Newsletter - July 2023

 Correction to June Newsletter

The Republican Party was founded in 1854.  The date given in the June newsletter was incorrect.

The writers of the Constitution established a government with three distinct branches.  They were meant to work separately and then come together for final conclusions.  The Executive branch was to be run by an Executive.  The Legislative branch was to be run by representatives elected every two years in the House and every six years in the Senate. The Judicial Branch was to determine if legislation was in accordance with the Constitution and legislation.  We now have the Administrative state which means taxpayers are supporting a few Million federal employees and as of 2021, 18.28 Million people who work for state and local governments.

Where does all of this government leave the Constitution?  According to John Marini, (Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute) the administrative state makes the Constitution meaningless.  He states: “constitutionalism as a theoretical doctrine is no longer meaningful in our politics…. When the principles that establish the legitimacy of the constitution are understood to be changeable, are forgotten or are denied, the constitution can no longer impose limits on the power of government.”

The founders of the United States were believers in the concept of natural rights and the belief that government is created by a social compact among the people.  The Founders believed that people established government to protect their natural rights.  The separate branches in the government sought to preserve liberty from arbitrary rule. Early Progressives believed that the role of government was to be the organizing force of society. In fact, President Franklin Roosevelt stated a new understanding of the social contract in which “rulers were accorded power and the people consented to that power on consideration that they be accorded certain rights.”  In other words, the people’s rights come from the government. 

The presidency of Franklin Roosevelt began the administrative welfare state. The presidency of Woodrow Wilson had helped to set the stage given his view that a complex government required a civil service that had the technical expertise that average citizens did not have to make appropriate decisions.  The administrative state’s permanence culminated with the introduction of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. 

Article 1 of the Constitution declares, “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.”  If legislative power is only within the purview of the Legislators why do we have all of these pages and pages of law?  The answer is that over the past 100 years, Congress has given up its legislative function.  Legislative powers have been given to an unelected bureaucracy.  Many laws passed have given power to government agencies to craft rules and fill in all of the details of incomplete legislation.  Consequently, we have legislation that is thousands of pages in length aimed at controlling all possibilities. 

An excellent example of this process is the Affordable Care Act.  Congress left the law unfinished and incorporated broad delegations of power within the statute.  Congress “established the legal requirements necessary to provide the administrative apparatus with the legal authority to formulate the rules that would govern health care nationwide.”  Therefore, Congress has delegated authority to make rules and regulations to unnamed and unknown bureaucrats who rule because they supposedly are neutral and have technical expertise.

Here are some examples of what bureaucrats within federal agencies have attempted to do.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tried to make religious organizations provide birth control in spite of the fact that the organizations had moral objections to some or all of the birth control methods. Not complying meant steep fines.

The Environmental Protection Agency tried to extend jurisdiction over private land by coming up with a new interpretation of the Clean Water Act to cover ponds and wet meadows. 

In 2020, Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce wanted to ask citizens in the 2020 Census about their citizenship status.  Career bureaucrats opposed the Secretary and therefore, the federal government was forbidden to ask about citizenship.

Centralized government means we have endless laws, regulations and employees.  The job of many of these employees is to enforce the endless laws and regulations.

It is very easy to bury dictatorial rules and regulations in legislation that is 10,000 pages.  Legislators cannot get through this mound of pages in a few days.  Therefore, the administrative state wins.

Please remember: all of this legislative manipulation also occurs at the state level.

So where does all of this constitutional manipulation leave average citizens most of whom are never going to get to Washington D.C. or Sacramento?

First of all it is critical for all citizens to be aware of what is going on.  That includes voting.  Too many conservatives are not voting.  If you don’t vote, don’t complain.

Next:  it is crucial that our schools teach accurate history, how government works and how it should work.  Given the ideology being taught in many of our schools today it is more important than ever that people committed to protecting our constitution step up and run for election to school boards.  Remember, many of our schools are run by a small cadre of people who believe that they know what is best for our children and do not want to hear from parents.

Another area that is crucial for the average citizen to pay attention to is their local government.  There are many boards, commissions and committees in every county that are making important decisions which affect everybody.  More conservative minded people are needed on these boards. 

It is worthwhile to know that the Founders thought our Republic had about 200 years before an inevitable collapse.  Benjamin Franklin said, “I agree to this Constitution…and I believe, further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.”

Are we ready to make Benjamin Franklin wrong?