Posted on 11/28/2015 9:39:00 AM PST by Jim W N
To recover their political freedom from an increasingly despotic and totalitarian federal government, the American People MUST recover their only legal bulwark of freedom against federal tyranny: the U.S. Constitution as written and originally understood and intended. The people must once again establish the Rule of Law, the key to political freedom, by reinstating the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land and the Ruler over the federal government.
To do this, the average American must familiarize himself with the Constitution and understand how it mainly limits the federal government. Below is a rough outline of the possible order of things in approaching the Constitution in a way the average American could understand.
1) Getting a good grasp of the PRESUMPTIONS of the Constitution helped by reading the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, the Declaration of Independence and certain selected Federalist Papers. The major presumptions are that
a) rights and powers are inherent in individuals and are given by God - among them are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and are the birth right of every individual and are NOT given by government,
b) the Constitution does NOT grant rights and powers to individuals but the Constitution protects those rights,
c) the powers of the federal government are CREATED and DELEGATED by individuals through the states via the Constitution by which the feds themselves are both created and LIMITED,
d) if it is not a specific, enumerated power, it is not a power of the federal government whereas the opposite is true with the states and individuals. The states and the people are presumed SOVEREIGN outside of Constitutional mandates and limitations.
2) Understanding the basic STRUCTURAL doctrines in the Constitution by reading resources with solid Constitutional-based reasoning like Robert Bork's works. The Constitution creates the federal government and is its ONLY source of legitimate power and authority. The major structure of the feds is the three branches and the separation of powers between the branches with its checks & balances of power among the branches.
Article I creates the legislative branch, Article II creates the executive branch, Article III the judicial branch, Article IV puts certain limitations on the states, Article V outlines how to amend the Constitution, and Article VI declares the Constitution and ONLY those U.S. laws PURSUANT to the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land.
3) Once you've got a hold of that, you can READ THE TEXT of the Constitution with a basic understanding.
4) Post-1900 SCOTUS decisions are generally problematic although the pre-1900 decisions are better and more helpful in accurately interpreting constitutional phrases. There are very few good resources that critically analyze SCOTUS decisions based on sound constitutional understanding, and Bork's books are one of those rare resources.
There is a strong argument that society has granted SCOTUS powers much greater power than what the ratifiers contemplated. Nowhere does the Constitution give SCOTUS solitary power to create uncontroverted universal law from the bench. SCOTUS is the branch that applies the Constitution to INDIVIDUAL CASES and CONTROVERSIES (Art III, Sec 2). Thus SCOTUS decisions, if soundly based on the Constitution, are valid but limited to precedent for like cases, thus creating a kind of constitutional common law. A SCOTUS decision that is deemed unconstitutional should be ignored and nullified by the states and the other federal branches, but not without sound Constitution-based explanation and reasons for such nullification.
5) Bork's writings also help in understanding modern PERVERTED PRESUMPTIONS that depart from the Constitutional as written and originally understood and intended. Such perversions are generally those Congressional acts and SCOTUS decisions over the last 100 years or so that have given the feds sweeping, authoritative, and actually totalitarian powers with little to no constitutional reasoning or basis for doing so. The big three perversions are
a) "The Incorporation Doctrine" - judicial misapplication of the 14th Amendment giving the feds sweeping powers not contemplated by the ratifiers of the amendment.
b) The [Interstate] "Commerce Clause" (Art I, Sec 8, Cl 3) astonishingly been expanded by Congress and ratified by SCOTUS to give the feds almost unlimited power over intrastate and local economic activities again, not contemplated by the ratifiers of the Constitution.
c) The "Necessary and Proper Clause" (Art I, Sec 8, Cl 18), originally intended to allow executive enforcement and regulation pursuant to legislation within the scope of the Constitution, the N&P Clause has been expanded beyond constitutional grounds and limits to such an extent that a quasi-fourth branch of government has been created: the Administrative State with behemoth unconstitutional bureaucracies.
Armed with this knowledge, the American People could begin to intelligently move among their elected representatives at the federal level to cut government to its constitutional size and at the state level to nullify unconstitutional federal acts, which by definition are acts of tyranny, and recover their freedoms and their Constitution that protects them.
If we don’t recover the Constitution and do it quickly, America will become just another lawless, third world banana republic. We are almost there already, IMHO.
This article deserves a ping to the Rev. War/ Founding Fathers ping list.
FReep mail me if you want on, or off, this (normally) little used ping list. I say normally because I’ve issued more pings this weekend than I have issued in the past year! There have been so many article that are pertinent.
Ping
Article V Convention of States is America’s only hope of regaining the Constitution’s promise of a Federal government with limited, enumerated powers and the Bill of Rights’ guarantees of freedom & self governance.
-PJ
More important the even the Convention of States is the American People taking ownership of THEIR Constitution and insisting on STATE SOVEREIGNTY and nullification against unconstitutional federal acts which are by definition acts of tyranny.
The Article V Convention may be necessary but it is not sufficient.
Agree. It’s that personal ownership and citizen pressure on their states to assert sovereignty & nullification that eventually will lead to an Article V convention. Sooner rather than later, I believe.
Let’s start with dismantling the unconstitutional portion of the feds which is probably about 80% or around $3 trillion worth, and reasserting state constitutional sovereignty.
That takes care of the 800 pound gorilla. The key is, again, the American people and the states taking ownership of their freedom and their Constitution. Once this all happens, and to maintain a limited government, the 17A AND 16A should and could be repealed,
We need a POTUS who is a scholar in the U.S. Constitution - TED CRUZ.
TED CRUZ - 2016
Doesn’t seem so-called conservatives are very interested in taking ownership of their Constitution. The ‘Friday Silliness Thread’ gets about 50x more replies.
-PJ
Agreed.
Freedom is the logical end of what so-called “conservatives” seem to want but many haven’t thought it through. The KEY to our political freedom is the rule of law of the Constitution.
Conservatives need to be taught and persuaded that THIS is the battleground for America. NOW. Not later. Painful now, deadly later.
Again maybe necessary, but not sufficient. If Americans don’t take ownership of THEIR LIVES, LIBERTIES and HAPPINESS by taking ownership of THEIR Constitution, everything else will be a temporary stop on the way to the political gallows.
You can restore the Constitution in one “simple” step: Restore hard money to the USA. Do away with the Federal Reserve and the massive debt it supports and creates.
Money is oxygen of progressives, socialists and statists. Imagine how government and society would change if we returned to a system where money was completely OUT of the control of politicians and their cronies?
Nobody said it would be easy and much damage including the 17A has already been done. But you shoot yourself in the foot when you say nothing can be done until an Article V action is taken.
MUCH can be done in the meantime among the American people individually and in the individual states as outlined.
Article V requires aggregate state cooperation as well as federal cooperation and such proposals continues to be a long, drawn-out process and each step must be done accurately. Hope it is done right. Could be a disaster if done wrong, but I support the effort.
In the meantime, we need action NOW, beginning with the American People educating themselves on THEIR most precious political document, the Constitution, which protects their most precious and fragile political freedom, and states saying “NO!!” to unconstitutional federal acts.
Again, either fixing or doing away with the fed (in favor of a computer that calculates monetary growth based on a set standard) and a “hard” money standard would be a great economic boon, but is is not sufficient.
As long as the feds feel free to run roughshod over our constitutional freedoms, America as a free country remains in great peril.
Art V requires no Federal cooperation what so ever.
Also, states becoming financially INDEPENDENT of the feds will become an increasingly important step to our becoming a free nation once again.
Quite correct. Taking ownership must seem to some as involving unnecessary and avoidable "heavy lifting".
Much of our community has become accustomed to and weakened by the convenience of occasionally voting for and then largely relying on the politicians in D.C.
They are also comforted by the fact our military is the most capable in the world (despite the meddling of politicians with questionable agendas).
Not actively caring about the future safety and freedom of ones family or self would seem to be a major weakness.
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