Posted tagged ‘10th Amendment’

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Blue State California Actually Agrees With Red State Texas: The Federal Gov. Has Too Much Power!

February 2, 2017

Election or referendum in United States of America. Calexit - California is secede From USA. California republic Independence Campaign. Vector illustration. Hashtag Calexit on USA flag.

Is California going all Texas on us? Texas is known for its independence. It’s not fond of the Federal government mandating what it has to do. Remember the Texit movement? Does the recent Calexit movement mean that California is seeing the light that the Federal government has too much power?

The only difference between the Texit and the Calexit is the media and the elites think it is cool when California talks secession, but not so much when Texas talks secession. Read this article, “Can Texas Legally Secede From The United States?” from June of this year. It paints a bleak picture for the Texit movement.

In this article titled, Calexit: Record Number Of Californians Support Secession, New Poll Finds, one in three California residents are in favor of a “peaceful withdrawal” from the Union. Why the sudden move toward states rights? If you guessed because they don’t like Trump’s potential executive orders you guessed correctly. The only reason they would be afraid of the Presidential over reach is if the position of the Presidency had the power to be lord over the States.

In this article, California is Threatening To Cut Off Funds to Washington, California is looking for ways to suspend financial payments to Washington. I have always thought this is a great idea. If you don’t send the Federal Government money, it has nothing to use for extortion.

Image result for texit labels

The power of our chief executive increased under George W. Bush. It grew exponentially with Obama’s executive orders that were never seriously challenged by the opposition party. Now that the President is not a progressive central planning democrat, the left thinks the position has too much power. I agree with them. The Federal government in general and the Presidency in particular have usurped powers that the Constitution never gave them.

10th AMENDMENT

Even though California is tardy, welcome to the 10th amendment party. The 10th Amendment 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.”

This means that the Federal Government only has the powers enumerated in Articles 1 through 6 of the Constitution. Any powers not listed, are reserved to the States or the people.

CAN WE AGREE?

We should all agree that the Federal Government has too much power. Can we all work together to roll back the powers that the Federal Government has usurped from us? We should not wait until the other party wins before we talk about how big the Government has grown. If both sides of the aisle work together to roll back Government power we will be able to do it through the political and legal process.

If we wait any longer the only choice is for states to actually attempt secession. The cost of this has proven to be very high, look at the Civil War. The only thing keeping states from seceding is the power we have allowed the Federal Government to usurp.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who I have a great deal of respect for, said: “If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede.” I respectfully disagree with Justice Scalia.

The Declaration of Independence (click here) is a founding document that states the reasons why we wanted to secede from the British Empire. Here is what it says:

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for on people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”…………

“…….Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…….”

Our country seceded from what our founders saw as a despotic British Empire. If secession, was used by our foundering fathers, isn’t it our birth right as sons of these founders to use the same process to, “dissolve the political bands which have connected us“, when Government becomes tyrannical?

Fortunately we don’t have to reach the point of secession if both Red and Blue States can agree that the Federal Government has too much power. We can not just believe this when the opposition party has the power in Washington. We have to do something about it when our own party is in power or this will end badly.

 

Related Article – Walter E. Williams: The State Against Liberty, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Walter E. Williams: The Constitution, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – A Lesson From Atlas Shrugged, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – “I’m From The Government And I’m Here To Help.“, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Why Do People Think The Government Is The Economy?, at austrianaddict.com.

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Let’s Fight Tyranny – Walter E. Williams

December 6, 2016

In a world of subjective value, there is a high cost of agreement. Our founders understood that voluntarily cooperate under general rules produced the highest amount of satisfaction for the most individuals. When people are forced into cooperating using Government power, the vast majority of people aren’t satisfied.

Our constitutional government put shackles on government power and made the individual sovereign. Politicians and government bureaucrats don’t want us to understand that the individual is the ultimate threat to state power. We need to wake up and claim it.

Walter E. Williams talks about the high cost in this article titled Let’s Fight Tyranny (click here). Here are some excerpts from the article.

“For more than a half-century, it has become abundantly clear that our nation faces increasing irreconcilable differences. At the root is the fact that there is one group of Americans who mostly want to be left alone and live according to the rule of law and the dictates of the U.S. constitution while another group of Americans wants to control the lives of others and ignore both the rule of law and constitutional restraints on the federal government. Should those Americans who favor the rule of law and constitutional government fight against or yield to those Americans who have contempt for the rule of law and constitutional government?”

“Some Americans  prefer to manage their own health care needs. Others wish to have the federal government dictate their health care. Some Americans want their earnings to be taxed only for the constitutionally mandated functions of the federal government, which are outlined in Article 1, Section 8 of   the Constitution. Others think American earnings should be taxed for anything on which Congress can muster a majority vote……The list of irreconcilable differences among the American people is nearly without end. These differences survive because of the timidity of those offended and the brute power of the federal government.”

“I think reconciliation is impossible; therefore, separation is the only long-term peaceful solution. Separation and independence do not require that liberty-loving Americans overthrow the federal government.”

“You say, “All those government acts that you say violate the rule of law and the Constitution have been ruled constitutional by the courts!” That’s true. The courts have twisted the Constitution, but Thomas Jefferson warned, “To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions (is) a very dangerous doctrine indeed and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.”

“State governors and legislators ought to summon up the courage our Founding Fathers had in their response to the fifth Congress’ Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. Written by Jefferson and James Madison, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 and 1799 stated that those states’ legislatures considered the Alien and Sedition Acts unconstitutional……the several States…….are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government….and ….whensoever the general government assumes delegated powers, its acts are authoritative, void, and of no force.” The 10th amendment holds, “The powers not delegated to the U.S. by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

“The federal government should not be permitted to determine the scope of its own powers. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist No. 28, said, “The State government will, in all possible contingencies, afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.“
“Former slave Frederick Douglass advised: “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. …. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” We Americans appear to have very limited endurance in the face of tyrannical oppression.“
RELATED ARTICLE FROM MISES.ORG
Here is another great article from mises.org titled Secede And Decentralize: An Open Letter To Clinton Supporters.
Here is an excerpt from the article:”What your feeling (Clinton supporters), this hopelessness, this feeling that you’re no longer represented, this feeling that people other than you are now able to dictate your way of life, this is all a result of the massive expansion of the Federal government. Elections have long ceased being voting for someone you think represents the lifestyle you want to live and are, in practice, an exercise on determining whether or not you get to impose you preferred lifestyle on someone else.”
“A weak federal government would produce little divisiveness because there is little to be divided over. A strong Federal government would produce significant divisiveness since there is much to be divided over. It also goes to say that an absolute government would create absolute division while the absence of government would not produce a division because there isn’t any risk of having your life dictated by distant populations.”

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