Yesterday, in part one of this article, I introduced the federal usurpations of our liberties that mirror those of King George III, in particular of our civil liberties. Today I conclude with infringements of our state sovereignty and examples of general incompetence by our now federal overlords.
State Sovereignty
- 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.”—is essentially non-existent. The states have retained almost no sovereignty or power in federal courts.
- The federal courts have unilaterally re-defined marriage, in defiance of state and of even federal law.
- Federal courts maintain that activities conducted within a state indirectly affect interstate commerce. Therefore, those activities are subject to the “commerce clause” of the Constitution, placing them within federal jurisdiction. Most federal agencies exist because of this ridiculous decision.
- The Second Amendment requirement of a “well regulated militia” notwithstanding, state organized militias or “state defense forces” are highly restricted by federal law. They have been banned multiple times in the past 150 years. The federal government opposes the notion of states that can defend themselves.
- Citizens who are members of a militia cannot obtain a federal security clearance. Yet:
- 22 million Americans work for the government. That’s nearly one out of every five full time workers.
- Over five million Americans have security clearances. That is one out of every twenty full time workers. Apparently the government has a lot of secrets to keep.
Blatant Incompetence and Mismanagement
- Not only has the federal government opposed the notion of state sovereignty and the Tenth Amendment, the United States has systematically relinquished its own sovereignty. Note the Federal Reserve Act, acquiescing to the authority of the United Nations, pushing treaties like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Paris Climate Accord and forking over a truckload of gold and uranium to Iran. This last item is perhaps the worst and most embarrassing deal ever. The United States is hell-bent on relinquishing its independence to foreign bodies.
- Don’t forget the single biggest existential threat to our liberty, the federal debt, now stands at $20 trillion dollars.
- Even though the U.S. Constitution requires a declaration of war by Congress, we have been asked to send our sons and daughters to die in foreign lands without one since World War II. Congress has even abandoned providing a continuing consent to conduct a war. Consider that the conflict in the middle east has now lasted twice as long as the American war for independence.
- The federal government has allowed a porous border, even in the midst of an international “war.” The inability of the government to control immigration has become a crisis for our fiscal and physical security.
- The majority of the American west is owned by the federal government. Even in the midst of crushing debt, the federal government still opposes the sale of these lands. These lands should be owned by the states or by the people.
The Right of Local Self-Government
This list is just a sample of the ways the federal government has broken its contract with its citizens. As one starts to investigate the matter, it becomes clear that the list has the potential to grow to epic proportions. In fact, it may be easier to enumerate those few areas that the federal government has actually honored its constitutional limits. Nevertheless, it is essential that we recognize how our rights have dwindled, while the might and power of Washington D.C. has soared.
Texans should recall Article 1, Section 1 of the Texas Constitution: “the perpetuity of the Union depend[s] upon the preservation of the right of local self-government, unimpaired to all the States.” Given the list above, I ask you to ponder whether you believe that self-government remains unimpaired.
