Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Why Amending the Constitution is the Wrong Solution

by Richard J. Arena August 26, 2014
 
A recent Pew poll reveals that the majority of Americans think government threatens their rights and freedoms[1].  Advocates for an Article V Convention of the States contend the way to fix federal overreach is through new amendments to the Constitution that would "further limit the federal government's power and jurisdiction".
 
The flaw in that argument is it does not address the real problem, which is: the federal government has seized the position of being the exclusive and final judge of the powers delegated to itself. 
 
If all three branches of the federal government were made to abide by the Constitution as written and intended, it would be far smaller, infinitely less intrusive and burdensome.  Therefore, the solution to federal overreach is not new amendments that the Supreme Court, Congress and the President can ignore or turn upside down at will; the solution is for the states to restrain the federal government to its existing constitutional bounds.  That can only be achieved when the people and the states, as their agents, reassert the right to be the final judge of the powers they delegated to their creation and servant, the federal government.
 
Brushing aside the obvious problem and equally obvious remedy, Convention of the States advocates redirect our attention to questions about Article V convention processes such as:
 
Can convention delegates be limited to addressing specific
subjects?
 
Can Congress take control of the convention?
 
What happens if the convention proposes amendments the states didn't authorize?
 
Notice, all of these diversionary issues ignore the real problem and assume new amendments are the solution.    
 
The real solution is for the people to keep insisting that their state governments say NO to unconstitutional acts.
 
Some states are already standing up against unconstitutional federal acts. For example:
 
Georgia refused to set up state exchanges or assist in any other way with Obamacare implementation
 
Twenty-six states are ignoring federal laws criminalizing cannabis
 
Missouri just adopted a state constitutional amendment  that
forbids federal infringement on Missourian's 2nd Amendment rights
 
All across the country states are resisting unconstitutional federal acts, regulations and decrees.  The more citizens demand that their state elected officials assert their 9th and 10th Amendment reserved powers, the sooner federalism and the rule of law will be restored.  That is the rightful
remedy for federal tyranny.  
 

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