Sunny Hostin, one of the air-headed hosts of ABC’s “The View,” recently said that, because of the “existential crisis” being caused by Donald Trump, Democratic lawmakers must be willing to “fight and die.”
Is that a call for a civil war? Kinda sounds like it to me.
Are there any solutions to the current horrid division in America? Can we unite the country? Can we avoid a civil war? Let me suggest some possible solutions so that Democratic lawmakers, and millions of other Americans, won’t have to “fight and die.”
The first, and best, the only true solution will, unfortunately, never happen—and I mean, NEVER—and that is to return Congress and the federal government to its constitutionally enumerated powers. But this is utterly impossible. To understand why, we need to comprehend what our Founders established in the first place, something which probably less than 1 percent of Americans truly know, and I’m not being facetious with that percentage.
The 13 “Free and Independent States” (the words are directly from the Declaration of Independence) decided, for reasons noted below, that they would create a centralized government, and thus representatives of the several states wrote a Constitution (to be ratified by each state individually) stating what powers the states would sacrifice to the centralized entity. That Constitution was ratified in 1789 and is one of the most misunderstood documents in human history.
The 1789 Constitution delegated, from the states to the federal government, certain CLEARLY DEFINED powers. Critical point No. 1: The 13 “Free and Independent States” created that federal government, not visa-versa a la Abraham Lincoln, sacrificing certain (very few) powers to the national government. But the states told their creation (especially Congress, the legislative branch) EXACTLY what it could do (Article 1, Section 8) and EXACTLY what it could NOT do (the Bill of Rights.) The belief was that certain matters could be handled better collectively than by individual states. For example, they didn’t want 13 different currencies, 13 different post offices stumbling over each other, they didn’t want one state declaring war on a foreign country, dragging the rest of the states into it—the states gave powers to the Congress (about 17 in number, read Article 1 Section 8) that could be handled better collectively. (The President has some limited powers, too, of course, but cannot make laws on his own. He’s the executive, not the legislature.) Every other power—and I mean, EVERY OTHER POWER—was reserved to the states or the people (10th Amendment). The states jealously guarded their jurisdictions.
Since the federal government’s powers had been delegated to it by the states, if the feds wanted more power, they had to ask the states, which could amend the Constitution (by three-fourths agreement) to transfer that power, which belonged to the states, to the federal government. That was a cumbersome process, but it was intended to be. Our Founders didn’t want a powerful national government; remember, that was exactly what they had rebelled against. They defined PRECISELY what the feds can and cannot do. And—especially critical point No. 2—the powers the states gave to the federal government applied to all Americans, benefitted all citizens, equally. The federal government was never intended to be the plaything of political parties and ideologies. We have totally, completely lost this concept in American history, it is utterly inconceivable now. Let me explain further.
Read Article 1, Section 8 in the Constitution, the powers of Congress, the ONLY law-making branch, laws which restrict freedom. Upon reading that section, one discovers that the powers delegated to Congress were neutral, that is, applying to and benefitting every citizen equally. There were no special privileges for certain groups (slavery excepted, but slaves weren’t citizens). There was no DEI, no welfare, no food stamps, no Social Security, no grants to colleges, no money for foreign countries, no funds for transgender mice, no cash for baby murdering Planned Parenthood—“Charity is no part of the legislative duty of government,” (James Madison, the “Father” of our Constitution). It’s all been made up, chimeras, created out of thin air by subsequent generations of selfish, power-hungry politicians in order to buy votes and enhance their positions. But, as written, the Constitution limits the federal government to specific, defined, and neutral powers—beneficial to ALL Americans equally, not special privileges to whoever is in power.
Interestingly, George Washington warned against political parties. He knew they would be divisive (they already were in his own day), and that they would be used to benefit the people who vote certain politicians into office. And those out of power would be forced to pay taxes to support things they do not believe in. And “force” is not “freedom.”
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” The Democrats get in power and force Republicans to pay for programs Republicans don’t believe in, and visa-versa. That is NOT what our Founders had in mind when they wrote the Constitution.
Let the federal government return to the powers given to it in the Constitution, applicable and beneficial to every citizen equally, and there will be no “special privileges” for different groups, no fighting over the money.
The Founding Fathers' scheme was absolutely brilliant—a neutral federal government with very limited powers that would benefit all Americans equally. The states, with different geographies, economic resources, ethnic groups, etc., were free to experiment as they wished, depending upon what their people wanted to do. And if you didn’t like the state you were living in, well, today, you have 49 other choices. But if the feds become tyrannical, what do you do? Move to Thailand?
It was brilliant. But we screwed it up to the highest heaven. And this solution will never happen. So, forget I wrote this column.
More solutions in my next article.
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