The Constitutional Tooth Fairy
One can draw various conclusions from the recent Obamacare ruling by the Supreme Court. There is even floating around the wishful thought that Chief Justice John Roberts made his decision in order to influence the next election. Even if true that idea does nothing more than emphasize that the court is not a court of law but a court of last opinion. So perhaps the easiest conclusions are those that show a majority of the Supreme Court justices have for years ignored the Constitution and have written opinions that ignore the restrictions of the Constitution in favor of a larger and more intrusive federal government.
I say this because it is difficult to read the Constitution and find some way to distort the ‘commerce clause’ into the excuse it has become. “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;” is specific. It is to regulate commerce.
The minority opinion in Gonzales vs Raich finds Justice Thomas dissenting. One should read the entire opinion which starts: “Respondents Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and that has had no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana. If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything – and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.” Yet this is exactly what the majority does.
In essence, Representative Nancy Pelosi responded correctly to the question about Constitutional authority for Obamacare when she asked: “Are you serious?” Her point was who, in Congress, cares about the Constitution.
Let us be clear. There is no longer a Constitution that limits the power of government. Government does what it wants, when it wants, how it wants. There is a pretense at abiding by laws restricting government, but it is only pretense. Government runs the banks, controls transportation, limits production of electricity, throws you in jail for smoking marijuana, taxes you for rain falling on your house, ‘taxes’ you for not buying medical insurance, controls how many beds a hospital may build, tells us we can’t pray in public meetings, controls how many doctors may attend medical school, and even has the temerity to limit who, what, when and how the people might protest or demonstrate when the political class descends upon us.
Ah, but read the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law…..; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
What are the rules and limits of Charlotte in the next few months if not laws restricting the right of the people peaceably to assemble? We are not going to be allowed to petition the government in a peaceful assembly because the representatives of the government will be so far removed from the peaceful assembly as to not even know of its existence. The local gendarmes will not have the people interfering with the Ruling Class. And this is the pass we have come to.
Despite the blatant disregard for the Constitution exhibited by all branches of government there are still people who believe we are protected by it. Any Constitution, any written article of laws, whether one which limits and proscribes, or one 2000 pages long that may well dictate how you can blow your nose, is only so effective as the people who support it. It is no different than a law against spitting on the sidewalk. If it is not enforced nor supported by the people, it will not have any effect. This is where our Constitution is now. A quaint document, to which we pretend allegiance, to which government pretends to defer, but which is only as real as the Tooth Fairy.
So the country our founding fathers fought for, died for, to which the signers of the Declaration of Independence said we “….pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor,” has become no more than what they fought against. We, the people, live each day hoping government doesn’t come to our door, taking something away, to which action we have no ability to oppose them.
Yet there are those who still support Obama and those who think salvation lies in Romney. The difference will not be so grand, but this election will be the difference between immediate economic collapse under another Obama administration and some sort of postponement of the same under Romney. Whether Romney actually believes in the Constitution and works to lead the country back to a rule of law is questionable. For if elected, when he nominates someone to the Supreme Court, if the judge is not of Clarence Thomas’s beliefs, a belief in the Constitution as written, not as something to be distorted, then our respite is only temporary.
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