In Part the First, I attempted to explain why less laws at the top, less control at the federal level is the best method for a consensual government due to the local control and difficulty in any meaningful corruption for external forces. In this, Part the Second, I shall attempt to address the issue of what does belong at the federal level and why. This is actually the most simple of all posts because I only need to point to the United States Constitution for these answers.
Without cutting and pasting the majority (or all) of the US Constution (USC), which is great and quick reading by the way, the idea of a Supreme Law of the land both so small and also limiting the power of the government at that time and in future times by enumerating the powers an authority and leaving the rest to the states or the people. While, in the opinion of this esteemed constitutional scholar, this enumeration has been abused and warped in many instances, the most worrying element is when it is completely ignored. Our ‘representatives’ who engage in legislation and pass bills of this sort of unconstitutional nature are doing this for two reasons: Collection of more power into a smaller quantity of hands, and also as a way to bride voters into voting for them since most of the time these power-grabs are done ‘in the name of the people’ and are defined in a way to make them seem that if the federal government doesn’t do something the sky will fall.
Without going into great detail, I will use one obvious example that has been warped and misconstrued to meet the ends not of the Constitution, but of a certain subsection of society.
If a town wishes to display a nativity scene it may find the ACLU suing them to take it down on the grounds of “separation of church and state”. We need to take a closer look.
The First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This is obvious enough as it states, “Congress shall make no law…” Which leads the reader to ask, “Who makes up Congress?”
Article I Section I states, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
If still uncertain, the following sections of Article I explain who may comprice the U.S. Senate (including Amendment 17) and the U.S. House of Representatives and we all should have a basic idea without me quoting the sources.
Now to get back to the idea as to whom may be putting up a manger scene: A town. Unless the Congress of the United States is forcing that town to put it up, Congress is not establishing any religion at all and the federal government has no authority to tell the town what to do based on the Tenth Amendment, “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.”
Also, this simple display relevant to one religion does not automatically mean the establishment of the religion in that town, nor does it in any way obstruct any members of that town from worshiping as they see fit.
This is a grand example of a power grab taking control away from a locality and pushing not only to a federal level, but also into the hands of judges who are immune from public reproach and are installed for life. There is no recourse for the town, and the people of that town can not have their way because some out-of-town group comes in and pleads their case to a sympathetic judge who is equally far removed from that town. Freedom is diminished, power is concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer people and the Constitution is warped to the fit the desires of the loud, not those concerned with freedom.
In ending this Part the Second, it is my desire to have explained why federal law can be dangerous and very agenda driven. Of course local law can also be agenda driven, but it far easier to remedy (or simply move away from such idiocy). Government must be considered as being a force as stated by George Washington, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
It thus must be kept at the level of a camp fire lest it be turned into a forest fire.
Zeno Sees, Zeno Writes 