Enumerated Constitutional Powers

October 3, 2014

I was reading an interesting commentary posted via Midwest Christian Outreach, an organization I highly recommend. In this day and age, when no one comprehends the way cults work, they are doing yoeman’s work. The essay that caught my attention was entitled A Moron in the White House. And, no, it is not what we might think the article is – criticism of the current occupant, but it is about Snoops, rumors, lies, and negative political ads.

Don Velnot’s commentary hits both parties, equally. It is rather chilling.

“...Like ancient Israel, our nation has abandoned God. In addition, we have largely abandoned the Constitution. As a result, the elected leaders have abandoned the role of being servant and instead have become task masters using the citizens to feed and provide for the demands of the ever growing and voracious government. Have Mencken’s observations of human nature and predictions regarding the future of the presidency come to pass? Perhaps, but it would only confirm something with Scripture demonstrated several thousand years ago. This will only change if a) we as a nation turn back to God and b) we as a nation hold our leader’s feet to the flame of following the Constitution which as it turns out, limits the power of the Federal Government to the 18 Enumerated powers which are there to protect the people from the government in order to preserve their God given inalienable rights….”

I started thinking about those 18 Enumerated Powers of the Federal Government, provided via the Constitution. We hear a heck of a lot about the Bill of Rights, and the Amendments, but for some strange reason, the far right, especially libertarians just don’t like dealing with those 18 Enumerated Powers. If so, then their entire reason for existence goes down the drain.

Read them. You do, and you realize that it is impossible to be a libertarian and uphold the Constitution. It is impossible to then be someone who considers themselves Tea Party to actually do what they want to do, and be within the letter of the Constitution. In order to uphold these Enumerated Powers, entities like the Koch Machine must cease to exist. They prove that Ron Paul is a ranting fool. Rand Paul knows NOTHING about basic Government 101 and Paul Ryan had no business being on a ticked for Vice President of the United States. They prove Rush Limbaugh to be a total fool, and FOX News seriously anti-Constitutional.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Several amendments explicitly grant Congress additional powers. For example, the Sixteenth Amendment grants the power to “lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived.“

One glaring problem is that those in elected office have become so corrupted by special interests that they are incapable of doing the above. The very act of demanding the shut-down of rural post offices, of not maintaining roads, and wanting to privatize these goes against the Constitution. It also prevents an Imperial Presidency.

What does one do when members of Congress are more interested in maintaining their own elected office, raising money, and pandering to special interests rather than doing what is right? What is more frightening is that these problems truly began when the religious cult created by R. J. Rushdoony and continued by Scary Gary North, the brains behind Ron Paul, began taking over our country. The cult created by Rushdoony considers democracy to be heresy. Gary North’s all encompassing goal in life is to facilitate the destruction of the United States as we know it, and bring about theonomy, a Calvinist nation, on earth, where anyone who disagrees with the godly leaders can be executed.

What a bloody mess.

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SJ Reidhead (aka The Pink Flamingo) is a writer based in New Mexico. The author of two published novels, both westerns: Dust Devil and The Second Mrs. Earp and two published works of non-fictions: TRAVESTY: Frank Waters Earp Agenda Exposed and A Church for Helldorado, Endicott Peabody’s 1882 Tombstone Diary. One of the leading authorities on the life of Wyatt Earp and Tombstone during the Earp years, she is currently writing a series of murder mysteries set in modern day Tombstone. The author is also working on a book about fashion in the Wild West. When complete, there will be over 2100 unpublished antique photographs dating from 1855-1910.

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SJ Reidhead has been involved in Republican politics since she was ‘a little kid’. During the Reagan years she was a lobbyist working with various non-profit organizations who were attempting to salvage NASA and the American space program after the disastrous Carter years. Unfortunately, because of the libertarian take-over of the GOP, and the rise of the Tea Parties, as the Republican Party becomes more and more extreme and marginalized, it is impossible to remain loyal to the GOP. The Pink Flamingo remains GOP in order to try to bring the party back to what it once was. I fear it is an impossible task.

The Pink Flamingo went on line on October 4, 2005, after the author realized “normal” Republicans were being marginalized as the extreme far right attempts to become the new normal. In November, 2012, The Pink Flamingo, for the first time ever, voted for a Democrat, Barack Obama. Normal will never again apply to the GOP.

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