The seismic shift in the very nature of government in America is highlighted by the dispute over the TPA (Trade Promotion Authority). What would the Founders have said about Congress abrogating its power and effectively implementing a law whose contents are hidden from the American people?

It’s bizarre, but not unexpected, that the same liberals who commend Snowden for decimating American security are saying that Americans don’t need to know what’s in ObamaCare or the trade agreements that Obama is negotiating.

Historically the intent of the government in America has been to do the will of the people. That’s why people died in the Revolutionary War -- to end distant autocrats from unilaterally defining how people were to live.

However, to do the will of the people the people have to be informed. That rationale is used by MSM outlets like the New York Times to justify revealing highly classified programs critical to national security. Strangely, that same criterion is not applied by the MSM to information that would tend to make people dislike policies the NYT et al like.

Since FDR the Democratic politicians, and apparently many establishment Republican politicians, have had a new vision -- the government, populated by the more enlightened and wise members of our society, should tell people how they should live.

The new American form of government as practiced by the career political class is that the people are ruled by government rather than the government being ruled by the people.

If power comes from government and our politicians are rulers rather than representatives, it makes sense that the hoi polloi don’t need to know what the government is doing.

After all, if government’s job is to rule not represent the people citizens, as in all despotic regimes in the past, really don’t need any insight into why they are to do what they do. Instead the people only need to know what they need to do and what they need to not do in order to avoid incarceration.

While these new aristocrats who fancy themselves rulers are not separated from the U.S. by a physical ocean -- as King George was -- they are separated from the vast majority of Americans who live in “flyover” country by a huge social gap.

Living in the D.C. bubble, isolated from their constituents but reading the Washington Post every day, lawmakers live in an alternate reality from the people who vote for them. Mingling with the rich and famous, and mysteriously becoming rich themselves, it’s no wonder that after a term or two in D.C. politicians view themselves as superior to the “trailer park trash” in their home districts.

The problem has been exacerbated by the collusion of the courts that have willingly abandoned their mandate.

On issues so contentious that even liberal Democrats are unwilling to reject the will of the people -- things like abortion, gay marriage, and immigration -- the courts have been willing to step in and take the heat by discovering new “rights” in the entrails eviscerated from the Constitution.

We see this in the Supreme Court declaring ObamaCare fees are really taxes even though the politicians who sold ObamaCare to the American people specifically said the fees weren’t taxes.

We see this in courts finding that gay marriage is a constitutional mandate, even though the Founders would have been more likely to shoot a gay on sight rather than officiate at a gay wedding.

In the recent past one of the key signs of the transformation of the American government was the courts and politicians colluding to prevent voters from defending their votes. Democrats in California and D.C. refused to defend the people’s votes on Prop 8 in California. 

The governor and attorney general in California said that since they didn’t think Prop 8 was constitutional they would not defend it. Eric Holder refused to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act saying that he could decide if a law was or wasn’t constitutional. Allowing politicians and political appointees to decide which laws are constitutional and which aren’t destroys the separation of powers since it usurps the roles of the courts. It effectively removes the rule of law for the political elite since they can pick and choose which laws to follow and/or enforce.

The courts completed the effective disenfranchisement of the California voters by saying that the voters didn’t have standing to sue over their votes being ignored. If a person who votes for a law can’t sue to ensure that the law is enforced, who can?

The reality is that the ruling political class in America views referendums as viable so long as they rubber-stamp the choices of the elites. If the people were the source of power, then overturning their votes would be nearly unthinkable. But instead we see that the establishment politicians can always find a court that will enthusiastically say that anything liberals want to be in the Constitution is in fact there.

That the Republican Congress is not fighting TPA tooth and nail shows that the stink of totalitarianism has entered the American government in a very debilitating way.

It’s time to take a stand. Demand that your representatives not give Obama more sweeping authority to mismanage American interests in private. 

While it appears impossible for individuals to address the government Behemoth, the reality is that politicians still need our money and our support. That’s why every election cycle nearly every politician runs as a conservative who staunchly believes in the motto “power to the people”.

To harpoon the Behemoth you can give money to honest politicians who believe in the rights of the people. The fact that liberals constantly say that all politicians are corrupt is proof that they want to distract you from those who aren’t.

If you don’t have money -- a common occurrence in the disastrous Obama Economy -- donate your time or run for office yourself. No matter how bad you are, you can’t be worse than a Chuck Schumer, a Harry Reid, or a Nancy Pelosi.

At the very least talk to your friends, neighbors, and coworkers about how we can’t fail our children and our grandchildren by allowing America to return to the shackles our forefathers died to reject so many years ago.

If we allow governing in secret by rulers rather than representatives to be the new norm, we will leave our children a country where they are serfs not citizens.

You can read more of tom’s rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious and feel free to follow him on Twitter