by Michael Boldin

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is Michael Boldin’s “Tenther Rant” at the end of Episode 16 of TRX: Tenther Radio, which airs live online every Wednesday at 5pm Pacific Time at http://radio.tenthamendmentcenter.com. Find the show on iTunes at this link.

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I’ve got news for you…some good and some bad. Let’s start out with the bad news first.

The constitution as the founders gave it to us is dead. Government in this country is nowhere close to what the founders created in the Constitution. It is nowhere close to what the people of the several states ratified and approved.

The Constitution is not being followed in Washington DC, and it hasn’t been for a long time. While it’s not supposed to be a “living breathing document,” that’s how it has been functioning for many decades.

As Kevin Gutzman, constitutional expert and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution, has said, those who would give us a “living” Constitution are actually giving us a dead one, since such a thing is completely unable to protect us against the encroachments of government power.

On top of that, it’s going to be tough to turn this mess around. Why? Because most everything you have been taught about the constitution is wrong. I, like most people, went to a government run school for many years. I also spent time in a government-approved private school for a number of years as well. What do these both have in common? They both teach students with government-approved textbooks….government-approved by a government that hasn’t followed the constitution for ages.

So what should that tell you? Throw out everything, and I mean everything, you learned about the Constitution, and start over. That’s why Rob Natelson’s book, The Original Constitution, is so important. This is first book EVER to explain the legal force of the entire U.S. Constitution as it stood in December, 1791, right after adoption of the Bill of Rights. And, it will help you unlearn the mess that the government has forced upon you.

LOOKING BRIGHTER

That leads me to the good news. The Constitution is, believe it or not, extremely popular! And this gives me a glimmer of hope. How do I know this? For everything the government does, when a constitutional question arises, politicians and pundits alike ALL try to find a way to argue that their favorite programs are “constitutional”. They seem to reach for the worst, most obvious nonsense to back up their laws rather than just admit the opposite.

How many times have you heard Obama or Bush say something like this….”look, we know this action isn’t constitutional, but we need to do it anyway. The constitution is an old tired document, and we need to get with the times….so let’s get on track America, get on board, and forget that constitution thing. This new way is going to be much better!”

I’m going with zero.

I’ve also never heard Sean Hannity, or Keith Olberman, or Rush Limbaugh, the New York Times, or anyone for that matter..making such a claim about programs they support. No, no one ever supports a federal act AND takes a position that it’s unconstitutional at the same time.

Why? Because they know people would flip out. Average people all over the country want government to follow the rules given to it…they’ve just never been taught what those rules actually are.

THE CONSTITUTION’S FAULT?

When talking with liberty activists, I’m often asked, “why should this matter, the constitution obviously didn’t work, so what’s the point in going back two centuries to a failed document?”

Failed document? How does a document fail? – is what I generally respond with.

Invariably, someone will quote the famed individualist, Lysander Spooner, who once said,

“whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain – that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.”

Problem with this, though, is that Spooner was wrong.

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The Constitution doesn’t apply to you. It doesn’t apply to me. It doesn’t apply to any person at all. It’s a document that lays out the rules for the federal government, and in a few instances, rules for state governments.

But documents don’t enforce themselves. It takes you to understand what those rules are, and it takes you refusing to go along with anything outside of those Constitutional limits. That’s how documents are enforced.

If you want to understand why liberty is being flushed down the toilet, and at the same time, if you want to understand how to turn things around, I have one simple suggestion for you.

Look in a mirror. Because liberty begins – and ends – with you.

Michael Boldin

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