FACTS Vs. FICTION and Fear Blog series - Slide 4

Slide 4

“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”  - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

What is the opponents’ point in making this ominous threat? ‘The 27 existing amendments to the Constitution have all been proposed by Congress. There has never been an Article V convention of states; it is untested, so no one knows what could happen.’;

Perhaps the answer can be found in Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals 9 and 10:

• Rule 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”
• Rule 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”

In Federalist #45, James Madison made clear the authority the federal government would have:

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

In Article 1 Section VIII, the Constitution lists the “few and defined” enumerated powers assigned to the Federal Government. There are 18 in total:

1. The Congress shall have Power To lay, and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States, but all Duties, Imposts, and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
3. To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
4. To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
5. To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
6. To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
7. To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;
8. To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
9. To constitute Tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
10. To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas and Offenses against the Law of Nations;
11. To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
12. To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
13. To provide and maintain a Navy;
14. To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
15. To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections, and repel Invasions;
16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
17. To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And
18. To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

All else the federal government regulates, imposes, administers, or levies comes from three sources.

• Implied Power -  power not stated in the Constitution but inferred by the agency assigned the enumerated power.
• Inherent Power -  a power not stated in the Constitution but rather stemming from the agency’s interpretation of the enumerated power. 
• Case Law - a precedent set by courts that interprets the meaning of the enumerated power and how authorities are to enforce it.

"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it" -British Prime Minister William Pitt, speech to the House of Lords, 1770. 

In other words, as one's power grows, one's moral compass decreases.

Relations between the Colonies and the British Parliament had worsened following the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War) of 1763. The British government was left in debt, and Parliament passed a series of “Acts” to increase tax revenue collected from the American colonies. Parliament believed these were a legitimate way for the colonies to pay their “fair share” of the costs to maintain the British Empire.

The colonists argued that a subject's property could not be taxed without his consent (a voice in Parliament); therefore, because the colonies had no direct representation, they believed Parliament had no right to levy taxes ("No taxation without representation"). 

Colonial essayists penned essays questioning Parliament’s legal authority over the colonies. This was the underlying issue of the American Revolution.

Fast forward to the present day.

Do you hear anyone in Congress proposing they limit their power? OR has unlimited power corrupted the minds of those who possess it, and Washington D.C. succumbed to Prime Minister Pitt’s admonition? 

Any proposed constitutional changes will require a supermajority to approve. If they can’t agree on the number of genders, will two-thirds agree on anything, least of all, to return the powers they have stolen?

The framers knew this day would come. For that reason, Col. George Mason insisted we have an alternative for amending the Constitution when the federal government became the tyranny they predicted. 

It was self-evident that the government would never vote to limit itself, and the Convention of States method in Article V was unanimously approved without debate.

In essence, the framers said, “If the states desire to propose amendments to the Constitution, use the same method we are using right now.” This is because they were actually participating in a Convention of States at the time- a fact seldom mentioned today.

Link to Slide 3 Blog

Link to Slide 5 Blog