David A. Fennell
Founding Wisdom, Progressive Folly
June 12, 2009

“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.” – The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

My fiancé (a reforming liberal Democrat through self-education) related to me a conversation she had with her brother with respect to the United States Constitution and states’ rights. Doubtful of her conviction that the federal government is infringing on states’ rights, he asked her to explain her position. While she was able to cite several cases she, like many Americans, was unable to articulate how this is happening. This is because limits of our Constitution and the Tenth Amendment are unique and most people do not clearly understand them or care to examine them with scrutiny.

Most governments have open powers in their constitutions with few limits to their authority. The US Constitution is exceptional in that the states existed before the federal government - in fact the states gave birth to that government. To form a union those states developed, approved and gave the Constitution to the fledgling Federal government as a rule book that came with specific enumerated powers and a warning that this is ALL you get and no more. So where most constitutions advise their government how to execute and expand their authority, ours advises them on how to execute that authority and puts them on notice to where they must, by law, stop; for beyond this point you enter into the domain of constitutionally guaranteed state and personal autonomy.

I am amazed and confounded by two things: the inspired wisdom of our Founding Fathers; and the astonishing ignorance of our servants in Washington. The progressive elements of the government has for the better part of a century routinely stepped outside the enumerated constitutional powers. Washington progressives have crossed that constitutional line in the sand so often that many Americans no longer know where it is and have begun to believe that the Constitution no longer applies to modern society – nothing could be further from the truth. The reason this is even in question is because 100 years of piecemeal progressive legislation is as good as trying to play professional baseball with a hodgepodge of rules written for the National Football League. A free and open society of individualism and personal responsibility, as our constitution advocates, is incompatible with the progressive nanny state.

While numerous historical examples of federal overstep can be cited, there are three clearly modern progressive and highly divisive examples that we face today that are the topic of dinner table conversations across the country. They are the move towards universal health care, government buy-out of the private sector (banking and industry) and federally mandated green policies (Cap and Trade). Taken individually this three pronged invasion of the private business sector represent a significant departure from not only the constitutionally enumerated powers, but also a wholesale exodus from deep rooted American principles, values and tradition. Taken together, they bring us to a place that is unrecognizable as American. Arguably this level of government intervention is not within the realm of the Constitution’s enumerated powers, therefore making them an unconstitutional foray into the powers exclusive to the state, or the people. Yet despite pressure from the electorate and the states, the federal government moves on with a full-court press.

Americans are by nature a kind and giving people. Providing healthcare to all is a noble endeavor. Ensuring that “greedy” corporations do not take advantage of consumers and workers is a utopian goal. And caring for our planet for our posterity’s sake represents the pinnacle of responsibility. But there are limits to American giving because we are also by nature a self-reliant nation steeped in an ethic of self-improvement through hard work, personal responsibility and pragmatism. We are a people who would rather teach a man to fish rather than giving him fish. So while all Americans would agree that healthcare, regulation of greed and a clean environment are worthy causes, there’s still something in their gut that gives them great pause.

This pause is the result of deep seeded core values which have not been fully purged from the American psyche by a century of progressive propaganda. Besides our work ethic and our belief in personal responsibility most Americans are still wary of and do not trust a large and intrusive government, whether it is controlled by their party or not. They can sense a con-man. Most Americans are skeptical of getting something for nothing. These healthy survival instincts are ingrained in our culture and captured by our founders within the pages of the Constitution to protect us from overbearing bureaucracies and demagogues.

Thinking Americans are smart enough to know you can’t get something from nothing. The question they are asking themselves is not whether they can get free stuff; their hesitation is focused on what this “free stuff” will cost us in terms of both treasure and impact on our national character. The polls bear this out. A May 2009 CNN Poll suggests that while a large majority of Americans agree that something must be done about healthcare access and costs (even with some government controls in place) they are evenly split on how to achieve those goals. The same month Rasmussen reported that only twenty-one percent of the public supports a GM buy-out, with a full sixty-seven percent opposing it. And when it comes to a greener environment a Gallup Poll as recent as April discovered a growing number of Americans (forty-one percent) feel that global warming data is exaggerated, the most in over a decade. A stunning sixty-eight percent of Americans no longer think global warming represents a serious threat. No doubt some of them just recognize it for what it is; an enormously prohibitive energy tax that will have little or no impact on the environment.

The government presses on with this agenda against the wishes of both the states and the people. States are being forced to take “stimulus” money with Federal strings attached and are pursuing end-arounds of resistant governors by dealing with state legislatures, despite the fact that the Tenth Amendment was written specifically to prevent this kind of Federal extortion. The expansion of Federal government has become so intrusive that 35 state assemblies are considering legislation to assert their Tenth Amendment sovereignty and reminding the federal government where their power comes from and where that line in the sand is. It should be noted that this is one more state than necessary to propose amendments to the Constitution and only three short of ratification. That in itself should be alarming.

This is where the wisdom of our Founding Fathers and the beauty of our Constitution should be brought to bear. They were not ignorant to the fact that over time the American people and culture might change. Their genius provided the avenue to accommodate these changes through the amendment process. But to prevent populist sentiment and passing fads from becoming laws on a whim they made these changes difficult by requiring a supermajority to do it.

I contend that if the Constitution is so far out of touch as to no longer be applicable, which progressive propaganda attests, I challenge them to bring it into line with modern thought to legally accommodate their ideals. These issues represent such a fundamental change in our national identity that the debate must be brought to the American people to be legitimate. Let us bask in the presidentially promised transparency of government and agree to be intellectually honest by calling these things what they really are: socialized medicine; nationalized industry, and the social engineering of the American people through an oppressive greenhouse gas tax code. If national-socialism represents the fundamental change of America’s future then these concepts must be publicly aired on the national stage and scrutinized in the free market of ideas. But none of that will happen.

The government tells you socialized medicine is what the people need and want. They tell us that our economy requires “expert” intervention that only the corporate marriage of the federal government and industry can provide. Lastly, Al Gore tells us the global warming/climate change debate is already over while marginalizing the doubters of his junk science by equating them to holocaust deniers. The Government will never bring the debate out from behind closed doors and the complicit media will never fulfill their role as a state watchdog because their credibility is tied to this administration‘s success. Meanwhile the American individual feels alone, isolated and powerless. The sad reality is that the government would never have the support they need enact this legislation if they gave you your voice. But remember, the polls show that you are not alone.