I’m really weary of American politics.
This last several weak, we’ve been treated to the political circus of impeachment hearings. It may seem momentous, but when you boil it all down, it will have virtually no impact on our lives. It was all political theater. But while Republicans and Democrats were yelling at each other across the aisle in the Capitol, they were working behind the scenes to steal our liberty and siphon away our wealth.
Congress managed to get together and reauthorize provisions of the Patriot Act so the federal government can continue spying on everybody without a warrant, passed a Defense Authorization Act that maintains provisions that give the federal government the authority to arrest and detain American citizens indefinitely with no due process, agreed to strip a proposal out of that NDAA bill that would have made it just slightly more difficult for the president to send American off to war at his whim, and hammered out a budget agreement that spends $1.4 trillion the government doesn’t have. It also raised the unconstitutional federal age to buy cigarettes. Meanwhile, the Washington Post released documents that reveal the U.S. government has lied to us for nearly two decades about the war in Afghanistan.
All of this barely got a shrug. I really think it’s important for us to pay attention to these things – the things they don’t want us to pay attention to.
I say all of this to say the political process in Washington D.C. is hopeless broken. If we are going to make any progress slaying the unconstitutional, overreaching behemoth in D.C., we have to find a better way.
Well, the “Father of the Constitution showed us that “better way” in a Christmas Eve present in 1798.
On Dec. 24 of that year, the Virginia Senate gave final approval to the Virginia Resolutions penned by James Madison.
Together with Thomas Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions, they outlined the principles of nullification.
Madison asserted that when the federal government oversteps its constitutional bounds, states not only have a right, but a duty, to step in and stop the “progress of the evil.”
“That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid that they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.”
The principles laid out by Madison and Jefferson provide us with a powerful tool to fight an overbearing and overreaching federal government. That’s a pretty good Christmas present!
You can read more about how the passage of the resolutions went down HERE.
I bet you didn’t learn about the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions at government school, did you? There is a lot of history we were never taught. Fortunately, we live in a world where we don’t have to depend on traditional schooling. We have access to all kinds of great books and other resources.
Here’s a way you can help me out. I’ve put together of list of books that have been influential on me. You can visit my reading list page HERE. If you use the links, I will earn a small commission. It doesn’t even matter if you buy that particular book. This helps fund my work.
I hope everybody has a very merry Christmas!
Peace!
Michael Maharrey