AX – Resurrecting the 10th Amendment

Flopping Aces ^ | 10-05-10 | Vince

[Starman417]

Mascots are a great way to inspire a team. My alma mater Florida State has the Seminoles, the hated University of Florida has the Gators and of course Notre Dame has the Fighting Irish. I would like to recommend a mascot to rally conservatives – and the GOP if they wish to come along – for the 2010 elections: AX. No, it’s not an ax nor is it the first two letters of AXE line of personal care products. Rather, as this involves government, it’s an acronym. AX stands for the Tenth Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights.

The 10th Amendment of the Constitution may simultaneously be both the most ignored and most important of all of the Amendments.

“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.”

Ignored because according to Washington, there is virtually nothing the federal government can’t do. Important because at some point the government will literally control everything and them Americans stop being citizens and simply become drones serving the all powerful state.

If this election stands for any single thing it is that government, particularly the federal government, has simply grown too big and too intrusive. To grasp how true this, imagine just one day out of your life: You wake up in a bed that has one of those “Under Penalty of Law” tags that warns that it must not be taken off by anyone other than the consumer. You head to the bathroom where EPA regulations determine how much water the toilet can use per flush. You head to the kitchen and pour cereal from a box that must be approved by the FTC and whose contents must pass FDA muster. Next you add sugar and milk that cost you twice what they might otherwise if USDA programs did not get in the way of free markets.

Now you get dressed and put your kids in your SUV, whose manufacturer and sales staff had to run the gauntlet of agencies: EPA, FTC, OSHA, NLRB, etc. just so you could have a car. After filling up with $25 of gas ($1.80 of which goes to federal taxes – and likely another $2.00 state taxes) you drop your children off at school where their fate lies in the hands of the Department of Education and a place where the teaching of American History and personal responsibility will likely never rear their ugly heads. Finally you arrive at work where things really get exciting as you get to mix and match with the entire spectrum of government acronyms: IRS, OSHA, ADA, FTC, NLRB, FCC, SEC, HHS… And we haven’t even touched on the things we really like to do from going to a restaurant to watching TV to flying on planes to surfing on the Internet.

[Huck]

The 10th amendment is ignored because it’s totally worthless and says nothing of any use whatsoever.

[Huck]

When the 10th amendment was first proposed and voted on, it read that those powers not "expressly delegated" belonged to the states. Madison and his Federalist (nationalist) buddies objected and it was defeated. Had it succeeded, the 10th amendment would have meant something. Then it would have limited the government to expressly delegated powers, as the old confederation had been.

But then that would have defeated the purpose of the Constitution, which was to create an energetic consolidated government superior to the states in every meaningful way. It was no accident that the new system omitted the word "expressly" delegated. Hence, we got "implied powers." And who decides that? The national government decides for itself. Thus, the 10th amendment is a jokey piece of tissue paper snagged on a tree branch.

[Lurker]

The Anti’s were right. Every single thing they predicted has come to pass and more.

[Jack Hammer]

The author unfortunately makes the mistake of believing that the constitution still means something. It’s a quaint and very mannered notion, but utterly false.

[Verginius Rufus]

I might have guessed it came from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address: “Ax not what your country can do for you, ax what you can do for your country.”

[Qbert]

“The 10th amendment is ignored because it’s totally worthless and says nothing of any use whatsoever.”

No. The Tenth Amendment was pushed aside because FDR’s justices overreached and overturned long-time existing SCOTUS precedent. The current SCOTUS is forced to deal with this modern precedence; whether it will continue to be followed in the future is certain.