My sense is if we gave a constitutional test to all the elected individuals in the imperial federal government and the SC judges, about 2% would get a passing grade of 70%.
In contract law there is some precedent that says the written word supersedes anything not in writing. IMO, the Constitution was a written agreement between the states and the newly formed imperial federal empire. I think it means what it says, not what someone who is part of the imperial state says it means or implies. In its forming it clearly says anything not stated is left to the states and people to decide. That time is NOW.
Two percent is probably high. I suspect that no more than two percent of Americans would be in favor of returning to constitutional government if they understood exactly what that would mean. The vast majority of federal government activity is unconstitutional, it has been ruled to be constitutional by judges who ignore the actual meaning of the words and pretend to find some other meaning in them.
Some people will say that I exaggerate but anyone who thinks about it should realize that if all this stuff is within the meaning of the commerce clause and or general welfare clause as is so often claimed it means that our forefathers were a bunch of dummies who spent countless hours haggling, writing and rewriting a constitution and then threw in a couple of clauses which say that all the rest is meaningless and you can just do whatever suits you. I think they were a lot smarter than that and I think we have a bench full of judges who are crooked and shameless.
Did your younger cousin open your eyes wide enough to see the truth or did it take a while?