Jesse Jackson Jr. Creating Jobs...With His Mind

I stumbled across this on Beck's radio show (I think it was his but with a guest host or something). It's really something.

The "he" Jackson, Jr. refers to is FDR in a speech to Congress in 1944.

Jackson's large theme is that, well in all honesty I'm not entirely sure. As best as I can tell, he think all jobs come from the First Amendment.

I asked the Congressional Research Service the other day how many jobs are tied to the First Amendment, that amendment added to the Constitution in 1791 by the founders of our Republic. You know what they told me? Congressman, it is impossible to calculate how many jobs are tied to the First Amendment.

I said: Impossible to calculate? I said: Why?

He said because to be an American is tied to the First Amendment. He said: Congressman, you must understand--which I did--that all corporate activity in America is First Amendment activity.

Look at the jobs that come from the First Amendment: Washington Post, Washington Times; New York Post, New York Times; Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times; AM/FM, and all of the radio stations, First Amendment.

ABC, NBC, CBS, C-SPAN, all of the jobs, First Amendment.

Magazines, First Amendment.

iPods, iPhones, applications, First Amendment.

Time Square, First Amendment activity. Advertising, the Super Bowl, First Amendment activity.

All of these jobs--the original capitalists who came to the conclusion that this was worth protecting in our Constitution--established in the freedom system, the greatest jobs program in our Nation's history. They called it freedom of speech. And in that same amendment, they included freedom of religion.

Think about the jobs tied to 501(c)(3)s, 501(c)(4)s, 501(c)(5)s, all of that First Amendment activity. All charitable giving, all foundation activity, all tied to First Amendment activity.

This is just profoundly silly.

First, does Jackson think there was no commerce before the First Amendment was adopted?

More to the point, the First Amendment is not a grant of power to the government is a restriction of power against the government ("Congress shall make no law...."). Yet this genius' solution is to create a whole bunch of "rights" that would empower the government to do all sorts of things and thereby usher in a level of prosperity never before seen in the history of the world. In reality, it's the fact that the government is limited in power and scope (or was at one time) that the genius of free men and women was unleashed to provide goods and services their fellow citizens wanted at a price they agreed upon.

In Jackson's World, simply let the government guarantee what your wants are and magically they will appear.

Let me diagram it out...

Step 1: Pass new amendments to the Constitution

Step 2: ???

Step 3: Profit!

Let me just save Congressman Jackson some time and offer up a proposal for the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Section 1: Each citizen or resident (legal or otherwise) of the United States shall have at all times a net financial worth of no less than One Million US Dollars (to be adjusted annually for inflation).

Section 2: Congress shall be deemed to have the power to pass any law necessary to bring this Amendment into force".

It's fun to mock an idiot like Jackson, Jr. but let's be honest, his "understanding" of what rights are and how the economy works is shared by a lot of people.

posted by DrewM. at 02:11 PM

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