Sitting Down on the Job

Milk and Battery Acid

A couple weeks ago, while pondering the unique set of circumstances we find ourselves in as Americans in 2016, I nearly managed to convince myself that maybe things weren’t as bad as I thought.

While many countries around the globe rot under tyranny or anarchy (or socialism), at least America is still able to choose her leaders while we slowly rot, right?

Needless to say, this thought did little to brighten my mood and I was suddenly not nearly convinced at all.

Why? Because we are actively choosing the leaders who are destroying us. It’s like going to the grocery store every two or four years and having the choice between vitamin D enriched, whole milk and battery acid.

And choosing battery acid every time.

I keep saying America is a Constitutional Republic. And we are. Or at least we were founded to be. However, over a century of ignoring our founding principles and the Constitution has led to where we are nearly unrecognizable as a Constitutional Republic.

When we see leaders, that Americans voted into office, staging a childish, publicity stunt on the floor of the House of Representatives, with the stated goal being to remove the God-given, constitutional rights from U.S. citizens, how can we say that we are still operating as a Constitutional Republic?

The Great Sit-In of 2016

I am of course talking about the so-called “sit-in” that many Democrats participated in this last week. They were fundraising and pulling a PR stunt. The bills they were calling for had already been summarily defeated in the Senate. And for good reason. They are unconstitutional.*

So here you have members of the highest legislative body in the country, protesting, throwing a temper tantrum when they are told they can’t vote on whether to strip Americans of their rights.

I’m not sorry. You don’t get to vote on taking away our rights. That’s not up for discussion.

If we set the precedent that Congress can take away your right to a gun, without due process, for the “safety of the country”, how long will it be before they take a vote on taking away your First Amendment right to free speech?

Some would argue that’s already happening. For the “safety of the country”, of course.

These members of Congress, throwing a hissy fit because they don’t get to vote on taking your rights and destroying what the Constitution was designed to protect, took a sacred oath:

“I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Each and every one of them took that oath and a signed copy is held by the Clerk of the House. Now, these members are fighting to shatter that oath into a million pieces and spit on it while they trample it into the dirt.

The Boiling Point

And this is where many Americans become super frustrated and downright angry. After all, I sure as heck did not vote for Nancy Pelosi or Elijah Cummings. They don’t represent me or what I believe.

As a Republic, we are supposed to have leaders who represent us, the voters. We do our duty, we vote and get involved, and yet still dozens of representatives are hellbent on doing the exact opposite of their oath. How does that happen and what can we do about it?

Federalism

First of all, we have to realize that the function of the federal government (of the which the U.S. House of Representatives is a part) has ballooned to an unmanageable, unconstitutional, and downright disastrous size. Just read the Constitution, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. You’ll find very quickly that the federal government was designed to handle our national and international concerns, and that those concerns were few and defined.

Our founders believed that the individual states and local authorities would be better equipped to handle domestic issues. Why is that? Because state and local authority is closer to the people.

You have direct influence over who your state and local representatives will be. On the other hand, if you live in Alaska, you have zero influence over who New York sends to the U.S. House of Representatives.

(And if New York sends someone like, I don’t know, Charlie Rangel, who believes that no citizen really needs a gun (except his personal security guards, they definitely need guns), then sorry Alaska.)

The closer government is to the people, the more responsive government is to the people. We have to get out of this mindset that we have to have national laws about every single issue.

Washington has legal marijuana. Great. That doesn’t mean we suddenly need a national law on marijuana.

It’s called federalism, and it’s a fantastic system. It allows states to be laboratories, to try out ideas and see how they work. Then, the successful states can be models for the unsuccessful states. The unsuccessful states can be warnings to successful states.

So, in closing, if the whiny Democrats in Congress would do something truly brave and actually read the document they’ve sworn to uphold, they’d realize that it’s not their job to micro-manage every single domestic issue. Their job is clearly laid out within definite parameters.

They’d also realize that their job does not include voting on whether to take your Constitutional, God-given rights.

If that happened, we’d all be much better off. And maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to once again nearly convince myself that things aren’t as bad as I thought.

A guy can dream.

Jonathan Paine

Follow on Twitter: @painefultruth76

Let us know what you think: painefultruth1776@gmail.com

*Last week, I addressed how the FBI’s terror watch list and “No Fly” list are completely screwed up and pose a serious risk to every American’s rights. And I’m not just talking about your 2nd Amendment rights, because apparently a lot of people don’t care about those rights.

I’m talking about your right to face your accuser, to have charges brought to you, trial by jury, and basically what’s known as due process. In other words, you can’t have your rights taken away unless you have actually done something wrong. You are innocent until proven guilty. It’s kind of a big deal.