There are 17 of them. And (perhaps surprisingly to some) none relates to Health Care, or Education, or endowing the Arts, or Prescription Drugs...
The Constitution is very specific. It tells Congress what particular powers it has, and then it very emphatically says that any powers are NOT Congress'...but belong to the States and to The People.
It's not a difficult concept. And it's not complicated language. It's perfectly clear for any reader of English.
How then did we end up with an Imperial State that interferes in every facet of our lives, and is seeking ever more control until it will literally dictate our thoughts and behavior from birth to death?
Who can we point to? Who are the monsters responsible? Who's fault is it that our government is totally out-of-control?
Who took the government 'of the people, by the people and for the people' that our Founders bequeathed us and transformed it into a government by ambitious, greedy, self-serving, dictatorial Elites?
Who let these vipers take over our once great citizens' government? Who allowed this perversion of our Founders' vision, principles and greatest achievement?
Have you guessed yet? Are you blushing?
"The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance."
I think it's safe to say we have not been vigilant in making sure the government obeys the Constitution. If the Congress won't, and the President won't, and the Supreme Court won't, what can be done?
We have forgotten that WE are the Sovereign from which all governing power comes. The Congress, The President and even the Supreme Court must answer to us...not the other way around. But we have fallen asleep...and allowed ourselves to become Subjects rather than Citizens.
It is our shame, and our fault. We are the malfeasant ones. We are to blame.
We have forgotten that the power of the government is merely loaned to it by us. And we have allowed an ambitious, greedy, self-righteous, power-hungry few to convince us that government is our master, not our servant.
It is time that We The People awaken, and remember who we are, and take our Power and our Country back!
wtp
I know how it happened. I can point to the examples I see in my own everyday life.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents thought FDR was wrong but did nothing to fight his policies because it was to stressful.
My parents don't want to hear about politics. That is why their generation let this country take the final walk down the plank in the sixties because talking about politics is to stressful. They get pissed when I state that the reason I have to be political is because they failed to guard my rights from what I complain about, because it was to stressful. So if they do not like the fact I talk about politics, blame themselves. Not happy campers, but deep down they have to know it to be true. Even if they will not admit it.
My wife doesn't want to hear talk radio, TV or me talk politics because it is to stressful. So, I do not want to hear her bitch when I have to leave home one day to fight to save my country for my baby son because 3 generations of people around me found it to stressful to get up off their ass and take notice that our birthright of freedom, liberty, and the God given right to be left alone is volated by a machine that daily becomes more a totalitarian state.
I do get stressed when I talk, read, blog about politics. But I do it becuase I know that it is a hell of a lot less stressful than being on the incoming side of ordinance or watching my family being loaded up in rail cars after undergoing a dynamic entry because Constitutional rights are being practiced.
It is stressful swimming against a tide of hate, ingnorance and sloth. But I will keep doing it because it is the right thing to do. And, I never want my son to have to say to me,"Why didn't you do anything?". That shame would be the one thing to stressful to bear.
Slingy, I featured this post on The Halfbaked Sourdough today. This is good work! I really believe that the people are waking up. I just hope we don't lose our steam before we get a chance to vote a bunch of evil people OUT of congress in 2010. We need to keep the pressure up. Your post will really help. Thanks! :o)
ReplyDeleteThis post is right on Gunslinger. I'm 'angering' my friends and family by my newfound passions with little things such as saving the constitution.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to awaken the 'oh, we just disagree' and the don't-want-to-think-about-it people I know with questions like "what are the good policies of BHO, I would like to know what they are...?" but I get no responses. Hmmm...
Anyway, hope your computer problems are sorted and you can keep on blessing us with awesome posts! Cheers, LisaG in NZ
Congress IS corrupt and has taken many powers it doesn't rightly have BUT Article I Section 8 isn't going to work against health care:
ReplyDelete"The Congress shall have power to ... provide for the ... general welfare of the United States ..."
Ok, so talking about... the ambitious, greedy, self-righteous power hungry few... did anyone see the news report this morning with Obama confirming Ben Bernanke continuing as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank?
ReplyDeleteFirst we see the president give the press conference dressed nice and casually in a white shirt, unbuttoned - no tie - like he had been pulling an all-nighter, you know sleeves rolled up, working hard for us all, thrashing out a deal etc....
Then in walks Bernanke dressed just the same, thanking his family, his friends for their support etc.
Thanking them for what? For supporting him in his role of making more money than god on the interest that the FRB charges - and that every tax payer (worker) in the US pays back on behalf of the government
Oh, pleeeze Do they think that we are that stupid?
This is totally reminicent of Tony Blair talking outside his home to the press with a mug of tea in his hand, sleeves rolled up, like every man's working man... lets appeal to the masses, pretend I am just like them.
What a crock of shit.
Like Bernanke is doing us all a favor in accepting the 'challenge' of chairmanship again, and like our President had any say in the matter.
Oh puhleeze. Perhaps its just me. Am I such a cynic now?
Life is Short but Wide.
I've always pegged the beginning at the abuse of the Interstate Commerce clause by FDR.My favorite founding father, Fisher Ames,believed the Constitution itself gave too much opportunity to nationalist power-grabbers,and refused to sign it.From my readings of American History in general,it has ALWAYS been a delicate matter of democracy surviving,that most of the people most of the time couldn't have cared less. An elite is always going to rule,it's a question of whether by true merit or by thuggery.Color me a misanthrope...
ReplyDeleteAnd another thing...this particular Congress (in general)does not give 2 shits about "the People" nor the legality of their actions (in a decadent society,inept scum rises to the top).I just finished reading "Evil Genes:Why Rome Fell,Hitler Rose,Enron Failed,and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend" by Barbara Oakley.Good book.I recommend.
ReplyDelete"It is our shame, and our fault. We are the malfeasant ones. We are to blame."
ReplyDeleteExcellent post, and Yes, it is our fault and we are to blame.
We The People gave it up, grandparents, parents and definitely ourselves, bit by bit, thinking we were getting something for nothing, free education (but 'educated' into ignorance of what was worth knowing and vital to be known), for govt provided services and care (but at the expense of our right to our lives and property and self responsibility), for govt stepping in and making us behave civilly (but at the expense of our no longer understanding what the meaning and requirements of civil behavior is)... but there is no free Free.
As dire as things are, there is a bright light, people are finally beginning to wake up, finally beginning to see the peril we've let gain power over us... and that spreading awareness, if we will each work to keep it burning bright, we can turn it around.
Yes! We! Can!
BTW, as to Ninbetween's "The Congress shall have power to ... provide for the ... general welfare of the United States ...", it NEVER meant what it has been twisted into (nor the commerce clause), a blank check for doing anything any pol pines for. If you have doubts of that, or are unsure of how to argue against such notions, read the Preamble here, and then scroll down and read what ideas informed the Founders, what understanding and concerns they had, and how such liberality was argued against before the Supreme Court, and how an outstanding early Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Story, dealt with it, such as:
"§ 462. And, here, we must guard ourselves against an error, which is too often allowed to creep into the discussions upon this subject. The preamble never can be resorted to, to enlarge the powers confided to the general government, or any of its departments. It cannot confer any power per se; it can never amount, by implication, to an enlargement of any power expressly given. It can never be the legitimate source of any implied power, when otherwise withdrawn from the constitution. Its true office is to expound the nature, and extent, and application of the powers actually conferred by the constitution, and not substantively to create them. . . ."
Or President Monroe,
"...The people, the highest authority known to our system, from whom all our institutions spring and on whom they depend, formed it. Had the people of the several States thought proper to incorporate themselves into one community, under one government, they might have done it. They had the power, and there was nothing then nor is there anything now, should they be so disposed, to prevent it. They wisely stopped, however, ..."
There Is No More Vital Action you can take, now, today, than to read, study and come to understand our constitution, and then talk to others about it, demand that YOUR elected officials explain how and why they don't understand it, or if they do, how they explain acting contrary to it.
We're already seeing the destruction which change for change's sake can do, now it is time to put some effort into understanding what real change is required, and is required of us.
Learn it. Spread it. That is the ONLY fight that can save us from destruction.
Linked to you in my new post.
ReplyDeleteI can't agree with the premise. There are quite a few of us who do not deserve the current government. The problem is those pesky masses. How can people who preach merit (which involves hard work) compete with thugs who can appeal to the Jerry Springer mindset. I like the Starship Troopers approach myself.
ReplyDelete