I The Person
columnist: John Armstrong

Topic: Constitutional Issues
The Real Reason the First Amendment Came First

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Ron Paul detractors may tell you otherwise, but The Constitution Still Matters. The First Amendment shows why.

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by John Armstrong
(Libertarian)
Monday, February 25, 2008

What makes the first Amendment important enough for it to get to skip to the front of the line?

The Constitution created the government. In this Contract the federal government is given enough power to protect people's unalienable rights from being damaged by foreign aggressors and other individuals.

The Contract also limits the federal government to ensure that the government itself never became the oppressor and destroyer of those rights.

Once you fully understand those two statements, the reason the First Amendment is first is obvious.

Our rights come from a power higher than the government. If the government could mandate a state religion, there would be no power higher than the official government endorsed religion. Thus our unalienable rights would in essence come from our government, and thusly could be taken away by them.  Pretty simple isn't it?

And that whole Free Speech and Assembly, and Freedom of the Press part?

Well, that was put in to make sure we had a way to find out what was going on and could let other people know about it if the government ever got the bright idea to not honor the Contract and give itself powers which we the people hadn't consented to grant them.

The Ten Commandments in a courthouse, prayer in school, and manger scenes in the town square have nothing to do with the purpose of the First Amendment.  But by arguing about it and creating more federal laws to deal with, the politicians in control of our government get to increase the power of the government they control. And in the process, they get to become the final word on what constitutes open expression of religion and alienate people from their unalienable rights. 

Who needs to create a religion to do this? When you have the power to rule over God, you become God. Which is exactly what the First Amendment was created to prevent.

And you know what? Most of the country really believes that they are God. How else could you explain voting for someone who will make our problems go away instead of voting for a man like Ron Paul who would actually preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States?

By the way, that's the last line of the Presidential Oath of Office.  But if you're God, or his boss, placing your hand on the Bible and taking that Oath wouldn't really mean much would it?

Your Fellow American, 

John Armstrong

P.S. I am going to start posting all of my articles on a website called www.hardtorecall.com (as in hard to recall one's Oath of Office). If you like my articles, go and enter your email address in the subscribe section so you won't miss any.  I'll always post here first, but we don't have a subscribe link as of yet and I'm trying to spread this message in as many ways as possible.

strongarmedjohn@yahoo.com

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2008 John Armstrong, all rights reserved.
Published: Monday, February 25, 2008
Last modified: Monday, February 25, 2008

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