You have probably seen a lot of comparisons in the main stream media trying to compare President Barack Obama to President Ronald Reagan. Try to make this comparison to a conservative and they will look at you rather oddly. Tell it to a progressive and they lap it up, because they know that President Reagan was a leader and by comparing the two men, perhaps some of that leadership will rub off on the incumbent.
Georgia
Movin' Out
One of the great blessings bestowed upon us by our Founding Fathers was federalism. Our federal form of government evolved from the Articles of Confederation, where states had primacy and the national government acted only with the consent of the states. This proved to be too cumbersome.
In writing the Constitution, the Founders identified very specific roles and responsibilities for the national government and left everything else to the states or the people (see Tenth Amendment). In doing so it gave the people the power of liberty through mobility. If you didn’t like the way they did things in Massachusetts, you could move to Virginia. If the people of Pennsylvania didn’t want a mass migration of people to Georgia, they needed to be careful regarding the laws that they passed so as not to alienate a large block of their constituents.
The War on Federalism
The statist, who loves government and believes government should control every aspect of our lives, hates federalism, because it weakens its control. So they attack it through the courts.
Here is their standard battle plan. Let’s the case of Gay Marriage. Vermont’s legislature approves Gay Marriage. Whether you are in favor of that or oppose that it shouldn’t affect you if you don’t live in Vermont. If you are in favor and you live elsewhere, you can move to Vermont. If you live there and are opposed you can either fight to overturn it in Vermont, or move elsewhere. That’s the beauty of federalism. If continued to its logical conclusion, some states would approve it and those in favor would migrate there, and those who are opposed would concentrate in states that would ensure that it would not be adopted in their state. You could have a raging debate, but your liberty would be preserved through mobility.
However, the statists have a different view of things. After the law is passed in Vermont by the legislature (as is proper), or made up out of thin air by the court in Massachusetts (judicial activism and improper), some couples who are married in these states move to another state. By doing so, they should leave their state sanctioned rights behind. However, what they will typically do when their Vermont sanctioned rights are not honored in, say, Tennessee they will rush to federal court and says their Constitutional rights are being violated. A court stocked with judicial activists, will find some fig leaf of justification with words like emanations and penumbras, to make a new law of the land and with the stroke of a pen, the liberties of all Americans will be swept away based on the will of the people of Vermont. You no longer can protect your liberty through mobility. You cannot go anywhere to live in proximity to like minded people and live the life you believe in. Mobility is no longer a tool to protect your liberty it is a weapon against you. People can secure rights elsewhere and use mobility to come to your doorstep and use the courts to force their beliefs on you.
Fierce Fighting
I believe that is why the fighting over these issues become so fierce and acrimonious. If something is allowed anywhere, it will soon be allowed everywhere, because of an activist judiciary. Our rhetoric has become more strident, our politics is anything but bipartisan, all because everything is being elevated to the federal level. States are becoming less and less important. If you don’t believe it ask people, who was responsible for the fiasco after hurricane Katrina? If they say President Bush, ask them to name the mayor of New Orleans or the governor of Louisiana at the time. Bush and the federal government should have been the third line of defense, not the first. The first should have been the city, then the state and then the federal government.
Back to Federalism
Show me where in the constitution it says the government should own General Motors and Chrysler. Show me where it says that a tunnel, entirely in the city of Boston should be paid for by the taxpayers of Arizona. Show me where in the constitution it says education is the responsibility not of local government but the federal government. It doesn’t. And until well roll back this juggernaut, our liberties will be crushed little by little, day by day.
This is why it is also important to guard against activist judges getting on the bench or being elevated to higher levels of the court. It is just these activist judges who are taking away your liberty to move away from those who don’t believe what you do and moving toward those you do agree with. Take note of the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
On President Obama’s 100th day in office, as part of his never ending election campaign he said, “Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit…. That wasn’t me.” The “blame it all on Bush” mantra is getting old, but this one is becoming particularly grating. I would like to direct President Obama’s attention to the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 9:
“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law;”
Congress has the power of the purse, not the President. That means that President Bush couldn’t spend a thin dime without the approval of Congress. For the last two years of the Bush presidency, who controlled the United States Congress? The Democrats. And lest we forget, before he became President Obama, he was Senator Obama, a member in good standing of that same United States Congress. Does anyone think for a minute that the Democratic Congress run by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi was a rubber stamp for Bush? Anything they disagreed with Bush on they would have fought tooth and nail.
Remember during the campaign when the Democrats were putting together their rescue package how the Republicans were locked out of the room and John McCain “suspended” his campaign to return to Washington to make something happen? Remember as well that Obama was too busy campaigning to similarly get involved even though he was still a sitting Senator.
Now with the shoe on the other foot, and President Obama pushing to triple the deficit, the only people fighting him in Congress are the Republicans. So this impending debt disaster is a joint effort by Obama and the Congressional Democrats.
President Obama can’t claim, like Bill Clinton, “don’t blame me, I came from Arkansas.” President Obama can’t claim, like Jimmy Carter, “don’t blame me, I came from Georgia.” President Obama came to the presidency from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. He was an insider, not an outsider. He owns just as much of this mess as Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid.
So, Mr. President, stop playing the blame game, take responsibility and do your job.
