by Kevin Alfred Strom
THE MAIN DEFENSE the Founders set up to protect Americans from the tyranny of kings — and the tyranny of the majority — was the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
It says, in effect, that the central government possesses only those powers expressly granted by the Constitution and no other powers whatever. And that is how it was understood and applied until the second Roosevelt demanded and received Lenin-like economic power (“for our own good,” of course) and supine judges allowed it despite its obvious illegality.
(Of course, Abraham Lincoln’s arrest of the legislature of Maryland to prevent them from “voting wrongly,” and the imposition of several pretended Amendments to the Constitution while states were under military dictatorships — so-called “Reconstruction” — and their citizens disenfranchised, were also completely illegal, among many other things.)
Washington meddling in and controlling local public education? Absolutely prohibited by the Tenth Amendment.
Washington telling employers who they must hire? Absolutely prohibited by the Tenth Amendment.
Washington controlling your ability to sell your home or land to whomever you choose? Absolutely prohibited by the Tenth Amendment.
Washington telling you what substances you can or cannot consume? Absolutely prohibited by the Tenth Amendment.
Washington authorizing a consortium of private banks (like the Federal Reserve) to control all money and credit? Absolutely prohibited by the Tenth Amendment.
All the other sections of the Bill of Rights prohibit the federal government from doing one thing or another, respectively. But the Tenth is like all the other Amendments on steroids. It prohibits Washington from doing anything, except those things specifically called for in the rest of the document.
However, by torturing and twisting the words of the preamble (‘…yeah, we can do just about anything that “promotes the general welfare,” right?’) and by other means, the Tenth Amendment has been rendered null and void for all practical purposes. Those who did this said they needed the extra powers to do us all a lot of good.
But, in the process of trying to do good (if indeed that was ever their intention), they also blatantly lied, outrageously broke the supreme law of the land, rendered almost all of their Acts and Bills totally illegal, and caused the regime in Washington, whatever party is in power, to be quite illegitimate and utterly unlawful.