We want out

By Michael Oberndorf

As a conservative, I am appalled by the "leadership" of the Republican Party. In spite of a crystal-clear message, sent by voters in the last elections, that only the severely retarded or the willfully blind could miss, they are charging ahead with Business as Usual. For all his tough conservative talk, Sun-tan Boehner might as well be a Democrat when it comes to acting. Socialist Obamacare and the Democrat's addiction to borrowing and spending have nothing to fear, at least as far as Boehner and the Establishment Republicans in the House are concerned. Only about 50 of 'em are standing up against raising the debt ceiling, and the rest just bleat a bit for the hometown papers, and then follow along to the slaughter like the good little bought-and-paid-for sheep that they are.

"The Revolution is over, and so as not to inconvenience anyone, nothing has been changed."

The simple truth is, the federal government — elected, appointed, and hired — is no longer a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." They are taking their goose-stepping marching orders not from the electorate, but from big-money special interests like environmentalists, unions, globalist multinational corporations, and billionaire globalist neo-fascists like George Soros. More and more, they look to the U.N. and foreign countries, rather than the Constitution, for guidance.

However, We the People, are still a numerical majority. In addition, we occupy the vast majority of the American territory. And, even though it is ignored more often than obeyed, the Constitution is still the supreme law of the land. Herein lies our hope.

The Tenth Amendment very simply states:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

In other words, if what the federal government is doing is not specifically authorized by the Constitution, states have the power to opt out. Thus, when the federal government tries to force a clearly unconstitutional law, like Obamacare, on the states, the states can tell the federal government to go suck an egg. Unfortunately, we need many more state legislators with enough patriotic backbone to stand up and "just say NO." And this is where We, the People come in.

There is a growing movement to enforce the Tenth Amendment and return power to the states, as was originally intended by our founders (http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/). Several states are moving in this direction, led by Oklahoma. Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, and Utah have also challenged the right (or wrong) of the federal government regarding gun laws, "endangered" species and other environmental issues, illegal immigration, and federal "ownership" of vast tracts of land. What is needed from us and our Tea Parties is to lessen our focus on federal elections and to greatly increase our involvement on the state and local level, electing conservative, patriotic, constitutionalists to our state houses and senates, to our county commissions, as county sheriffs and attorneys general, and to city and town councils. This is, as originally intended, where our power actually lies. These are the elected officials — our friends and neighbors — who have the power to tell the elitists in Washington to take their borrowed billions and stuff 'em, to close the border, to leave our right to keep and bear arms alone, to stop interfering in the internal commerce and legislative affairs of the sovereign states, and myriad other daily violations of states' rights.

And these are the elected representatives of We, the People, who if all else fails, have the power and right to say, "Enough. We want out." This is what our constitutionally guaranteed republican form of government is all about.

© Michael Oberndorf