Friday, January 25, 2008

It's mine, no it's mine. No, Mine. MINE!

So who does the Constitution belong to? The federal government? No. The President? No. The Congress? No. The Supreme Court? No. It belongs to the people. The people, acting through their States wrote the Constitution which created all of these federal entities. The thing that is created cannot own the thing that created it. The creator is always greater than that which is created. Think about it. God and Man. The people giveth and the people can taketh away.
The people can amend the Constitution; not the President, not the Supreme Court (though heaven knows they in essence have), not the Congress alone. The people created the federal governement and set the constraints, the boundaries within which it must operate and not stray beyond. The people hold all of the power and granted the federal government a small, limited slice of that power for the collective good of all people. They then set a fence around the federal government. Power does not flow from Washington to the people, but rather from the people to Washington.
The rights of the people set out and protected in the Constitution came from God and the natural state of human freedom, not from the federal government. It is not the role of government to confer rights upon people but rather to protect the rights that the people already enjoy. It is the people who tell the federal government what rights it has, not the reverse. And the people can change those rights bestowed upon the government, but the government cannot alter the inalienable rights of the people.
It is not the role of the federal government to interpret the meaning of the Constitution to the people. The people, who wrote the Constitution can interpret it for themselves and to the government. No government entity, particularly the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of what the Constitution says and means.
The challenge for the people is enforcing the Constitution upon the federal government. The various branches and institutions have shown that they clearly have no compunction about flagrantly violating the letter and intent of it. Sadly though, while brazenly ignoring and violating the fundamental and supreme law of the land the very same government expects the people to obey every obscure and obtuse rule and regulation that it promulgates. And beyond the lengthy and difficult amendment process, the people have precious little power to force the government into compliance. After all, the government is the police power, not to mention the tax and spend power. If we try to sue the government we wind up in courts and before judges that are essentially representatives of the people that we are bringing suit against. They are all complicit and in league together, thus enabling and providing cover for the other branches of government. Where is justice?
The people need a sheriff.

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