How did it go so wrong? How did the Supreme Court become above Congress in the ability to make law? by Mark Vogl
(conservative)
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Should it require a law degree to understand the governing foundations of the United States of America? I didn't think so when I was a child. The teachers were pretty clear. Even to a young boy, the concepts appeared clean and straight. The majority ruled, but because majorities could hurt people, there were rights guaranteed in the Constitution which took atleast a two thirds majority of both Houses and three quarters of the states to change. It seemed a simple, easy system to understand. Nothing to tough.
And because the American people had had bad experiences with big government...the English government, and other European governments, a Bill of Rights was adopted simultaneously to the adoption of the Constitution which placed restraints on the federal government. And even more than that, states like New York asserted their right to secession if the compact between the states known as the Constitution did not work out. So Americans across the thirteen colonies, which were nation - states at the time, set down strong markers to protect themselves from the power of Congress. What they seemed to have forgotten is the Supreme Court! I guess they did not expect Roe v. Wade, or the decisions of the Court which have set the course and direction of this nation. I guess they thought the Court would say..."no that law is not Constitutional, go try again.." and not make decisions which say, "that law is not Consitutuonal so we will make the decision for you!"
Congress shall make no law...
What an expression of human hope and desire. In those words the authors attempted to say that there were things outside the control of government; that you, the power brokers of a nation do NOT have the right to do some things. And that is not to say that no one had the right. The state itself did. The prohibitions against Congress, the legislative branch of the central government seem not to apply to the federal judicial branch today, but i would assert that the prohibitions against the central government retained those powers to the states and people respective. Funny, I think it says exactly in the Tenth Amendment. Oh a different vision than what exists today; a nation where in each state things could be different. 13 different states, maybe with different languages, different monies, different economies, different religious and social practices all living under one central government. What a concept.
Congress shall make no law ...
And what was the very first thing the Bill of Rights prohibited? Congress shall make no law respecting the establishing of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. (Reading this, I never understood US actions against Utah. I don't know how you can be any more clear...and yet the Mormons were systematically savaged. Just one of the great contradictions and inconvenient history of the American promise. Sits right there next to All men are created equal and slavery! )
The very first words of the first Amendment. Nothing before it. No caveats.
Religion. Belief in God. The source of right and wrong in the Bible. The Ten Commandments and all that come with it. The very first thing.
Interesting, but folks did you know that adoption of the Constitution at the time, was not a sure thing. Did you know that the adoption of Constiuiion happened by state, and that little Rhode Island stood alone for two years outside the Union. Sure did. You see at the time the thirteen states were under the Articles of Confederation...the first governing document..the one that got us through the revolution. We gained our independence as 13 separate nations and when the treaties were signed they acknowledged the separate status of each state. The history of American secession starts here, when the thirteen states withdrew from the Articles of Confederation to either rejoin under the Constitution or go their own way.
People had just fought an 8 year war against England. They had secured their liberty and they were jealous of it. They saw central government as the enemy. Not fixable, not improvable, but as a tyrant that devoured things, and placed undo burdens on people. So they were in no hurry to create a new monster, even if that monster was their own.
To garner public support for a questionable consolidation of power, one defended as necessry because of only two reasons, defense and commerce, the leaders of our nation offered the Bill of Rights. They told us that we had to have a degree centralization to survive and prosper, but that we would take extra measure to restrain, control, and block the power of a central government. We will give you a series of rights which are above the Constitution; vote for them when you vote for the Constitution. It was brilliant politics. But,...
You know you learn things in life. Not in a formal classroom, but in the living of life. One of the lessons I have leaened is the arrogance of those who live in the here and now...whenever the here and now is. One example which helped destroy my belief in America affected my life directly. If you will tolerate a short story, you might gain some insight into what I am trying to communicate about the power of government and about the potential of the American dream.
My family lost my father when were five young children. Eventually the four boys of my family would enter Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pa. This school had been set up by Milton Heshey, completely funded by his wealth. No government money. None. It was for poor white boys who had lost their parent(s). It was born from a love between Milton and his wife Katherine who could not have children. It was and is a magnificent school. For me, it was America. It was where the dreams and words of men came together in real life to prove the American way. No government...this was capitalism, and business taking care of our own. This was a man who never went past 8th grade and yet built the candy empire of America. This was a man with ability who had not been twisted by the Ivy League, orformal education. He had built his dream on work, on family, on the opportunities provided by the land and God. Milton Hershey set the example for all successful business people to follow.
So what's the rub?
Milton Hershey paid for the school, built the school, operated the school. And he set some basic rules. Those rules were about creating good solid citizens. We lived in homes, in a rural setting. The boys of high school age actually lived on dairy farms and worked the farms. Every morning, six am, boys were up and headed to the barns to milk the cows. Snow, rain, cold, hot, didn't matter. There were strict regimens, work, school, church, play, all working together. And it was a huge school in terms of land, thousands of acres, employing thousands of people. All the school within the smell of the chocolate coming out of the Hershey factory. The plan and financial model was solid. Everything worked, was clean, and if you were a student attending...at least me, I would walk around this Disney-type world thinking: God did this for me. God did this for me. If you want to talk about the building of self-worth, of the realization that man can make a difference and can make the world a better place... it is impossible to communicate how strong those feelings are within me today.
But than the government shows up You can't make those kids work in the barn! Child abuse!
There were other changes, first removing race, and later gender. And to me, those were probably right..except. They were used to set the principle of changing, destroying the will, the trust left by one man who governed the money he had made. What was the lesson to me? Government and people of the here and now can alter forever the good done by a human being, even when he plays within the law, and even when he or family gain nothing from it. It was a bitter lesson, one step down the road to my total disappointment in what I thought America was..
I know this last story got off the track, but I am not writing a college paper. I am writing to help communicate why so many people are so frustrated and angered by the America we live in today. It is NOT the nation we were told we inherited. And it is not better. 17 trillion in debt tells me we don’t have long to live as a nation.
Each and every time I talk to someone close to me about what the real problems are for America, it always comes back to our individual dependence on government spending. Each person I have talked to does not realize how much of their life is dependent on government. And, being dependent on government means being dependent on the money which comes from government. But since we are borrowing forty cents of every dollar government spends...we are not paying for it. But someone will.
Our nation is self-destructing because the smartest of smart removed God, liberty, Christianity, family, patriotism, hard work, a savings - earnings ethic from the center of our nation and replaced it with globalism, materialism, economics, free will, diversity, and a complete lack of understanding of what America was essentially about.
Congress shall make no law was not about the government taking care of social injustice or about redistribution of wealth. It was about releasing the potential of man. It was about stopping the powerful from stopping the unpowerful. It was about setting limits on the ability of groups of people to control other people. But all we see today, whether its Obama Care, massive federal debt, Court decisions which literally rob life from the unborn is an America of classes taking from those they can. No personal responsibility. No punishment for unwise action.
Death is no longer for me somewhere I fear to go. Actually I never did. I believe in God, as I believe in the sun, or gravity, so that fear was never there. But with each passing day I almost yearn for its arrival. The disappointment of America great. The hope for a nation which had a fresh start, where the voices of men..not nobles or aristocrats, but just plain men were actually heard and a nation created to those voices is almost gone. The candle is almost extinguished. It will grow dark soon.
When you consider what was really attempted with Congress shall make no law, and realize that it failed you see the future of the world. True diversity, true liberty, real difference cannot live side by side. If America could not tolerate Mormonism in a Christian land, how can we expect Judaism and Islam to live peacefully side by side?
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