Bryan Fischer
Our last, best hope: conservative governors who will uphold the Constitution
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Most observant Americans have given up on Washington. Liberals in Washington are clearly driven by an anti-American and anti-constitutional governing philosophy, and conservatives in Washington, with rare exceptions, don't have the masculine strength or nerve to do anything about it.
Today, a whole boatload of King Georges sits in the Oval Office, the Supreme Court, and virtually every bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. Their dictatorial and totalitarian control over every aspect of American life is squeezing the life right out of us.
The Founders in their wisdom have left us with one last constitutional antidote: conservative governors and state legislatures who will defy unconstitutional edicts from the White House, the Supreme Court, Congress and federal bureaucrats.
Article I, Section 8 outlines the only powers of action "we the people" have delegated to the central government. Simply put, if it's not on the list of powers found there, the federal government has no moral, ethical, legal, or constitutional authority to do it. According to the 9th and 10th amendments, every power of action not listed in Article I, Section 8, is a power reserved to the states or to the people themselves.
To give five simple examples. In Article I, Section 8, there is no mention whatsoever of abortion, marriage, health care, education, or the environment. In other words, none of the three branches of the federal government has any authority whatsoever to dictate policy on these issues to the states. None.
The great need of the hour is for governors who will fulfill their own oath of office by defying unconstitutional edicts from any branch of the central government, including the judiciary.
In so doing, they would not be violating the Constitution; they would in fact be upholding the Constitution, and making us in the process once again a nation of laws and not men.
Currently, 26 states are under the control of the more conservative of the two parties. Republicans control both the governor's office and the state house in more than half the states in the Union.
If some, most, or better yet all were actually to follow the Constitution as given to us by the Founders (not as mangled by the Courts), they could break the life-strangling chokehold of a tyrannical central government, just as the Founders did in 1776. And all without the shedding of a single drop of blood.
This new American revolution would be orderly and peaceful, unless President Obama were to send out Bull Conner with his fire hoses and his dogs to grind Americans under his heel. And it would be a revolution, as it was in 1776 and should be today, led by the elected representatives of the American people.
The alternative, frankly, is bloodshed and anarchy. Our economy has been shredded by taxation and regulation, our culture is plunging into a moral abyss, federal welfare is destroying the American family, and our education system is pathetically inept. The patience of the American people with government tyranny is nearly exhausted, and we are closer than most people think to something nobody wants, a thermal runaway of violence, civil unrest and vigilante justice. Our governors represent our last hope of avoiding what in effect would be another civil war.
State leaders who think for themselves are already taking baby steps in this direction. Some states intend to defy any federal directives that infringe on the Second Amendment. Others intend to secede from ObamaCare by making it null and void in their states. Still others are telling the federal government to take a hike by pulling out of the brain-numbing boondoggle that is Common Core.
On marriage, we need a governor (Rick Perry? Bobby Jindal? Phil Bryant of Mississippi?) who will refuse an order from even a federal judge to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples if his state has a constitutional amendment or a state law defining it as a man-woman institution. We need a governor, with a legislature that will back him to the hilt, who will prohibit county clerks from issuing any marriage licenses that are not in accordance with their state constitution.
We need governors who will enforce their own state's laws on abortion, regardless of what the federal courts have said, and padlock any abortion clinics that are in violation of the public policy established by their own state legislatures.
Surely Big Gay and Big Abortion would react with a frenzy of outrage and legal action, but what could they do if a governor backed by his legislature refused to bow to unconstitutional diktats issued even by the Supreme Court? If the president were to threaten the use of force in an effort to compel submission, it would simply prove the point that we are no longer a self-governing people and no longer have even the semblance of a constitutional republic.
Republican governors, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you. What will you do?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
February 3, 2014
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Most observant Americans have given up on Washington. Liberals in Washington are clearly driven by an anti-American and anti-constitutional governing philosophy, and conservatives in Washington, with rare exceptions, don't have the masculine strength or nerve to do anything about it.
Today, a whole boatload of King Georges sits in the Oval Office, the Supreme Court, and virtually every bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. Their dictatorial and totalitarian control over every aspect of American life is squeezing the life right out of us.
The Founders in their wisdom have left us with one last constitutional antidote: conservative governors and state legislatures who will defy unconstitutional edicts from the White House, the Supreme Court, Congress and federal bureaucrats.
Article I, Section 8 outlines the only powers of action "we the people" have delegated to the central government. Simply put, if it's not on the list of powers found there, the federal government has no moral, ethical, legal, or constitutional authority to do it. According to the 9th and 10th amendments, every power of action not listed in Article I, Section 8, is a power reserved to the states or to the people themselves.
To give five simple examples. In Article I, Section 8, there is no mention whatsoever of abortion, marriage, health care, education, or the environment. In other words, none of the three branches of the federal government has any authority whatsoever to dictate policy on these issues to the states. None.
The great need of the hour is for governors who will fulfill their own oath of office by defying unconstitutional edicts from any branch of the central government, including the judiciary.
In so doing, they would not be violating the Constitution; they would in fact be upholding the Constitution, and making us in the process once again a nation of laws and not men.
Currently, 26 states are under the control of the more conservative of the two parties. Republicans control both the governor's office and the state house in more than half the states in the Union.
If some, most, or better yet all were actually to follow the Constitution as given to us by the Founders (not as mangled by the Courts), they could break the life-strangling chokehold of a tyrannical central government, just as the Founders did in 1776. And all without the shedding of a single drop of blood.
This new American revolution would be orderly and peaceful, unless President Obama were to send out Bull Conner with his fire hoses and his dogs to grind Americans under his heel. And it would be a revolution, as it was in 1776 and should be today, led by the elected representatives of the American people.
The alternative, frankly, is bloodshed and anarchy. Our economy has been shredded by taxation and regulation, our culture is plunging into a moral abyss, federal welfare is destroying the American family, and our education system is pathetically inept. The patience of the American people with government tyranny is nearly exhausted, and we are closer than most people think to something nobody wants, a thermal runaway of violence, civil unrest and vigilante justice. Our governors represent our last hope of avoiding what in effect would be another civil war.
State leaders who think for themselves are already taking baby steps in this direction. Some states intend to defy any federal directives that infringe on the Second Amendment. Others intend to secede from ObamaCare by making it null and void in their states. Still others are telling the federal government to take a hike by pulling out of the brain-numbing boondoggle that is Common Core.
On marriage, we need a governor (Rick Perry? Bobby Jindal? Phil Bryant of Mississippi?) who will refuse an order from even a federal judge to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples if his state has a constitutional amendment or a state law defining it as a man-woman institution. We need a governor, with a legislature that will back him to the hilt, who will prohibit county clerks from issuing any marriage licenses that are not in accordance with their state constitution.
We need governors who will enforce their own state's laws on abortion, regardless of what the federal courts have said, and padlock any abortion clinics that are in violation of the public policy established by their own state legislatures.
Surely Big Gay and Big Abortion would react with a frenzy of outrage and legal action, but what could they do if a governor backed by his legislature refused to bow to unconstitutional diktats issued even by the Supreme Court? If the president were to threaten the use of force in an effort to compel submission, it would simply prove the point that we are no longer a self-governing people and no longer have even the semblance of a constitutional republic.
Republican governors, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you. What will you do?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
