Why I am a Constitutionalist
May 22nd, 2010 by David Anderson
The Constitution has endured the test of time not because we just don’t like change. It is one of the amazing documents ever devised. It was based upon timeless principles inspired by the lessons of our Creator. The Constitution was based upon a theological understanding of the flawed nature of humanity. Humans are flawed and corrupted by power. The more power, the greater the potential for corruption. The Constitution limited the power of government and protected the power of the individual. It is a brilliant system of checks and balances. There are 5 branches of government in the federal sphere of influence, the states, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Executive, and the judiciary. The Congress is the supreme branch when combined with both houses. As we saw in the Reconstruction Era, a 2/3′s majority of Congress can pretty much run the show. The idea of the Constitution is based upon the fact that the legitimacy of government comes from the people it serves and the rights of the people come from the Creator. It was a departure from the doctrine of a divine right of monarchs to rule. Instead of the right to rule being seen as a direct one. It is a delegated one.
In today’s world that is meaningful to understand. Government does not have a right to do anything it wants. A government that can will by its nature be corrupted and become incompetent by taking on too much or tyrannical by controlling too much.
The federal government has had a few major successes. The FDIC has eliminated the bank panic which caused several depressions in our history. The Civil Rights Laws brought freedom to every American. The Security and Exchange Commission has helped keep confidence in our financial markets. The Army Corps of Engineers has helped bring us cleaner water and sound infrastructure. The Rural Electrification Administration helped transform America and create demand for electrical appliances. These successes led to hubris. Social Security helped eliminate extreme poverty among seniors who could no longer work.
The federal government had many more failures than successes and even the successes often came at a price. Social Security was poorly planned and had no ownership or investment component. It was a wealth transfer from the younger generation to the older instead of Singapore or Chilean success in wealth creation. It became a subject to demographic shifts and needed ever increasing taxes. The National Recovery Board was a complete failure. Welfare destroyed families and created generational poverty. Education only got worse with federal involvement. The more the involvement the worse it got. HEW gave way to the Department of Education which added Goals 2000. The feds claimed the problem was there was not enough control by them. They added No Child Left Behind which seemed like no stone left unturned in the search for power. The federal government pressures towards a national curriculum. It tells schools who can teach and who can not. It tells us when we can pray and when we can not. It tells us what is considered learning and what is not. It provides only a fraction of the money and most of that is for special needs children in need of additional assistance, yet it s assuming controlling interest. Medicare threatens to bankrupt the country because there is not the will to make it pay for itself. Hundreds of programs have no basis of cost effective standards yet they remain funded. There is much duplication WIC, Foodstamps, and summer lunch programs several other programs all are aimed at providing food with a dizzying array of qualifications. Overlapping programs exist in arts and humanities, yet no one claims that the quality of the arts has increased. Public housing became the nation’s largest slum program. Section 8 has huge waiting lists because it doesn’t give enough power to bureaucrats. Legal Aid funded helped design divorces and break up families. OSHA became a tool of the labor movement more than policing safety standards. Nixon used it to shake down business leaders for competition. The income tax has driven away businesses to other shores. It has taken away the freedom of churches. It has allowed the manipulation of any area of life. EPA could have disappeared 30 years ago and few would have noticed. It has achieved some important gains, but most of its regulatory changes have no real benefit. It has done little good and more harm. Its regulations have killed more people than it saved. The FDA spends years keeping drugs off the market and costs millions of lives in order to prevent 50 or 60 people from having a bad reaction then they approve drugs that do more damage than good. Private underwriting agencies do a much superior job in electrical and electronics with greater efficiency and in less time. Everything the federal government touches seems to cost more and work slower.
The reason is that the government has lost touch with its purpose. It is like a train leaving its tracks because it thinks it can be a better truck than the trucks. It will eventually come to a screeching halt. If the federal government tries to be a business, church, family, or local community, it will fail. When the federal government focuses on the big picture and stays within its purpose, it succeeds. Every problem does not automatically mean a federal solution.
This is the core issue that shall determine how we live. Supporting the Constitution is not extreme.
The last time I checked, that is what everyone is suppose to do. They even take an oath of office based upon it, but most pols do not take it any more seriously than the Constitution itself. I believe that most of our nation’s problems have their roots in avoiding the Constitution. The pending bankruptcy of America is due to our attitude of thinking that we can out smart our nature. Nations all around the world have failed. Governments have fallen. Economies have completely collapsed. France has had 7 Republics in the time we had 1. Most of the nations of the world are under Constitutions less than 60 years old. Few have the freedom that we do. There is something unique in the Constitution that is worth keeping.
The first questions that we as voters should ask is do you believe bills and programs should be judged first on the basis of whether or not the constitution authorizes the action? Do you believe the in the tenth amendment? Do you believe government exists to protect the rights of the individual (life, liberty, and property) or to take care of the needs of the individual?
We as voters have been the problem. We are the solution.
The first questions that we as voters should ask is do you believe bills and programs should be judged first on the basis of whether or not the constitution authorizes the action?
In a post about faithfulness to the Constitution, are you seriously suggesting the judiciary should be inserted into the legislative process?
Somebody needs to watch Schoolhouse Rock again.
Only laws are judged. Bills are not judged, they are debated and voted on.
If you want your representative to apply your dubious constitutional theories to the debate and to his vote, go ahead and convince him; you have the right to petition your government. It’s a free country.
If you want a law to be judged, take it to the Supreme Court.
Wow, you really don’t understand the Constitution. I am calling upon the legislators and the President to judge whether or not the bill is faithful to the Constitution before it is made law. Judges don’t run for election so your comment makes no sense. I was obviously refering to elected officials. Judging is verb not a noun. You must be tired.
George Washington’s vetos were only for one reason. He did not believe the Constitution supported the legislation. He would not veto for personal opinons. Adams got in trouble because he didn’t do it. Madison and Jefferson believed that legislation should be drafted based upon the ennumerated powers.
There is no where in the Constitution that says the Supreme Court is the first arbitar of what is Constitutional. In fact, many of our founders where horrified at the idea of judicial review usurped by the court upon itself. Others were supportive because it is based upon the fact that the court can not enforce a law that is unconstitutional. Congress shouldn’t pass one either. The states should condemn it. The Court is the weakest branch. Congress is the Supreme branch.
I am calling upon the legislators and the President to judge whether or not the bill is faithful to the Constitution before it is made law.
You are free to ask your representative to bring those issues to the debate. That is how it is done. If you want your theories to prevail, get a majority of people who believe as you do.
Face it David, you are a Tenther. A Tenther is someone who believes they have found the magic key to roll back the New Deal and the income tax, and that key is the Tenth Amendment.
It is really quite delusional.
The income tax was authorized by the 16th amendment. It has to be abolished by legislation. Once people see how well that works with a FAIR Tax or something, then we can repeal the 16th amendment.
I don’t believe in these cute little terms.
I am a Constitutionalist and that includes the tenth amendment. It is as important part of the bill of rights as the rest of them, the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, ect.
You are looking for some magic shortcut to defeat bills that keep getting passed by majority vote. There is no shortcut.
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1. Congresspeople are sworn to ‘defend the Constitution.’ Hence, this would imply an individual interpretation of the constitutionality of a bill.
2. The Supreme Court has been so politicized as to be unable to render cogent judgements. I cite Kelo as a perfect example.
The battle between the Marxist left and the Constitutionalists will not be settled politically, or in the courts.
The battle between the Marxist left and the Constitutionalists will not be settled politically, or in the courts.
Then how will it be settled, Rick?
” A Tenther is someone who believes they have found the magic key to roll back the New Deal and the income tax, and that key is the Tenth Amendment.”
Awesome! Way to ascribe the worst motives to anyone who believes that the government closest to the people is the best and most responsive!
Maybe we should just roll up the 10th amendment and smoke it. Don’t know why those stupid founders put it in there to begin with. Those guys were idiots.
Absolutely right Dave, it is Anon’s way of saying that he/she doesn’ believe in part of the Constitution but is unwilling to debate it on its merits.
The last sentence of the post makes crystal clear that I believe the solution is an informed electorate willing to depend less on government as the solution. There are no magic bullets. No where did I advocate an end run around any thing. I often just ignore the red herrings they toss up, but it is fun when someone straightens them out.
Government has failed us in many ways. We need to admit its failures and admit its successes so we can build on the good and move beyond the bad.
Yes, David, the checks and balances are numerous, and anon is correct. If you don’t like what is happening, get your people elected or get the Supreme Court to see it your way, Or get a President to veto it. You seem frustrated that none of those things is happening for you.
“Such-and-such is a failure” can easily be rectified through legislation. I guess your arguments haven’t quite caught on yet.
The battle between the Marxist left and the Constitutionalists will not be settled politically, or in the courts.
Rick is correct. Here ishow it will go down.
I have noticed that Rick hasn’t returned to define his chest-thumping bluster. I think he’s pulling a Rand.
Mullah Rick will return shortly with another tinpot fatwa.
Apologies to mullahs.
Geek’s #11 is spot-on. Discussion, complaining and arguing is all fine and dandy, but ultimately it comes down to what Geek stated.
LG is never spot on. What do you think the point is LG? Why do you think I support the tea party, Rubio, Paul, and others. Making the case for Constitutional government is the first step.. The way to win is to make the case. That is how it happens. I obviously make the case on the streets, in the papers, and as part of campaign committees. I agree that voters have disregarded the Constitution and it is bankrupting us. We have to get back to it. Republicans and Democrats have both been guilty.
The reason is that voters wanted them to do it. Few have had the courage to say the voters the answer to every problem is not a government progam. Some are, but others are not. We have to change conventional wisdom and replace it with real wisdom.
David: I’ll agree that LG is rarely spot-on, but in this case he is. You can make your case on the streets and elsewhere, but if it doesn’t translate into votes at the ballot box, ultimately it’s for naught.
David and Rand Paul are both suffering from mounting frustration as they begin to realize their wacked-out theories are not successful in the marketplace of ideas.
David, please make your case. As I see it, your case is a series of internal purges that have alienated your fellow Republicans. The movement seems to be rife with people that are viewed by the majority of the electorate as crackpots. Add to it that the people that seem to be attracted to it and are claiming the mantle of “constitutionalist” or “Tea partier” or “patriot” are pretty much the same people that have been rejected time and time again at the ballot box (I’m thinking locally here) running as outside-the-mainstream Republicans.
So go ahead, make your case. But I hope you have a plan B.
Perhaps David’s plan B resembles Rick’s.
The battle between the Marxist left and the Constitutionalists will not be settled politically, or in the courts.
No, David wants to keep electing Republicans of any stripe. However, he is looking for some procedural gimmick that will eliminate bills from consideration that do not pass the test of the extreme right.
However,
he is lookingDemocrats govern byfor someprocedural gimmicks thatwill eliminate bills from consideration that do notwould never pass the test ofthe extreme righteven the most basic adherence to anything the Constitution represents.How true! The electoral success is building or haven’t you noticed? It will continue to build as people are educated. Liberalism is a spent force. Progressivism has been exposed as lacking. The only place left for people to turn is to each other under the watchful eye of Providence. Government is not solving the problem. It is the problem.
Then how will it be settled, Rick?
The same way all vast cultural schisms have been settled; either disintegration of the society, or, one side gains hegemony over the other through force.
I predict, as I have for at least thirty years, secession; from Idaho to Texas, including Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Eventually, the United Sociaist States will fail (socialist states always fail), starting with California.
I predict, as I have for at least thirty years, secession; from Idaho to Texas, including Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
OK, as long as we secure the borders. When they stop getting their federal checks, there will be a tsunami of refugees. Start building the wall now.
It won’t be painless, but it will be much less so than what the welfare states that will constitute the ‘union’ will undergo once the economy collapses. The U.S. has a $12-trillion debt which is projected to grow to 120% of GDP by 2016. Hence, U.S. currency is rapidly becoming nothing but worthless paper. And remember, as taxes rise, the productive flee.…see CA, RI, CN, NY.
Have you seen what is happening in the ultimate welfare and open-immigration state, California? This is your future.
Keep predicting it long enough and it will eventually come true. Not in your lifetime, however. By the way, Rick, since all your US currency is now “worthless paper,” will you give it to me?
I said it’s ‘rapidly becoming‘ worthless; check the accurate $$$ v. gold barometer. However, I will leave you a couple of wheelbarrows full after the secession.
And no, Jason, it’s not wheelbarrel.