1.10.2010

THE TENTH ADMENDMENT


"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."


“The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men.”-Samuel Adams

What was it that set the founders apart from today’s crooked, absolutely inept politician? What was it? Is it just that there’s so much more money in existence? Well, how did that happen? Is it just that there are so many more ways that they can screw up? Well, how did that happen? Is it just that they have invaded so many areas of our lives, and there are so many more opportunities for them to run roughshod, and to reign their tyranny and wreak their havoc on it? Well, how did that happen?

It happened because there’s a lack of virtue, both personal and civic. And here’s what I mean by that. Our founders, and the generation before our founders, the men that raised – think of the parents of the founders, if you will, for a moment. The men that raised, the men and women that raised the founders believed that intrusion into people’s personal business was a no-no, whether it came from the state, whether it came from your neighbor, or whether it came in any form; and that there were very, very few and limited instances where there could possibly be a community-wide situation that called for unilateral action. And so they reflected this in the way they did business and the way they governed. Should we get involved in that? No, we shouldn’t get involved in that.

They had the virtue of respect. They respected the decisions of their neighbors. They respected the decisions of people that owned private property. And they did everything they could to respect that above all else. If that property was that man’s, well, then it was his to farm. It was his to develop. It was his to build whatever he wanted upon. It was his to do as he saw fit with it. Same thing came to governing. Private property was held in high, the highest of esteem. Our founders were terrified of government. They weren’t just nervous, they were scared to death of it. I mean, literally mortified of it. With good reason. And they had the virtue to be good stewards and guardians of the people’s liberty.

There are reasons why it is impossible to expect, and it is fantasy, pure fantasy to put your faith in the 2010 elections on the national level.

And this is, putting your faith and all your eggs into 2010 congressional election basket will lead to disaster. Absolute, unmitigated disaster. Because the system is what is at fault. It doesn’t matter – get this through your heads. It does not matter the constituent parts that you send to work inside the system. Yeah, it can have a little bit of a mitigating effect. Show me the curve of growth for the government, when whatever party was running it. You can’t. It grows no matter who’s in charge of it. And that is because the system is broken. And it must be fixed. Now if we apply all our energy into electing this yahoo or that person, as good and fine as they may be, it doesn’t matter. When they get to Leviathan, Leviathan will co-opt them, strangle them, and will convert them.

How many times over and over again in 2004, 2005, and in 2006 did you hear decepticons take to the radio and TV airwaves and say, “We went to Washington to change Washington, and Washington changed us.” How many times did you hear, “Oh, we went to Washington to go fix this, and we lost our way.” No, “Oh, we went to go change it, and instead we wound up becoming part of the problem.” How many times did you hear that?So understand what it is you’re dealing with here and stop with this fantasy, this absolute waste of energy. You cannot send the most pure, pure as the wind-driven snow, conservative people to Washington and have them fix this thing. It cannot be fixed. It’s gone. It has to be dismantled. And the only way to do that is to hit the reset button. Meaning we need an Article V convention.

You get the Article V convention, and you begin the process of fixing the holes in the Constitution that these people have used to abuse it. And then you can start repealing, and then you can start nullifying because your state will have unquestioned constitutional authority, unquestioned sovereign authority to nullify. If you're not going to amend it, you’re wasting your energy. If you amend the Constitution so that all of the things that you want to nullify are already moot because they’re unconstitutional now, then your nullifications have teeth. Then your nullifications mean what you say they mean. And there’s no federal judge that can terminate your nullification.

Nullification is the idea that the people of the several States entered into a contract called the Constitution where the Federal Government was granted specific powers, most of which are found in Article One Section Eight. And that the states had not only a right, but an obligation to interpose or nullify laws passed by the Federal Government that go beyond those powers, and infringe upon the rights of “we the people”. This idea is clearly spelled out by the Tenth Amendment: 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.

It is common sense that the states must have some recourse available to them should the Federal Government overreach its powers, and infringe upon the liberty of “we the people”. Does this sound crazy? Some notes on this idea from the founders before the Constitution was ratified.

“It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system, that the State governments will, in all possible contingencies, afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.” Alexander Hamilton Federalist Papers#28

“The local or municipal authorities form distinct and independent portions of the supremacy, no more subject, within their respective spheres, to the general authority than the general authority is subject to them, within its own sphere.” James Madison Federalist Papers# 39

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” James Madison Federalist Papers#45

“Hence, a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other; at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” James Madison Federalist Papers# 51

“We may safely rely on the disposition of the state legislatures to erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority.” Alexander Hamilton Federalist Papers#85

The Federalist papers were never meant to define the Constitution; but to sell it to the general public to get it ratified. You see, the former colonist were not eager to trade a despotic centralized Government across the ocean for one on their own continent. Proof is self evident by the fact that they had to promise that a bill of rights would be added to get it ratified.

The Doctrine of Nullification was first introduced in 1798 in the Kentucky Resolution, written by Thomas Jefferson, and the Virginia resolution, written by James Madison. These were in response to the “Alien” and Sedition acts”. And in case you didn’t know, the “Alien and Sedition” acts among other things made it illegal to criticize the Government.


edited from the Mike Church Show

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sharky, this is an EXCELLENT post. I mean ... it RAWKS!!! This is what we've got to focus on, and the momentum is building! I read the parent document at your link. The "ways we can win" is an excellent road map for regaining States' rights AND RESPONSIBILITIES to correct the corruption and the arrogance. The presupposition that we the people are so far away from the arrogant elitists in Washington should be a huge wake-up call as we continue to lose our ability to govern ourselves at the hands of the great socialist wash. Thanks my friend for a great post!

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

LandShark 5150 said...

RWL -- Thank you, that means alot to me. You are right, we have regain control from DC, but we must do it right or we will continue this struggle for many generations to come. Keep the fight! sharky