What does it really mean?

By on November 5, 2010 in Elections, Featured

by Michael Maharrey

The sound of thundering elephant feet first began to resonate right here in the Bluegrass State.

Republican Rand Paul easily beat Democrat Jack Conway by an 11 point margin in the Kentucky U.S. Senate race. The early 7 p.m. call for Paul was merely the beginning of a pachyderm stampede.

Republicans picked up 61 seats in the U.S. House, and they could end up with as many as a 66 seats by the time its all said and done. Democrats will still control the Senate, but the GOP made gains there too, snapping up at least six seats. It was the biggest single election power shift in 70 years.

Here in Kentucky, Republicans rode the wave, gaining seats in both the Kentucky State House and Senate. The GOP took control of seven new House seats and strengthened its Senate majority with a two, perhaps three seat pickup.

While Republicans trumpet their victory, they would do well to ground themselves in an important reality. This election was not a ringing endorsement of the GOP. It was instead a repudiation of progressive ideology. It was a backlash against bailouts, deficits and federal health care mandates. It was a protest against rapidly expanding government power. The newest Kentucky Senator seems to understand the message sent by American voters on Tuesday.

“It’s a message that I will carry with me on day one. It’s a message of fiscal sanity. It’s a message of limited Constitutional government and balanced budgets,” Paul said.

The hue in our nation’s capitol shifted from dark blue to purple on Tuesday. This Republican tsunami, as some have called it, will certainly change the political landscape in Washington D.C. But if Republicans don’t bring about some fundamental changes, this new crop of representatives will likely enjoy short careers. Senator elect Marco Rubio from Florida articulated the reality for Republicans perfectly.

“And we make a great mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party. What they are is a second chance. A second chance for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be not so long ago.”

The question remains. Will the GOP squander this second chance? Will GOP leaders do any better adhering to constitutional principles than their Democratic brethren? Are the American people suddenly safe from government overreach now that Republicans will have some say in Washington?

I fear not.

Many Republicans talk a good game when it comes to limiting government, and protecting defending the Constitution. But their track record doesn’t quite live up to their rhetoric. If history teaches us anything, it reveals that federal power tends to expand unabated regardless of the party in charge in D.C.

We the people simply can’t rely on Washington to solve our problems. Asking the federal government to reign in its own power is akin to asking a lion to quit hunting, or the fish to quit swimming. It goes against its very nature.

reclaiming-american-revolutionThe people must hold the feds accountable. The Constitution is a compact between the people of the United States and their federal government. The mechanism we have to protect our freedom and liberty is through the States. James Madison wrote in the Virginia Resolution of 1798:

That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid that they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.

Liberty loving Americans can certainly celebrate the outcome of these midterm elections. But we will not ultimately win the war to restore the proper balance of power between the State and federal governments in Washington D.C. That battle must be waged in Frankfort and Tallahassee. In Austin and Sacramento. In every state capitol across the fruited plain.

About Mike Maharrey

Michael Maharrey [send him email] is the Communications Director for the Tenth Amendment Center. He proudly resides in the original home of the Principles of '98 - Kentucky. See his blog archive here and his article archive here. He also maintains the blog, Tenther Gleanings.
View all posts by Mike Maharrey →

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27 comments
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REP
REP

The election of Rand Paul to public office is a clear and loud statement that this nation has been infected by a nastry viral form of lunancy. Keep promoting Rand's brand of politics that is short on critical thinking and long on insanity and this nation will plunge into an abyss out of which it will never rise again!

Brian McCandliss
Brian McCandliss

Ok, newsflash: the USA has been a DICTATORSHIP ever since 1865, since the American People did NOT choose a national republic, but an INTERNATINOAL republic of POPULARLY sovereign nations.
The current national republic was dictated to the People by a coup of elite politicians from the Jackson to the Lincoln administrations; and therefore it is a dictatorship-- an oligarchy among conquered nations.

Until the people realize this fact, they'll remain slaves to the dictatorship; do you REALLY think that voting among either party of a dictated oligarchy, is going to give power back to the people?

Jerry
Jerry

If we can get back to basics America will be back. The Federal Reserve banking system is the root of Americas problems and to abolish it we will see a return to the America of our forefathers making. Thomas Jefferson warned us of the destruction of America by letting a central banking system control monetary policy in our newly free country. We left the British form of Monarchy for this reason. Fractional banking is a crime. Even Woodrow Wilson said back in 1910 that letting the federal Reserve Bank was his biggest mistake and it would be the ruin of America! To abolish the Federal Reserve Bank is the number one issue that America faces. We can start to correct everything else if we abolish the private central banking criminals called the FED. If we return to a gold standard and reward hard working Americans and not the crooks at the FED that cause these boom and bust cycles. They got the so called stimulus money and will get QE2 also. It will not go to the American citizens. Please watch "The Creature from Jekyll Island' and know the truth about our current monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank is our government. The Ludwig Von Mises Institute of Economics is another wealth of info that you will come to understand what the FED crooks are. Lets stop them now. I have had enough and I know you have too. Education is the start to realizing the truth.

Herb Brownell
Herb Brownell

Manufacturing (good jobs) will flood back to this country when our Fed. government gets off their back with their burdomson regulations and taxes. I know two who manufacture in China. They tell me it is so easy to get set up. States would compete against each other to attract business and labor, improving jobs and economic out put for both. This would provide good employment openings for retrained former IRS, CPAs, Tax Lawyers, EPA, Dept of Education, Health and Human services, etc.

Isn't this what this movement is all about?

Prosperity would return in a couple of quarters, rather than the couple of decades being told to us now.

Profit will no longer be a dirty word. Surplus profits would move to charities. Every week, the President would point out to the American people a good charity that needs help and would call attention to the charities that are doing good work. If you did not like the way your chosen charity handled your contributions, pick another.

And while we are at it, require parity in political doctrine currently being taught by Marxist professors in public supported colleges. Otherwise, we have to fight this battle every generation.

Herb Brownell, Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri

Bruce Bessell
Bruce Bessell

When one candidate is voted out, and there is, in reality, only one other name on the ballot, the winner only won by default.

sally
sally

Would someone please tell me how cutting most if not all programs as the tea party has said they will do will help this country get back on its feet when it will cause millions of people to lose their jobs. And yes if you are going to tell people how to live then you better beable to walk the walk. The constitution says that congress is to get a reasonable salary but almost $200,000 a year is excessive to me and I don't know where health care came into the picture for all of you. Our fore fathers had jobs besides being a congressman. Also some of ask if the constitution is a living document and I believe it is because there are amendments to the constitution. To me that means that as a country grows and changes the constitution should also change to keep up with the growth of the world. After all there were only a million people here at the time the constitution was created. You have that many in some cities. Well that's my 2 cents for today.

TrvlSEA
TrvlSEA

Pt 4 - Last part , promise.... How many people need to be born before freedom is obsolete? How much money does our country need to make before freedom is obsolete? If our innate (born with) freedoms, our self-evident (obvious and need no proof) freedoms are never obsolete, then it does not matter whether there are a million people in the U.S. or 10 billion. Only someone with an agenda to end your freedom would tell you that.____Well that's my 2 cents for tonight... But by the time you read this, it will probably only be 1 cent if the living document Congress has their way

TrvlSEA
TrvlSEA

Pt. 3 - Congress was also suppose to meet "at least once every year". Now they only go home for a month in summer and a few holidays. They are there all of the time because they are doing things they are not suppose to do. They are plotting ways to control people. This includes you. Their intentions are good, but much of what they do is unconstitutional. Aren't you better at taking care of you then they are? ____We grant Congress authority to amend the constitution if something were to arise that wasn't anticipated by the founders. But, amendments have to be in line with the intent of the Constitution. (That intent can be found in the Preamble to the Constitution and in the Preamble to the Bill of Rights.) The definition of the word preamble is, the reason stated, usually at the beginning of a formal document, telling why the document was created and its intent. ____

TrvlSEA
TrvlSEA

Pt. 2 - ____The Constitution is NOT a living document. It is a guard to protect your liberty (freedom). Do you want to make it something else? To progress away from it, is to progress towards something that is not freedom. To call it "living" is justification for "altering it's intent and meaning". It is subversive and an excuse to pass things off as constitutional that are unconstitutional because otherwise they would be told NO.____"Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government." This warning about making the Constitution a living document came from one of the founders, James Madison.____

TrvlSEA
TrvlSEA

Pt. 1 - Cutting unconstitutional programs will cause millions of people to keep money they have earned honestly. You are assuming that there will be nothing to fill the void created by the loss of government jobs, but life is not static, neither are people and they will go on.____Since the need that caused the creation of these programs hasn't gone away, it will spur business development in the private sector (among "the people") and it will spur growth in the non-profit sector. Jobs will be created. Donations will increase as people support causes of their choosing because they now have the money to do it. ____Unfortunately for government workers, they will have to take jobs at market rate. (They currently get paid on average, 30% more than the rest of us for doing the same thing.) Fortunately for the people, we aren't paying someone more simply because they can set their own rate of pay.

Ben
Ben

It's true that slashing unconstitutional government programs and stopping the bailouts would, in the short run, result in a lot of people losing their jobs. But the only jobs being lost would be unproductive ones (from the government and uncompetitive companies). This would free up labor for new companies and more productive companies. And if we simultaneously lowered taxes, did away with burdensome regulations, and abolished the Fed, then companies would have a huge impetus to hire new employees. All of the money being wasted on government would be available to the free market. For example, there is only a limited amount of credit (e.g., loans) available at any given time. Right now, the government is using a lot of the available credit, but if we downsize government, then private businesses will have access to that credit. And that means that private businesses would be more likely to expand (and hire). And without the Fed, companies wouldn't have to speculate about artificial changes in interest rates or inflation, which is one thing that's making employers afraid to hire right now.

TrvlSEA
TrvlSEA

Sally, you hear talk about abolishing the Fed because it is a private company and the profits go to private individuals who can remain anonymous. The name "Federal Reserve" is misleading because, it is not federal and there are no reserves. There is no power to audit the Fed to see what is going on or how much profit is being spent as dividends to the owners.

Congress has outsourced a job assigned to them by the people. (Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution). This outsourcing causes us to pay interest on every dollar that Congress spends. Interest that goes to the owners of the Fed. This interest which along with overspending has accumulated into our tremendous debt. Abolishing the Fed and making Congress do their job, will save us having to pay for something that is completely unnecessary.

Ben
Ben

A strong economy is based on wealth production, and government jobs and unproductive businesses (that are failing in the market) do not contribute to wealth production. They are a drain on the economy. If we allow bad (unproductive) jobs to be destroyed, the market will naturally correct itself by creating good (productive) jobs.

Bruce Bessell
Bruce Bessell

What happens to wealth production when there is NO market because the consumer has no money?

When products sell they must be replaced on the shelf. When the worker is the consumer, reducing payrolls reduces consumer funds and spending, and the products stay on the shelf. What about pay-cuts, outsourced work, increased taxes and imports especially goods imported by indigenous companies?

I guess there must be another side to Atlas Shrugged, maybe somebody has to do the work to support the middle and ruling classes.

Nikita63
Nikita63

Much of what is being said here is in the way of projected hope for what we suspect the newly elected members of the govenmenrt in BOTH houses will do. It remains yet to see whether or not the new
legislators, many of whom are truly new to the political process and the Good ol' Boy network regardless of which party holds ascendancy, will force the establlished Republicans to amend their "business as usual," approach to ruining the country. It was ony 10 years ago that they had a chance to make meaningful changes in the size and scope of government and failed miserably to do so. They bear a rather large share of the responsibility fopr where we are today. 10 years ago, the Tea Party did not exist an no one knew who sarah Palin was. They'd best no forget what they owe BOTH, and we the people, or they too, will be gone. America has had Enough.

Herb Brownell
Herb Brownell

The new Constitution Conservative Congress should demand that the Federal Government abandon all its claims of ownership of land back to the individual states, including controls on any natural resources, energy and its distribution. Simultaneously, all taxing and regulatory controls, including those on business and labor, should be abandon to the states.

The new congress should convince their ranking members to cancel the retirement programs for all congressmen and presidents, past, present, and future. By every measurable standard, over the life of all living congressmen and presidents, they have failed miserably, if not criminally, in their fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers to keep the nation out of the mess we are in. If they are going to ask the citizens to "sacrifice", they should be the 1st ones to show us, by example, how it is done.

Rep Elect Allen West should lead the demand for immediate changes in the "Rules of Engagement" that are killing our soldiers.

Congress should fix the budget to "Provide for the Common Defense" so that the states, pro rated based on population, should collect it in a manner they see fit.

Cancel all plans and rumors of plans to guarantee and bail out any state, any pension plan, any retirement plan, or ignorant bank investments. If you burnt your ass by giving those crooks your money, you sit on the blister.

Congress should immediately use the military & state guards to close the borders to the uninvited.

I'm working on what to do on day two. It includes charities and health care.

Herb Brownell, Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri

Cydnie Martin
Cydnie Martin

Rand Paul seems to have caved already...He campaigned against earmarks and now apparently says he will ensure Kentucky gets their fair share.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/09/rand-pau...

But it's really not his fault. Blame the machine, not the people. This is a graphic quote, but gets to the point.

Isabel Patterson in her book, The God of the Machine, "…What good does it do to have a saint of every conceivable virtue operating a guillotine? Personally, the man may be above reproach. He may have the highest of morals and ethics. He may be imbued with a passion for doing good. But the mechanism he is hired to operate cuts off heads. He may dislike to cut off heads. He may weep with true sorrow whenever a head falls into the basket. But he was hired to pull the rope that lets the knife drop. And when it comes down, off comes the head. That is the way the tool works."

Jerry
Jerry

Rand Paul will not cave to power Ye of little faith philosopherking. I suspect you should change you your tune. Some of really want to save our country and have the balls to do it. Good will always prevail over evil. It is a never ending battle, I will give you that much of an agreement on your statement. We all have to help make it so . There once was no America, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Voting for Patriots like Ron and Rand Paul shows some of us still have the revolutionary spirit and will fight for our freedom. End the FED and elect Peter Schiff for the treasury cheif, Ron Paul for President, and Judge Andrew Napalitano to the Justice Department and that will get some action started to fix things

Wayne
Wayne

If the GOP does not return to constitutional governance, the people may have to use the clause from the Declaration that states: "..., it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government,...." I'm assuming (maybe too much) that most are familar with the prior defining words.

Philosopherking
Philosopherking

I've thought the same thoughts as well but orchestrating a large scale revolt would be dangerous. The first thing is that we may not know who will be in charge afterward. They could be much worse than what we got now.

ronnie_reeferseed
ronnie_reeferseed

How could they be worse? This batch of killers, criminals, and charlatans allow, if not promote, full-fledged chemical-warfare on you and me all day everyday... Depleted-uranium weaponry, toxic chem-trails , "fluoridated" toxic-sludge, GMO death-crops, aspartame, MSG, and many other toxic weapons are daily shoved-down our collective throats... To learn more online, visit ronpaul.org, LewRockwell.com, CampaignforLiberty.com, etc... Call toll-free 1-888-322-1414 for weekly updates from Ob-Gyn Dr. Ron Paul...

dude58677
dude58677

With 680 Republicans in State legislatures(largely Tea Party), there can be a much bigger boost for State Nullification as big as the movement is now and it is bigger than it was furing the 90's.

djl
djl

To really real in Federal Growth will require:
1) Real the 17th ammendment and Make Senators accountable to the State Legislatures, by requiring State Legislatures to appoint their US Senator instead of Direct Election.
2) Repeal the 16th ammendment by cutting the unlimited purse strings to tax and redistribute the nations wealth to states which don't contribute equally.

Philosopherking
Philosopherking

I like the idea that a senator who the legislature appoints has to be an actual member of the state legislative body. That way we avoid the argument that we are interfering with the 'democratic will' of the people since that legislature appointed was democratically elected. That same legislature would serve in both the US senate and their own state body thus ensuring that the state government will be properly represented at all times.

nexmike
nexmike

I hope that Rand Paul puts a stop to the debt ceiling i have more hope now. It would of been great if Peter Schiff was elected but he can always run in 2012.

Philosopherking
Philosopherking

No matter how great a politician is the temptation of power will always get them. I suspect power will also get to him as well. I'm not putting him down but just pointing out that no one is immune from power. That includes us as well as them.

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    [...] What Does the Republican Tsunami Really Mean? What do those newly elected representatives intend to do?  We the People made some clear statements in this election and one of them was to restore the proper balance of power between the State and Federal Governments.  I don’t think many people voted for a new world order or for global governance. We see daily the adverse, and at times, unintended consequences when we remove the decision-making power from a state or local government and move it to a place where local concerns are no longer known much less considered.  Our Founders knew that the power vested in the States needed to balance out the Federal government’s powers.  We’ve drifted far from this and we need to turn the ship around and return to sound principles and values. The Tenth Amendment Center’s website is a good place for you to start building your knowledge base.  Knowledge IS power!  Some of the articles below offer criticisms of Glenn Beck’s Puppet Master shows.  I include them so you can decide.  However, you really do need to watch the entire show(s) AND do some of your own research to make an informed decision.  Most of the opposing articles admitted freely that they could not finish watching the show(s).  And, if you fully understand the difference one’s world view makes you will begin to see clearly the choice you need to make. So, at the risk of oversimplifying the issues, we need to continually choose between: A free market……..or……government controlled entities Hard work…..or…… Handouts Personal Responsibility……or……..Bailouts Liberty………….or……….”Controlled Liberty”(aka global governance) [...]