AMERICA IS A REPUBLIC!
America is not a democracy, although our great country lives and operates by democratic principles.
The United States of America was a grouping of thirteen colonies, thirteen independent states, so to speak, which had two considerable priorities.
The first was to join together to implement a certain commonality because of the necessity to do so. They had to join for their mutual benefit and especially for their mutual protection.
The second major concern of these thirteen colonies was a fear, a deep and abiding concern, that each had:
A GREAT FEAR OF A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
These thirteen colonies were strongly independent, having just escaped the tyrannical kingly rule of England, Great Britain. They risked fortune and lives for the freedom they enjoyed in the new America. Under no circumstances would they surrender that freedom, especially to any new federal government, which would rule all thirteen. The motto of each colony was the words of patriot Patrick Henry:
GIVE ME LIBERTY
OR
GIVE ME DEATH!
And each of these colonies would fight for that liberty, fight to the death. BUT they knew they had to unite in some form, politically, militarily, and economically.
So, in 1789, they produced all thirteen colonies what they termed:
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
This document, this great constitution, was perhaps the greatest document ever produced by mankind. It was fashioned through debate, argumentation, and creativity by some of the greatest minds of that time and it came to those thirteen colonies and its freedom-loving citizens, in a political structure which the founding fathers termed: 2
A REPUBLIC.
These original constitutional authors knew the political structure and the governing documents of all other nations, and they were determined that their founding document, their constitution, and their approach to governing and freedom, would be the best produced by mankind. At that time, IT WAS!
They did indeed, in their words, establish a more perfect union. And they did, indeed produce a document and governing structure which:
“SECURED THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY TO OURSELVES AND OUR POSTERITY.”
This greatest of all political documents had as its primary objective, critical controls of the federal government established. The founders were as concerned with checks and balances as they were with granting powers. They were more concerned, the founders were, with what they termed STATES’ RIGHTS and the preservation of state autonomy and powers, as they were with federal powers. To the founders, the overriding and primary principle was the concept of:
FEDERALISM.
That governing concept embodied a ruling and autonomous federal government on the one hand but in every other way the preservation of states’ rights. Where the establishment of the powers of the federal government ended, the powers of the states, all thirteen, were preserved and even extended. That was so for them and for any other newly formed states which would in futuro join this new federal union.
In the minds of the founding fathers and in the words and the body of this great constitution, there was full government equality. The rights of the federal government were no greater than the rights of the thirteen states, and neither could encroach on the rights of the other. The fear of the founding fathers of a run-wild federal government was evident in virtually every significant portion of our great constitution. There was a determination to reap the benefits of UNION but the avowed determination to preserve:
STATES’ RIGHTS.
In short, the federalism of a republic was the ultimate constitutional goal.
So, the constitutional founding fathers amended this great constitution with AMENDMENT IX. Hear the words:
THE ENUMERATION IN THE CONSTITUTION OF CERTAIN RIGHTS SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED TO DENY OR DESPARAGE OTHERS RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE.
In short, the constitutional authors were emphasizing and legalizing the concept that the Constitution intended a federal government with “severely limited powers.” Just because the Constitution enumerated or spelled out certain rights, to the federal 3
government, did not mean that there was any number of other rights that still existed, and all such rights were:
RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE.
No legislative body, no congress, house or senate, no federal judiciary or supreme court, or no president could usurp those rights or take them from the people.
But the founders were not satisfied. Then came AMENDMENT X:
“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.”
This tenth amendment to the Constitution was designed to even further limit the power of the federal government. If powers, rights, and freedoms, were not delegated to the federal government and such powers were not prohibited to the joining states, all such, every one of them, was reserved to the states (Federalism), and cannot be usurped by the federal government in any way.
And more. To make certain the federal government did not find a loophole, the tenth amendment stated that all such non-delegated powers, if not reserved to or taken up by the states, were:
RESERVED TO THE PEOPLE.
Today, in our progressive society, anti-American in so many ways, surely powerful forces at work, anti-constitutional in every way, these two incredible amendments, THE LAW OF THE LAND, are not only despised, ridiculed, but in so many ways ignored with impunity. Modern, radical, progressive, anti-American, radicals want a federal government with unlimited powers, the end of federalism and state’s rights, and the elimination or curtailment of so many of the fundamental and constitutional freedoms WE THE PEOPLE today take for granted. WE THE PEOPLE assume them and radical progressives want to destroy them.
The Constitution of the United States envisions different legislative actions, then in 1789 by all thirteen colonies, and today, the perfection of freedoms and the establishment of legislation which preserves the rights of states citizens in ALL FIFTY STATES to live, work, and exercise freedoms as they please. Each of the fifty states can be different, tailored to the wants and needs of its citizens as long as no state runs afoul of the essential terms and conditions, the freedoms of THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
THAT IS FEDERALISM AT ITS HIGHEST LEVEL:
A PROTECTIVE, SENSITIVE, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ON THE ONE HAND AND THE PRESERVATION OF NOW FIFTY STATES RIGHTS ON THE OTHER. 4
Roe v. Wade was wrong, a decision clearly unconstitutional. The supreme court of the United States finally did right by overturning that unconstitutional decision. That decision did not do away with, did not abolish ABORTION, but returned the right to legislate with respect to abortion: TO THE STATES.
It was a power, legislative action, that was unconstitutional at the federal level. In short, the federal government had no power or rights with respect to abortion. A matter like that was clearly left, constitutionally, to the states.
And the same with concepts like GAY MARRIAGE. The federal government, legislative or judicial, had no constitutional right to deal with the issue of gay marriage. That, like abortion, was also the province of the states, a matter of STATES’ RIGHTS AND POWERS. Constitutionally, that so-called right to gay marriage decision should be overturned and that power, like abortion, returned to the states. Otherwise, Amendments IX and X are meaningless, rendered void, and the concept of Federalism, the powers of the federal government, and states’ rights, are rendered meaningless. If that happens, and if those states’ rights are continually eroded, that signals the end of our beloved constitution on the one hand and the essential and fundamental freedoms WE THE PEOPLE enjoy on the other.
I wonder if that possibility matters to you? I wonder if WE THE PEOPLE really understand what is happening today politically and constitutionally and how much in danger the great freedoms of our land, the independence we enjoy, and recently celebrated July 4th are assumed or not really cared about. For, those freedoms once lost, are lost forever and the loss of those freedoms is only:
ONE GENERATION AWAY.
In many ways, it appears that this may be the generation where the rise of radicalism, and anti-Americanism on the one hand and the indifference of the American people on the other, may spell the end of the real America, the governing impact of our great constitution, and the freedoms WE THE PEOPLE enjoy more than any other nation in the history of mankind. I pray not, but every day it looks that way.
So, my fellow Americans, it is up to you, and me. Do you care, really care? Are you a true patriot, a real American, a real freedom fighter and do you care for those freedoms, especially for your children and those who follow, ourselves said the Constitution and our POSTERITY?
Read those amendments to the constitution, especially Amendments I, IX, and X. Know them, live them, teach them. MAKE FREEDOM A PRIORITY! I pray that WE THE PEOPLE will adopt, endorse, and embrace the words, the passionate commitment of Patrick Henry:
GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH.