Celebrate Our Constitution; It’s Not Just About Our Past, It’s the Key To Our Future…

Today is the day we celebrate the signing of the most influential political document ever created by man. It was a miracle that a document like this was even created based on world history, and the barbaric nature of governments at the time. But the framers were not regular men, they were inspired. It was divine providence that this document ever made it to the signing ceremony. It was a blessing of freedom and opportunity for the entire world to see and envy.

We face significant challenges today as a nation with deficits running in the trillions of dollars, companies and states going bankrupt, and individual freedoms being forfeited for promises of security from an out of control federal government. These problems have been created because of one simple fact; we have ignored our founding principle of limited government clearly spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.

For too many years our politicians have taken an oath to defend this historic document but have immediately set off to undermine the same principles they promised to obey under the guise of compassion, security, morality, or some other unjustifiable justification they could fathom. Since the presidency of Abraham Lincoln who boldly stampeded the constitution, to FDR, and beyond to the current president, the constitution has been ignored as the document holding the solutions to our problems. President Reagan briefly renewed the spirit of the constitution but unfortunately many leaders since have forgotten his lessons.

President Reagan and the founders knew that any government allowed to grow would do so, and in effect would trample the liberty and opportunity of all of the citizens that it governed. That is the miracle of the constitution; it concisely and deliberately limits the government’s ability to grow. It clearly states that it is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, not the other way around. It does so with the balance of powers defined within the document which purposely made the process of government cumbersome and divided, to insure that it was the greatest weapon against tyranny. The founders knew human nature and history, and understood the instinct of humans to control others had to be checked or the United States would end up like all other free civilizations throughout history; extinct.

Over the years many cases concerning constitutionality of state and local laws have been reviewed by the federal Supreme Court. Many were seen as an abandonment of the constitution to appease popular sentiment, but ultimately ended up undermining the intent of the constitution’s limit on government power and control. These laws have become what lawyers refer to as “precedence.” One of the most abused precedents has been the “interstate commerce clause.” It has allowed the federal government to involve itself and grow to the point the federal government is telling us how fast we can drive our cars, a power that cannot be found in the constitution. There are too many examples to state here but we must take a fresh look at the constitution and apply it today without reference to the abuse of past Supreme Courts. All law should be reviewed in the context of the concepts so clearly defined in the constitution.

I like clear examples and here is the one I tell which I heard told by Walter Williams: The constitution is the rules of the game. If in a game of poker I deal the deck and you have four aces. I decide that two twos beats four aces and I win, would you play poker with me? If you say yes I want your e-mail. The point is the constitution is the rule book. Judges can’t decide to change it because they don’t like the circumstances. That is what has been happening. So to make it fair, all cases making it to the Supreme Court should be judged against the original rule book. Not against a changed rule by the card dealer.

So when we see that our constitution has been altered by bad law what is the remedy? There are several, but one constitutional response is found in the Tenth Amendment. The Tenth Amendment simply states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, no prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” This means the states have the right, and I would argue the obligation, to nullify bad and unconstitutional law at the State level. For example, nowhere in the constitution does it allow for the creation of a Department of Education. Education is the responsibility of the individual, communities, and states to figure out. The federal government should have been stopped from creating the department. But many say so much of what has been done can never be undone. Never say never.

Our constitution is clear on the roles and responsibilities of the federal and state governments. All we have to do is to get our Governors to go back to this miraculous document, start auditing the functions of the federal government, and start nullifying them one by one. The Sixteenth Amendment allows the federal government to tax individuals and corporations directly but it is missing one key component; it doesn’t set a limit. Our Governors need to utilize the constitution and set the limit on what they will allow their citizens to be taxed. We need a constitutional challenge of the Sixteenth Amendment by having a state set a limit on the amount of money that the federal government can tax individuals and corporations. Since it is not defined, the responsibility defers to the states respectively, or the people.

The future of the United States lies in the words of this historic document. We don’t need reform; we need compliance with our current Constitutional law. We must know our history to have a productive and free future. History is the key to the future. Just like our founders of yesterday, the leaders of today must put their faith in the greatest set of laws ever created by man. Our leaders of today must know their history to create policies for the future.

The U.S. Constitution is the solution to our seemingly endless problems, mostly created by an out of control unconstitutional government, and we as a nation have ignored this fact. The solution to our problems is all found within the document we celebrate today. We must read it, and study it. God Bless our Constitution and America…