Everything has been turned upside down in the past 12 months- Dems and Reps have swapped dugouts along with the establishment media, from overlord to underdog and vice versa.
So much is different that it can be tough for a champion of state sovereignty to know what steps to take, so I have assembled a list as we at Tenth Amendment Center see it.
READ tenthamendmentcenter.com
We provide the best examples we can find of past, present and future thought on the balance of state and Federal power. The best first step for all who want to counter the tactics of misinformation is right on our website. Read up on past articles and jump in with your own personal view on the battle. The more educated our ranks, the better our chances of winning this fight.
CONTACT lawmakers in your state
The Tenth Amendment Center’s 10-4 Pledge is a great way for patriots to weed out those lawmakers who talk a good talk but won’t really take a stand for liberty. By presenting the 10-4 Pledge to your state legislature the cream will rise to the top and leaders worth rallying around will stand up and become visible to all.
DRAFT sovereignty legislation
Many groups around the United States have already begun to craft sovereignty legislation for their state. With the help of our scholars and legal experts, Tenth Amendment Center has a new offering, with example resolutions that serve as an excellent starting point for your state’s sovereignty resolution.
CAMPAIGN to introduce sovereignty bills
As 10-4 Pledges emerge in your state, the entry point for sovereignty legislation is clear and available. 10-4 lawmakers are champions who have already chosen the side of liberty and can be considered the entry point to get your sovereignty resolutions introduced in your state house.
Once 50 states have said NO and chosen to resist DC, we will be close to the goal of liberty in our lifetime. Now is the time to take action!
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Wow – all these comments are great!
It seems to me that in our modern age one important thing is totally missing. State governments do not have their own news and views channels. Even with Fox News the majority of the news is all about the Federal Government (EEEnough!! – we got it in the first hour). Newspapers used to carry the local and state message but they are dying out and even the national papers didn't carry much about what the various States were doing, I guess that was because there are 50 States and it could become a bit overwhelming for them to collect news and report. If it wasn't on the "wire" service or a major catastrophe, it was not reported. How about a new kind of wire service?
I have to believe we can do so much better today with what we have available. We have satellites, cables everywhere, the Internet, plus the old American backup if bad goes to worse – ham radio. But, do you realize that States could, using advanced technology such as Cisco's Secure TelePresence Systems, actually convene a Constitutional Convention from media centers located within each State's capitol building without having to travel. They could even have their votes recorded electronically. The computing industry began decentralizing many years ago with the advent of fast and cheap distributed systems. This put the likes of Sun, HP, and Silicon Graphics on the fast path of success (for a while). IBM's grand old centralized mainframe computer is not totally dead but it, like Washington, is also on a fast path, one of becoming a dinosaur in hopefully a new age of modern, conservative, free market thinking. We just need to get our acts together and then help the lost Republican Party refocus and not just on old Fascist or Socialist beliefs but on a future us old guys saw we could have many years ago. I thought we would be seeing that today as we begin retiring and not this mess. Maybe it is our own fault. I guess we just didn't keep the dream alive in passing the ball on to our kids. If that is true, then I am sorry for that.
As for the news coverage from our States, C-SPAN has worked fairly well in covering many federal issues considering their limited budget. So how about something like 50 C-Spans, one in each state's Capitol with all of their content feeds being combined and presented to us on an expanded interactive web portal developed with a focus on supporting today's home computer media center PC's. Cable is good but lacks the media control capability to put you in the drivers seat. Busy people need to be able to get all the news that is important to them, be "briefed" on the state of the world in general, find out who's missing so they can watch out for them, and then have enough time left to interactively feed back their concerns to someone who really cares. Remember – bed by 11:00P.
Bill Greystone posted a comment that I read in my email in box. I wanted to respond to his comment, but I don't see it here. Strange…
Anyway, if you read this Bill, you should read this article on what an Article V convention would look like and how it would most likely turn out. It's doubtful that it would result in more of our liberty being taken away. Hope you will check it out here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12404419983834546…
I believe everything on a federal level results in more liberty being taken away – and no matter how convincing the argument, I expect it to happen every time …including federal constitutional amendments or conventions. plus, I don't see how effective they can be, because it requires having a national strategy, where state-nullification efforts only require getting your own state to do something.
We do not need nullification to happen in 50 states. All that is necessary is to get close to 33 states. 34 are all that is necessary for a constitutional convention. The convention we do not want…there are not enough people with enough brains to do anything but destroy what freedom we have left during a convention. We could however form a states organization that could bring suit against any usurpation of powers and keep the feds in check.
Bill – are you proposing that people should go to federal court to sue the feds for an abuse of their own power? Seems like a futile effort to me. I say, go to the states and just say no. Nulllify federal laws, and it doesn't matter whether the feds, or their "judges" give us permission to exercise our rights.
I assure you that I am trying to be optimistic which is why I am reading entries from this website. However, I deal with relatively and otherwise quite competent and intelligent people who haven’t a clue as to what’s going on except for the 12 second soundbites from our Indoctrination Networks. It is appalling.
As for Tim Kelley’s correct comment: Yes, I know, that is the theory and a noble one that we owe to the founding fathers. However, we are being prepared to be RULED. We, as a people are being prepared for subservience, obedience and colletivism. I could go on but don’t want to rant. I’ll take a breath every once in awhile and contribute what I can. Regards to all.
@Stan – glad you’re investigating this movement! Hope to see you around here more in the near future…
Remember people, all levels of our Government work for US (the People), NOT the other way around!
There is reason for optimism, Stan. The evolution of information flow is in our favor as that hopeless corporate media juggernaut becomes less and less relevant and average folks are talking to each other more and more, like this website for instance =]
I appreciate the suggestion from “Freedoms Voice.” I will look into the link and go from there. I have already written a letter to the editor (August) in the local paper regarding federal control wich elicited a spirited blog.
Some people almost yawn when you mention the 10th Amendment and yet is is as valid as the first or the second. Most countries have constitutions hanging on a wall and they pay great homage to them on special commemorative days. But nobody actually believes that “nonsense.” I believe the American Experiment is failing because most people simply don’t know and don’t care to know. So you have the dedicated few representing vairous points of view battling it out with socialist/collectivism currently winning the day aided by a press corps that Joseph Stalin might have been envious of.
Well, you can’t lie down and die so you might as well contend for it. Thanks again.
I recently had dinner with the parents of last year's valedictorian. When I asked him what he could tell me about the Constitution, a blank look and What's that? was his reply. Education is the answer,and not by government schools!
Perhaps we should create a new salute which involves both hands and ten outstretched fingers? Of course, depending on the angle of ones arms and elbows, it could be mistaken for everything from praise worship to, “Don’t shoot!”
I don’t like the clenched fist symbol. It reminds me of the Black Power clenched fist from the 60s.
@Ernestine – got anything to say about the article, or are you just heard to complain about a group that was active in your past??
The People have to let our elected officials know first of all that we would stand behind them if they’ll begin to stand up to the Federal government, even if it means that the government withdraws funds. Go to this website to see a proposal for just that: http://openletter.avoiceofthepeople.com And then ponder this by Samuel Adams:
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” – Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House on August 1, 1776.
If we’re not of this spirit, how can we ever expect our Governors or State Legislatures to be so??? Let’s let them know.
Email them about the Open Letter, if you agree.
I am new to this site and am gratified to find it. I live in Fairbanks, Alaska and we currently have another federal mandate by the EPA which says we exceed pollution tolerance a few times a year. It is usually when we have a temperature inversion (-40 below) which stagnates the air and which we cannot control. The other times is when there are forest fires which fill the air with particulates. The local government, seeking to appease the federal leviathan, wants to penalize wood burners since they cannot subpoena and/or fine trees, lightening or God.
The point is the money. It’s always about the money. The federal government well knows that a blind eye can always be turned to constitutional violations with a little cash. The whole country right down to the local dog catcher is directly or indirectly dependent on federal funding.
I have read a lot of material on this issue of late and find it compelling. I am not interested in becoming a subject of the National Government. The problem is ancient: How do you imbue a population with constitutional/moral/legal virture and stand up for it when being paid off is so much easier than having your local/state offical trembling in fiscal terror of having their funding dry up?
Please explain the nullification process. What comes after resolution??
Resolutions have no real teeth. We need a plan that takes us to the next step.
@Helen – Nullification IS the next step! And, it’s a legally binding one, too.
Learn more about it here:
http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/the-10th-amendment-movement/
http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2009/09/13/nullification-the-states-have-a-nuclear-option-too/
If State Legislatures are unwilling to “take the responsibility” Sovereignty would give them, We the People should let them know that we will vote them out and get someone that will. We must keep up the pressure. I don’t buy the argument they won’t move on Sovereignty issues because they don’t want the responsibility. They will only refuse to act if the People relent in their efforts to force them to act. http://openletter.avoiceofthepeople.com We the People really do RULE, if we could EVER, EVER, EVER get it into our heads that we don’t need these people for US to act on our own behalf. http://www.avoiceofthepeople.com
Please look at the following website, appealing to our Governors & State Legislatures to stand up for the People, telling them what We the People of Sovereign States are willing to sacrifice to roll back an intrusive Federal government. http://openletter.avoiceofthepeople.com Thank you!
Repeal of the 17th will require the education of state legislators. Anybody looking for something (frustrating) to do should start with that effort. Most state legislators have only a limited understanding of what the 17th did to the federal power structure, though my experience at this over the last two years suggests that state legislators are – at this moment in time – comfortable with the appearance of power, without the real responsibility the repeal of the 17th would give them. Legislators must be informed about what the 17th has done, what a repeal would mean to them, and why their constituents would be better off without it.
http://restorefederalism.org
See also the bills at http://www.georgiafirst.org/governor/sra.shtml (note that while I am skeptical of the prison penalties proposed in this legislation — see http://www.frame-poythress.org/Poythress_books/Shadow/bl15.html — the general idea of getting legislatures to pass nullification bills is essential).
Dave,
It is true that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But we are at a point in our history where restoring the U.S. Senate to the chamber that represents the interests of the individual states is about as likely to happen as me jumping out my window, flapping my arms and flying to work in the morning. Consider the following:
1. You are asking a usurper (the federal government), to endorse a measure that would diminish its own power AND would militate against its own self-interest.
2. The 10th Amendment movement isn’t about hoping and praying that the The Supreme Court (US S CT) will rule in our favor. Get that thought out of your mind right now!
3. This movement is about the people of the several states telling the Feds, through our state governments, “NO!”, to any law coming out of D.C. that is unconstitutional, no matter what the Feds say.
3. The Supreme Court (US S CT) does NOT have the final say, PERIOD.
4. The states have just as much authority to interpret and enforce the Constitution as the US S CT does.
5. If #4 were not true, then the arbitrary decisions of the Supreme Court, (itself part of the federal government), would be the supreme law of the land, instead of the U.S. Constitution. Think about this point carefully…
6. When the people of the several states ratified the Constitution, they did not agree to terms which included unlimited submission to the federal government, including the rulings of the Supreme Court. They didn’t accept such terms then, and WE will not accept them now.
7. Washington, D.C. had just better get used to it!
Dave, as has already been pointed out, repeal of the 17th amendment is part of the larger strategy of the Tenth Amendment Center and tenth amendment advocates. Indeed, we’ve discussed the very issue here numbers of times that I recall. But if you want to effect the kind of turnabout that you’re vying for, then I’d suggest advocating for repealing the 14th amendment, or at least those parts of it which began the overthrow of federal representative Republican government. Namely the parts that removed from the states the ability to determine their own citizenship requirements for their own inhabitants.
Besides, your “this is a waste of time” argument is, well, a waste of time in this forum. Every now and again someone comes along making this assertion here, but it’s yet to convince a significant number of posters here. Which I guess is because the majority of us is (individually and collectively) too stupid to understand it. In other words, why waste your valuable time trying to convince someone of a viewpoint that your audience is too stupid to understand in the first place? Granted, you couldn’t have known this before. But I’m telling you now.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Why spend energy on nullifying laws when you can prevent the laws from ever being enacted in the first place? Restoring the Senate to the chamber that represents the interests of the individual states is far more efficient. I promise you, the federal government can pass laws much faster than you can get state governments to nullify them.
And then there will be the Supreme Court challenges. I’ve never seen a S.C. challenge to a law that was never passed.
Dave,
You must understand that sovereignty resolutions are just the FIRST of many steps designed to put the federal government on notice that, “We the people of ________ ,(fill in the blank), are not going to tolerate any more of your usurpation! Stay tuned…more legislation and more action will follow if you continue! Don’t tread on us!”
Then, depending on what the people of that particular state want, they introduce actual legislation that nullifies unconstitutional federal laws. My state of AZ is leading the charge in the effort to nullify any federal health care legislation that comes out of Washington.
If you want to see what the future looks like after so called “waste of time” sovereignty resolutions, go here:
http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/the-10th-amendment-movement/
Sovereignty bills are a waste of time. Has the Federal government ever responded to one yet? The best way to enforce the 10th amendment is to repeal the 17th. Once you have the Senate representing the States, as originally intended, the power will begin to shift back.
Where is the proposed amendment to repeal the 17th?
Dave – this website is a place where people believe that the principles of the 10th Amendment are essential for restoring the constitution – decentralization in government. Following this movement can be a repeal of bad things on a federal level, such as the 17th amendment.
It’s a bottom-up approach, rather than the top-down approach that you’re espousing.
It seems strange to ask HERE where the efforts are to repeal the 17th, since it’s the opposite strategy we have. The real question, if YOU believe that’s the right path, what are YOU doing? Why don’t YOU create an organization supportive of your beliefs and let us know about it?
Good luck.
Amen!