Do you believe the government has unlimited power?

In THEORY no, but in PRACTICAL APPLICATION the answer is ALMOST.

As long as the government can convince enough of the population that "the government knows best", they can do whatever they can get away with.

It was a similar problem between the colonies and the British government that led to the revolutionary war that created the US.

Unfortunately, there are too many sheeple these days that want the government to do everything for them so they can claim they have no responsibility for the problems that are created thereby. It is always "somebody else's" fault whenever there is a problem.

Democracy is about two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner. There are a lot of problems in this country. As long as the majority is happy, the rest have no choice but to go along. Just be happy they don't lynch or crucify people as they did in the past.

There should always be limits to power, always. Federal laws have to take priority in national matters such as declaring war, minting currency, negotiating treaties, trade agreements, and yes immigration laws, among others. In these matters could you even image a patch work set of various laws set by various states? It would be a political and legal nightmare.

No.

The government has as much power as the people will let them. Unfortunately, the people nowadays let them have virtually unlimited power, but that doesn't mean it can't change.

Technically, the federal government only has the powers granted to it by the Constitution. But if we aren't going to stop them, they'll claim more and more.

Read Robert Bork's "The Tempting of America," Chap. 2, last section of Chap. 7, and the discussion of B. Ackerman in Chap. 9.

Anyone can call anything "slavery," but that by itself doesn't make it so. Frankly, I don't think there's anything of "slavery" in the obligation to help maintain a community. It's a truism as old as Aristotle (I think it was him) saying "Man is an animal that lives in a community." Your questioner's implication that selfishness is a virtue is only as old, by comparison, as Ayn Rand. I don't know of anyone else through all history who has made this claim, nor do I know of anyone except her acolytes who take it seriously.

buckeye

Nope, in fact it is the reason that the forefathers fought for independence, and what they built safeguards against in the new government.

No, he doesn't have unlimited power, but he keeps trying. But that problem will be solved with upcoming elections and after 2012.

I don't believe that. The government relies on the people as much as the people rely on them. Think about it, the government gets their money from our tax and then redistributes it. Without the people, there will be no government.

It is the dumbing down of the USA as in the movie Idiocracy.