We publish a lot of articles pointing out how things would operate if the government actually followed the Constitution.
For instance, based on the original understanding of Constitution itself, and the Second Amendment, the federal government should pass and enforce zero gun laws. That’s what “shall not infringe” means.
But whenever we point out how things should be under the Constitution, somebody inevitably comes back with this snarky response – “Do you think the feds care?”
Well no. Of course not.
In fact, we know the feds don’t care. That’s the whole point!
Obviously, an article won’t teach the feds some kind of lesson. We don’t think members of Congress will read a Tenth Amendment Center blog post and suddenly reform the entire federal government. We don’t think a Supreme Court justice will cite my blog post on the commerce clause and suddenly roll back Wickard v. Filburn. (The case where the court held the federal government can regulate wheat grown and consumed on a man’s own farm under the auspices of interstate commerce.) We don’t think the president will peruse our website and suddenly insist on a declaration of war for every military escapade.
In fact, the reason we point out how things should be under the Constitution is to contrast it with how things are, proving just how little the feds actually do care. We want Americans to understand how far the government of today has strayed from the founding principles, and how the federal government has detached itself from the rule of law the Constitution was intended to represent.
No – the feds don’t care. We get that.
The federal government will never reform itself. We can’t wave the Constitution in the feds’ general direction, and expect them to follow its intent and limit themselves to their legitimately delegated powers.
Because the feds don’t care and won’t reform themselves, it takes concerted action at the state, local and personal level to stop federal overreach. We can nullify in practice all kinds of unconstitutional acts by simply refusing to cooperate. But if people don’t know what the federal government should and shouldn’t be doing, they aren’t going to be able to effectively act to keep it in check.
We hope you will do something about it.
That’s why we write articles about how things should be. We want to teach Americans and help them recognize when the federal government does things it shouldn’t. Of course, that includes pretty much everything it does. But a lot of people don’t realize this. If we don’t educate them, they will never know. And if they don’t know, they won’t take action to stop it.
We know the feds don’t care about following the Constitution.
Quite frankly, we don’t care if they care.
Our job is simply to make them do it.
