Where did State power go?

The sentiment running through the media and generally assumed by Congress and our Presidency is that the federal government is able to do anything that it deems necessary for our country. While in practice this holds basically true today, it did not begin that way in principle.

Indeed, the very topic of federal limitations and powers was the initial fear of the common citizens in the wake of the Constitutional Convention. The newly-liberated residents of the several states (post-Revolution) were terrified of the idea of a new tyrannical (or monarchal) entity dictating their proper business and dealings. George Mason himself, a founder of our Constitution, proposed that freedom of speech, among other rights, be written expressly into the new Constitution so as to guarantee their protection. His proposal was argued but eventually shot down. No surprise then when the Constitution was brought to the common vote for ratification, many people raised the same proposal that Mason did out of their fear for the potential loss of their rights. Responded Alexander Hamilton:

For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed?

Taken from Federalist #84, Hamilton was referring to the fact that the Constitution never gave any power for the federal government to restrict any of the essential, God-given rights that United States citizens held dear. Not persuaded by this argument, the states introduced the 10th amendment in the Bill of Rights four years after the Constitution was ratified. Reads the 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.

Contrary to popular belief, this amendment didn’t gain anything for us as citizens; it merely repeated in simpler terms what was already in the Constitution. As Hamilton worried, and as we can derive from today’s federal situation, this amendment and the Bill of Rights in general may have, in fact, weakened our position and strengthened the federal powers. This is most easily seen today when the federal government exerts power over something that is not listed in the Bill of Rights or other amendments; this being a natural reaction to the addition to the Constitution of a ‘list’ (Bill of Rights) of specific rights.

What began as the idea of ‘any power not specifically granted nor prohibited is reserved to the States’ has effectively become the people’s initial fear: ‘what is not specifically denied to our federal government is granted to it by implication’.

Is Democracy really best?

This American system is often referred to as a democracy. Many of us are taught as young children that this is the most moral and fair system of government, and that democracy ought to be spread throughout the world. But was this really what the founders intended? If we are to use the classical definition of democracy, that is majority rule, then we can rest assured that the founders of this great nation did not intend that to be our system of government. To illustrate this point I will quote Thomas Jefferson.

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

Again, Thomas Jefferson addresses the topic in a letter to John Adams.

For I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents…. May we not even say that that form of government is the best which provides the most effectually for a pure selection of these natural aristoi (aristocrats) into the offices of government?

Understanding the great evils accompanying a true democracy, primarily the fact that majority rule tends toward a tyranny of the majority, the Founding Fathers established a republic which deliberately designed to prevent a majority rule. It is clear that the constitution was not produced to ensure the majority rule, but to prevent any group of individuals to infringe on the God given liberty of another. In order to prevent tyranny, either of the majority or minority, there were two checks put into place. First, the constitution specifically outlines the very few powers delegated to the general government. Any power not expressly granted to the federal government is expressly denied to them and given to the states and individuals. (See the 10^th amendment) The second safeguard put into place to protect each faction from the other is the check and balance system. It is interesting to note that in order to check both majority and minority rule and put those in their place, certain branches of government were to be elected by the people and others were to be special appointees. It is a sad reality that since the adoption of the U.S. constitution there has been pressure towards ever increasing democracy. Because of this both the Senate and the President are now popularly elected. With this the power of the majority has been ever increasing and is now threatening to destroy the liberty that many of our forefathers died to secure for us. It is of great importance that we get back to the system that our founders gave to us so that we can maintain what has made the United States the greatest nation on earth, which is liberty.

Dedication

This blog is dedicated to the people of the United States of America and their continual search for their own personal 'American Dream'; this eternal quest has been delayed, destroyed, and disillusioned as judicial activism and general liberalism has stolen the common vote and swayed the maligned masses into a general belief and acceptance of a federal government that controls, governs, and dictates what originally was meant to be decided by the many states and their residents; the most abhorent feature of an increasingly featureless society is that of total inept and the unnending acceptance of a political stage set to end our freedom as we know it. - Xander