The nature of the American political system today exacerbates the expansion of power. “Democracy” gives everybody the false sense that they have some hand in exercising power – or that they will at least benefit from its expansion.
This creates a dilemma, as political economist Bertrand de Jouvenel explained. Under the ‘ancient regime,’ society’s moving spirits, who had, as they knew, no chance of a share in Power, were quick to denounce its smallest encroachment. Now, on the other hand, when everyone is potentially a minister, no one is concerned to cut down an office to which he aspires one day himself, or to put sand in a machine which he means to use himself when his turn comes. Hence, it is that there is in the political circles of a modern society a wide complicity in the extension of Power.”
A written constitution was meant to lay down rules that check the tendency for government to grow. It erects barriers to government power that must not be crossed.
As Jefferson put it, “in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.”
As John Hancock put it, "the powers reserved by the people render them secure" But like most things, a constitution won’t ever work if the people don’t know how to use it.
While we do a significant amount of work to help reach and teach people about the original, legal meaning of the Constitution - based in principles from the Revolution - "how to use it" is probably our most important work. But for far too long politicians, bureaucrats, judges, law professors, and chattering pundits have told us how the Constitution should work - instead of the other way around. The political class has “interpreted” the rules. And it’s interpreted to give them more and more power over you and me.
They teach us from day one that the way to keep the government in check is to convince the government to keep itself in check.
Thomas Jefferson warned us how that would play out, noting that allowing the government to determine the extent of its own power would put the people of the several states "under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them" After generations of interpretation by the people in power - just like Jefferson warned, we now have a federal government that claims the authority to do virtually anything and everything. Along the way, our liberties have been whittled away. The power of the politicians grows at the expense of our liberties. If we want to reclaim our liberties, something has got to give. It’s time for dis-interpretation. It’s time for “we the people” to reclaim their own Constitution and their own liberty.
To do that, we have look at the Constitution through the eyes of the generation who wrote and ratified it.
We’re have to follow Jefferson’s admonition and “carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
And then we have to follow what the founders told us has to be done to keep the government in check when it refuses to follow the rules. Today, of course, that's 24/7/365
James Madison told us that states and individuals should use a "refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union."
James Iredell - one of the first Supreme Court Justices - told us that the ONLY way to deal with usurpations of power is through "the inherent right of the people to prevent its exercise."
Not just a mere good idea - but the only way to deal with federal overreach.
And Jefferson said "where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy"
Also, not just a mere suggestion to try after everything else fails - but THE rightful remedy to all undelegated power.
This is the real Constitution that the politicians don’t want you to know about.
The one where the people of the states themselves determine the limits of federal power. The one where the people of the states themselves enforce the constitution through non-compliance and resistance. The one where no one who violates their oath of office is given support.
As John Dickinson put it, when there's a "bad administration" (which we sure do have) - the answer is to be found "before the supreme sovereignty of the people."
IT IS THEIR DUTY TO WATCH, AND THEIR RIGHT TO TAKE CARE, THAT THE CONSTITUTION BE PRESERVED; Or in the Roman phrase on perilous occasions—TO PROVIDE, THAT THE REPUBLIC RECEIVE NO DAMAGE.
(yes, he used the all caps in the original!)
In other words, in the American political system, as originally conceived, the Tenth Amendment is always the right answer.
We've got a lot of work to do - but with your support, we're building a strong foundation for today and the future.
Brick by brick. Person by person. State by state: For the constitution and liberty.
Thank you so much for reading and your support!
--Michael Maharrey, Michael Boldin along with TJ, Alan, Mike and the rest of the TAC Team. |
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