Two Strategies for Taking Back America: Pressure from Above, Pressure from Below
The conservative national debate is raging with the question "How Do We Take Back America?!" Before I propose my suggested answer that I call "pressure from above and pressure from below", we have to understand how we lost it. So, let's review.
For over a century now, leftists a/k/a "progressives" have undermined the Constitutional Republic that the Founding Fathers entrusted to us. Liberal demagogues have twisted and perverted the role of the federal government in the name of "compassion" and "rights", and erected a bloated, bankrupt, tyrannical, out of control tax-spend-borrow despotism in place of the Republic. Most clear thinking and patriotic Americans realize that it is about to collapse like a house of cards! Peruse leftists/liberal ideological and political rhetoric and it will be abundantly clear that these leftists do not *misunderstand* the concept of "enumerated powers", they simply hold it in utter contempt. That's why they are always advocating, promoting and campaigning on schemes to "re-imagine, remake, reinvent" America into a bigger and bigger monster. "Hope and Change". Even Obama, a "constitutional" lawyer recognizes that the Constitution is a document of "negative rights", i.e. places limits on federal powers, and sneers against the idea that it prevents them from doing whatever they want to do! So, the question of the hour is: WHAT DO WE DO TO TAKE AMERICA BACK?
But are the liberals/leftists ALONE to blame for this chaos? Or do conservatives need to recognize our own failures and contributions to the mess. Personally, I think the right is guilty of a knee-jerk reaction to the abuses of the left (especially in the form of judicial activism, or "legislating from the bench"), and empowered the Republican RINO's to add even MORE confusion to the constitutional disorder. In pursuit of preserving certain social and moral foundations, well meaning as they were, some of those "victories" were not achieved by Constitutional means, with respect to the original intent of the founders. As much as I agree with them in moral principle, the end does not justify the means. Our side abandoned constitutional principle in pursuit of "pragmatic" solutions, and took hold of the "ring of power".
Take for example, gay marriage. Is it any less morally reprehensible to us than slavery was to the founding fathers? And yet, after the Constitution was ratified, did they pass federal legislation (e.g. something equivalent to the Defense of Marriage Act) to impose the abolition of slavery on the states?! No! They left it to the states, territories and the people to decide the issue freely, believing that the Constitution did not empower the federal government to do so. (Of course, this is a fact capitalized and misrepresented by subversive historical revisionists to undermine our understanding of the founding principles, and to denigrate the founders as if they DID affirm slavery.)
Well, progress in that area WAS being achieved, but it wasn't "perfect". After decades of vociferous debate no less incendiary than today's arguments, the matter was ultimately settled in the aftermath of the civil war. As sad as that is, it may come down to war for us too, although I think that it would be a highly destructive alternative. If we are to avoid it, we must recognize the fact that as surely as moral evil destroys social unity, so does infidelity to the Constitution. We're in a mess from both directions. I'd rather stand on both moral AND constitutional TRUTH and let God judge between the right and the wrong, even if it results in war. Intractable unrepentance on the part of large sectors of society IS the province of the Supreme and Righteous Judge. Do we REALLY believe that?
The point of all that is to say : two wrongs never make a right. If goodness and rightness are to endure, it must be lawful, i.e. CONSTITUTIONAL. Heritage Foundation writer Andrew Sumereau succinctly states:
"The purpose of the United States Constitution as written, was twofold: first, to form a more perfect union of the states after the chaos experienced under the Articles of Confederation, and second, to limit the powers of the new federal government and thus avoid the tyranny into which history had shown a sovereign national government had always developed."
Americans are finally waking up to the need to cuff the federal government with the chains of the Constitution. But if we are to SUCCEED, with God's blessings, we MUST educate ourselves on the Constitution, its intentions and proper applications and fight this battle with INTEGRITY. No more short-lived, quick fixes that make us feel good, or powerful, but do violence to the fabric of republican order. The "right" needs to stop the knee jerk reactions that are all too evidently on display in the public debates and find out what remedies ARE available to us.
There are two things that I would recommend that we pursue in my strategy of "Pressure from Above, Pressure from Below":
1) Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment! The Constitution originally empowered the STATE Senate to elect the FEDERAL Senate. The intent was to balance the power between federal and state governments. When the 17th Amendment was passed, it put disproportionate representation in the hands of a direct vote of the people (closer to the "democracy" that the founders rejected!), which destroyed the vertical separation of powers dynamic they intended. Consequently, the U.S. Senate became like Santa's elves, dispensing "goodies" that it obtained by enacting all kinds of legislative mandates imposed on the states, requiring them not only to comply and fund them, and resulted in massive transference and redistribution of wealth between states. Why should the residents of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Florida be required to pay for the ridiculous spending excesses of California and New York? The founders NEVER envisioned such a tyranny.
2) Revive the Tenth Amendment! One of the most powerful weapons in the arsenal entrusted to us by the founders is the Tenth Amendment in the Bill of Rights. It states:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."
Note the introduction of the "Enumerated Powers Act". Andrew Grossman writes: "The Act would require that all legislation introduced in Congress must contain a concise explanation of the constitutional authority empowering Congress to enact it. Failure to comply would make a bill subject to a point of order, a procedural device to delay consideration until the problem is corrected or the objection overruled." Instead of shouting at Town Hall meetings, citizens need to actively promote this legislation to their representatives!
Secondly, there is an active "state sovereignty" movement under way in the state legislatures, re-asserting the Tenth Amendment. Pressure from above MUST be met by pressure from below! The statists recognize the clear threat that the Tenth Amendment poses to them, too! Consequently, the left is getting more and more unhinged at the prospect of having the Tenth Amendment applied to them as the means to curb their power grabs. Their hypocrisy is exposed by AmericanThinker.com columnist, Mark J. Fitzgibbons: "The Left's new enemy: 'Tenthers'".
"Some on the left see them as radical and infinitely more dangerous than the birthers. As one leftwing blogger put it, "They are the fringe [among] the Birthers, the Teabaggers, the Tin Hatters, . . . the Racists, the Psychos, and just the plain ignorant."
Who are the dastardly people who are now unhinging the left? They are the "Tenthers," those who believe the 10th Amendment -- reserving to the states and the people all powers not delegated to the federal government nor prohibited to the states -- isn't dead letter.
America is seeing a reawakening of interest in the Constitution, particularly how it should limit government power. People realize there is some foundational flaw with what's happening in Washington, and are tired of feeling helpless.
When the President exceeds his powers, what's to countermand him? When Congress succumbs to special interests, what can people do? When the courts create rights not found in the Constitution, and deny ones that exist, what's the solution? When all three branches abdicate their role of providing checks and balances, what's to stop the corruption that flows from authoritarianism?
Americans view the Bill of Rights with an almost sacrosanct reverence of what is good and special about America. The 10th Amendment is key to a structural view of limited federal government. People are now beginning to realize it as a vital Amendment. That it may be stale or dormant does not make it meaningless.
Liberals are just in their beginning phase of denigrating the conservatives and independents who now realize one reason why we have problems with abusive, corrupt government is that the 10th Amendment has been neglected. But what's to say one of the first ten Amendments is dead letter, as some on the left suggest for ideological reasons, yet be able to deny that weakening one Amendment weakens all of them? If that's the ideological debate in which the left wants to engage, I say, bring it on.
As with nearly any ideological debate involving the Constitution, the left engages in hypocrisy. As Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center does point out, some lefties have used 10th Amendment arguments for their causes.
By exposing their insufferable, intolerant, hypocritical ideology, the left continues to add numbers to the cause of freedom."
For over a century now, leftists a/k/a "progressives" have undermined the Constitutional Republic that the Founding Fathers entrusted to us. Liberal demagogues have twisted and perverted the role of the federal government in the name of "compassion" and "rights", and erected a bloated, bankrupt, tyrannical, out of control tax-spend-borrow despotism in place of the Republic. Most clear thinking and patriotic Americans realize that it is about to collapse like a house of cards! Peruse leftists/liberal ideological and political rhetoric and it will be abundantly clear that these leftists do not *misunderstand* the concept of "enumerated powers", they simply hold it in utter contempt. That's why they are always advocating, promoting and campaigning on schemes to "re-imagine, remake, reinvent" America into a bigger and bigger monster. "Hope and Change". Even Obama, a "constitutional" lawyer recognizes that the Constitution is a document of "negative rights", i.e. places limits on federal powers, and sneers against the idea that it prevents them from doing whatever they want to do! So, the question of the hour is: WHAT DO WE DO TO TAKE AMERICA BACK?
But are the liberals/leftists ALONE to blame for this chaos? Or do conservatives need to recognize our own failures and contributions to the mess. Personally, I think the right is guilty of a knee-jerk reaction to the abuses of the left (especially in the form of judicial activism, or "legislating from the bench"), and empowered the Republican RINO's to add even MORE confusion to the constitutional disorder. In pursuit of preserving certain social and moral foundations, well meaning as they were, some of those "victories" were not achieved by Constitutional means, with respect to the original intent of the founders. As much as I agree with them in moral principle, the end does not justify the means. Our side abandoned constitutional principle in pursuit of "pragmatic" solutions, and took hold of the "ring of power".
Take for example, gay marriage. Is it any less morally reprehensible to us than slavery was to the founding fathers? And yet, after the Constitution was ratified, did they pass federal legislation (e.g. something equivalent to the Defense of Marriage Act) to impose the abolition of slavery on the states?! No! They left it to the states, territories and the people to decide the issue freely, believing that the Constitution did not empower the federal government to do so. (Of course, this is a fact capitalized and misrepresented by subversive historical revisionists to undermine our understanding of the founding principles, and to denigrate the founders as if they DID affirm slavery.)
The point of all that is to say : two wrongs never make a right. If goodness and rightness are to endure, it must be lawful, i.e. CONSTITUTIONAL. Heritage Foundation writer Andrew Sumereau succinctly states:
"The purpose of the United States Constitution as written, was twofold: first, to form a more perfect union of the states after the chaos experienced under the Articles of Confederation, and second, to limit the powers of the new federal government and thus avoid the tyranny into which history had shown a sovereign national government had always developed."
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."
Secondly, there is an active "state sovereignty" movement under way in the state legislatures, re-asserting the Tenth Amendment. Pressure from above MUST be met by pressure from below! The statists recognize the clear threat that the Tenth Amendment poses to them, too! Consequently, the left is getting more and more unhinged at the prospect of having the Tenth Amendment applied to them as the means to curb their power grabs. Their hypocrisy is exposed by AmericanThinker.com columnist, Mark J. Fitzgibbons: "The Left's new enemy: 'Tenthers'".
"Some on the left see them as radical and infinitely more dangerous than the birthers. As one leftwing blogger put it, "They are the fringe [among] the Birthers, the Teabaggers, the Tin Hatters, . . . the Racists, the Psychos, and just the plain ignorant."
Who are the dastardly people who are now unhinging the left? They are the "Tenthers," those who believe the 10th Amendment -- reserving to the states and the people all powers not delegated to the federal government nor prohibited to the states -- isn't dead letter.
America is seeing a reawakening of interest in the Constitution, particularly how it should limit government power. People realize there is some foundational flaw with what's happening in Washington, and are tired of feeling helpless.
When the President exceeds his powers, what's to countermand him? When Congress succumbs to special interests, what can people do? When the courts create rights not found in the Constitution, and deny ones that exist, what's the solution? When all three branches abdicate their role of providing checks and balances, what's to stop the corruption that flows from authoritarianism?
Americans view the Bill of Rights with an almost sacrosanct reverence of what is good and special about America. The 10th Amendment is key to a structural view of limited federal government. People are now beginning to realize it as a vital Amendment. That it may be stale or dormant does not make it meaningless.
Liberals are just in their beginning phase of denigrating the conservatives and independents who now realize one reason why we have problems with abusive, corrupt government is that the 10th Amendment has been neglected. But what's to say one of the first ten Amendments is dead letter, as some on the left suggest for ideological reasons, yet be able to deny that weakening one Amendment weakens all of them? If that's the ideological debate in which the left wants to engage, I say, bring it on.
As with nearly any ideological debate involving the Constitution, the left engages in hypocrisy. As Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center does point out, some lefties have used 10th Amendment arguments for their causes.
By exposing their insufferable, intolerant, hypocritical ideology, the left continues to add numbers to the cause of freedom."
Labels: Constitution, Tenth Amendment
posted by Sillie Lizzie @ 9/15/2009 11:32:00 PM
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