State Governments are Our Last Line of Defense Against Federal Overreach

Our federal government is out of control.  The national debt is now over $30 trillion.  If we were to take bundles of 100-dollar bills and stack them on top of each other, that $30 trillion stack would wrap around the Earth.

But it’s not just a problem of spending.  Our constitutional rights are also under assault.  Our Department of Justice has investigated parents for challenging school board policies.  Our president has asked social media companies to censor citizens.  Now our Department of Homeland Security has stepped over a very disturbing constitutional line.  It has issued a threat advisory which officially designates dissenting citizens as “threat actors.”  The advisory claims that Americans questioning the integrity of the last election or government COVID guidelines are undermining the government.  It places peaceful protests in the same category as actual acts of terrorism for government monitoring purposes.  It is clearly unconstitutional suppression of free speech, and a disturbing expansion of federal overreach.

State governments are our last line of defense against this federal overreach.  Article V of the Constitution gives the states the ability to call a convention triggering the amendment process to place limits on the federal government.  Eighteen states (West Virginia being the most recent) have come to the defense of their citizens by passing resolutions calling for such a convention.  Sixteen more states are needed to make it happen.

Idaho has always been a staunch supporter of the US Constitution and all of the liberties protected by it.  Yet our home state is not among the states calling for the exercise of our Article V rights.  I understand that in Idaho the legislative sessions are short and that a great deal of state business must be handled.  Addressing state budgets, tax relief, and the infrastructure needs of our exploding population is all well and good.  But none of that will matter if our civil liberties continue to disappear.  We need our state legislators to join the fight against those who would render our Constitution meaningless.