in almost two
decades. But that is but the tip
of the iceberg. For reasons discussed in my Conservative Debate
Handbook, there is a built in inertia in the price structure.
See: (http://pages.prodigy.net/krtq73aa/economic.htm). The
real effect of the incredible Federal deficits of the last few
years, will not be felt for a few years
more. We are faced with terrible uncertainty--the very type of
uncertainty that has destroyed civilizations in other lands.
The very type of uncertainty, that the Founding Fathers, steeped
in the history of the rise and fall of Nations, sought to avoid,
by giving us a Constitution, premised, in large part, upon the
value of predictability.

What makes this all the more poignant is that every office
holder must swear to uphold the Constitution; as must every
lawyer and every member of the Armed Forces. Yet very few among
us, actually stand up and seek to give meaning to their oath.
That is where Ron Paul comes in. He is part of that rare
remnant to whom truth and honor are still important--still
essential.

http://pages.prodigy.net/krtq73aa/Paul3.htm.

Let us not try for a 99+% devaluation of the dollar. Now, if
there ever was a most critical time to demand a return to
predictable measures; now is that time!

William Flax
Cincinnati, Ohio