The Constitution is dead! Meaningless! Useless! A bunch of unenforceable, misunderstood words on parchment.
The precise date of its demise is debatable and I’ll leave that to historians to ascertain. However, it’s crystal clear the Constitutional objectives started to fray within a couple years of its enactment. The decay and rot has worsened over the decades and centuries.
The primary objectives of the constitution were; to define a structure of government and define the specific powers delegated to the government. Demonstrably, the framers and those in the state ratifying conventions understood the new government ordained by the Constitution was one of limited powers. The three branches were intended to be co-equal where no one branch can control or dominate the other two branches.
Furthermore, the Bill of Rights was intended to further restrict the powers of the federal government and explains those rights not enumerated rights were retained by the people and that many powers were retained by the states or the people. Thomas Jefferson said, “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man but bind him down by the chains of the Constitution.”
Unquestionably, the constitution has failed to meet its two primary objectives. The chains are broken and the inmates are running the asylum. The powers delegated to each branch respectively are gone, blurred by sophistry and judicial interpretation, usurped by other branches, or relinquished knowingly by one branch to another. Likewise, the government was intended to be one of limited enumerated powers. Today, the government is unlimited in its power.
There are no effectual checks of power in the Constitution. It is not a self-enforcing document. Words do not enforce themselves. Absent are powers to restrain the federal government. The creation is the arbiter of its own powers. The creation is the usurper. The creation is an entity with arbitrary and capricious power.
The creator – the people of the free, independent, and sovereign states – has been neutered. The creator has been castrated, defanged, and declawed. The creator is defenseless against the Goliath. The people are at Goliath’s mercy. The Goliath can destroy the people at any moment with overwhelming force. Resistance is futile. Compliance is demanded. Questioning authority is nearly criminal.
The Constitution only means what nine people in black robes say it means. The peoples’ political power has been marginalized by nine people out of 310 million. More often than not, it is one person that decides everything for 310 million. Nine unelected, unaccountable people that serve life terms without any limits on their power decide the peoples’ fate. Nine people that believe their discretion and judgment are more accurate, wise, and insightful than those they lord over. Nine omnipotent judges can supplant the political will of the people.
In reality, these are just nine people – nine human beings – out of 310 million. Their opinions are not more insightful or binding when it comes to political will or political questions. Their personal policy preferences and penumbras carry no more weight than any nine people chosen at random. The very idea that the personal preferences of these nine people are better than any other nine people is ludicrous. To believe nine people can decide political questions is asinine. To believe nine people are the brain trust and the mouth piece of the people is absurd.
Consequently, consent of the governed has been obliterated. Consent of the governed now means consent of the judges. We are not a democracy. We aren’t even a republic. We are an oligarchical empire ruled by a few hundred people generally and nine people specifically. Stick that representative, limited government in your pipe and smoke it.
Most issues are elevated to the national level either through legislation or the judiciary. The omnipotent federal government decides everything. Naturally, yet unsurprisingly, half the country is angry when the Democrats are in power and the other half are angry when the Republicans are in power. Every issue is divisive. The ruling class thrives on divisiveness. Issues on race, gender, sexual orientation, defense, rights, taxing, spending, and immigration, etc. are divisive. The ruling class wants the people divided against one another because that ensures the ruling class remains in power.
The consequence of nationalism is a one-size fits all policy for 310 million diverse people. Nationalism creates divisiveness. It pits brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor. This is not how free people in a free society are supposed to live. Not that we are free, but we are supposed to be free.
Our moral document, The Declaration of Independence, is alive and breathing. All the fundamental principles upon which government is instituted are elucidated in the Declaration.
The entire purpose of government is to better secure our unalienable rights. To secure these rights government is instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government perverts or destroys these ends and liberty is manifestly endangered, and other means of redress of grievances are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to alter or reform the old Government or institute new Government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing their just powers in a form and manner that is in accordance with how the people wish to be governed and for their good and their happiness.
In other words, the people create their political societies. Government is nothing more or nothing less than the people exercising their right of association to create a political society. The people define the government’s structure and the powers delegated to the government. The people are the sovereigns. The people are the source of political power.
Imagine if there was a national policy on the flavor of ice cream. Congress passes a bill that mint chocolate chip is the only legal flavor of ice cream. The President signs the bill into law. A case is adjudicated by the Supreme Court and in a 5-4 ruling opines that the only flavor of ice cream is mint chocolate chip.
Contrast that with choice in governance. Today there are fifty states. The least populous state is Wyoming with 570,000 people and the most populous state is California with 38 million people. Imagine 100, 200, or 500 states. Some states may be “far left” on the political spectrum. People that prefer to be governed that way would freely choose to live in one of those states. Likewise, some states may be “far right” on the political spectrum. Those states may be very limited in government authority. People that prefer to be governed that way would freely choose to live in one of those states. There would be hundreds and hundreds of states in between those two extremes.
This is the Baskin-Robbins of governance. Instead of a one-flavor system of governance there are hundreds of flavors. You live in a state that governs in accordance with your wishes and views. Likewise, I’ll live in a state that governs in accordance with my wishes and views. You don’t force your governance on me and I don’t force my governance on you.
This is precisely how 310 million diverse people live in a country together without the dividing them. The incessant bickering, fighting, acrimony, and animosity is mind-numbing. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Most people simply want to live with minimal government intrusion in their lives.
This was the intent of the American system of federalism.
Nationalism is a disease. Federalism is the cure.
The Constitution is dead. The Declaration lives on.