The Virginia Model for a Constitutional Confederation of States |
Where there is no clear constitutional authority for congressional legislation and taxes, what should be the consequence for such dereliction?
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Mark Alexander |
"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." —Tenth Amendment (1791) 
Unless you've been sequestered on the dark side of the Moon, you're undoubtedly aware of the massive race riots and murderous gunfights that took place outside Virginia's state capitol on Monday. At least that's what the state's governor, Ralph "Blackface" Northam, and his Leftmedia echo chamber were hoping would happen at Monday's Second Amendment rally.
Declaring a state of emergency ahead of the annual Virginia Citizens Defense League gathering in Richmond, Northam claimed, "State intelligence analysts have identified threats and violent rhetoric similar to what has been seen before other major events such as Charlottesville."
For the record, the victim in the Charlottesville unrest was run over by a car — caught in the middle of a battle between thugs from the fascist "antifa" movement and thugs from the so-called alt-right. Northam should have instead issued a diktat banning all vehicles from the capitol grounds.
Taking Northam's bait, media outlets were breathless in their warnings. As National Review's Jim Geraghty noted:
As it turned out, more than 20,000 citizens gathered at the capitol, some heavily armed, as is their inherent and unalienable right. But despite all the leftist and Leftmedia predictions, not a single shot was fired.
I call that "a well-regulated militia"!
The only mention of "white supremacists" at the rally was from black Second Amendment advocates in attendance, who debunked the phony racist narratives being perpetuated by Northam and the MSM.
Defense League President Philip Van Cleave observed: "It's almost like they want something to happen. It sounds crazy, but they keep [predicting trouble] and you have to start wondering if that's intentional."
For his part, Donald Trump praised the 2A advocates, asserting, "Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia. That's what happens when you vote for Democrats, they will take your guns away."
After socialist Democrats from the populous suburbs of Northern Virginia gained a majority in the General Assembly last November, they and Northam have been on a singular mission to disarm the Commonwealth's law-abiding citizens. In response, more than 100 Virginia counties and cities have passed resolutions establishing 2A sanctuaries, declaring their commitment to uphold our Constitution's prohibition of government interference with Second Amendment rights, and declaring they would not enforce gun-control laws passed by the legislature.
Virginia is thus at the forefront of states, counties, and municipalities passing laws or resolutions to prohibit or impede the enforcement of unlawful and unconstitutional actions, in effect giving the Constitution itself sanctuary. This is not to be confused with the Left's lawless and dangerous illegal-immigrant sanctuary movement, whereby certain states, counties, and municipalities are prohibiting or impeding the enforcement of lawful and constitutional actions.
Northam and his ilk received a quick lesson on "the law of unintended consequences" after they arrogantly attempted to undermine the rights of the people. It is grimly ironic that their anti-constitutional efforts are taking place in the shadow of that state's extraordinary Founders, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Oh, and in a state whose motto is "Sic Semper Tyrannis," meaning death "thus ever unto tyrants."
I would fully expect Northam et al. to challenge Virginia's 2A sanctuary movement, all the way to the Supreme Court.
The reaffirmation of our Constitution in Virginia and other states attempting to give sanctuary to Liberty and Rule of Law is, I think, a good place to reintroduce a concept I proposed 20 years ago as part of what is now our Patriot's Primer on American Liberty.
That concept: "A Constitutional Confederation of States."
My proposal, then as now, would be to pursue a grassroots-inspired Constitutional Confederation — an alliance of those states that are not urban-leftist mob ruled, whose delegations could assemble to affirm the authority of our Constitution in order to provide broader sanctuary for the Rule of Law it enshrines — in effect, re-ratify our Constitution and reaffirm its supremacy as law.
If we're to fully restore Liberty and the integrity of our Constitution, we must do so from the bottom up — a groundswell from grassroots Americans if it is to be enduring. We must start at our foundation, speaking with one disciplined, determined, and unified voice toward one primary objective: the reestablishment of Rule of Law.
"Constitutional Confederation" is a more complicated sanctuary concept than those alliances being formed to defend the Second Amendment, but a good starting place would be with those organizational alliances because their mission is, ultimately, the same — protection of the Constitution. An initial objective could be to obtain resolutions from the 27 Republicans governors now in office and county resolutions in the remaining 23 states, such as Virginia, with statist Democrat governors.
The initial purpose would be to educate our fellow citizens on the point that our Constitution established a Republic and is intended to reflect the consent of the governed — a nation of laws as opposed to the rule of men. Article IV, Section 4 states unambiguously, "The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government."
A Confederation of States should rise to demand no less than the standard our Founder's set forth in our Constitution and affirmed in its Bill of Rights as "Article the Tenth," the Tenth Amendment: "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."
Our Founders understood that Rule of Law would be the foundational guarantee to protect and sustain Liberty for their generation and those of their posterity. Consequently, they prescribed that all elected officials be bound by sacred oath "to support and defend" our Constitution.
But many in the U.S. House and Senate wantonly and constantly violate their oaths. They have forsaken those oaths and instead focus on redistributing others' wealth to their special-interest constituencies in order to perpetuate their own offices. We can be certain that when the number of constituents who vote for their income and provisions outnumber those who work for their income and provisions, our Republic will be lost.
The time has come to inquire with a unified voice: Because there is no explicit constitutional authority for many of the laws and regulations enacted by the legislative and judicial branches, and enforced by the central government, then by what authority do those entities make such laws and collect taxes to fund unconstitutional laws and regulations? Where there is no authority, this certainly constitutes "taxation without representation." Thus, what should be the consequence for such dereliction?
A Constitutional Confederation (as opposed to a Constitutional Convention, which poses many hazards to Liberty, would have the purpose of re-adopting our authentic Constitution as originally ratified, with amendments attached as prescribed. This confederated alliance would thus reject the so-called "living constitution" that has now adulterated our actual Constitution almost beyond recognition — accelerated by judicial diktats from the "despotic branch" of which Thomas Jefferson so presciently warned.
Although Article V of our Constitution provides the people with an authentic means for amendment, activist jurists and regressive lawmakers have altered that founding convention well beyond any semblance of its original intent. They have used the courts, legislation, and regulation to greatly expand the powers of the central government according to their decrees.
The states re-ratifying as members of the Constitutional Confederation would determine an orderly plan to withdraw from the plethora of unconstitutional diktats, regulations, and targeted taxes (Bills of Attainder) that are in clear violation of Tenth Amendment Federalism as defined in The Federalist Papers and prescribed when each state first ratified our Constitution. This serious movement to restore the authority of our Constitution is a genuine act in support of "We the People" rather than an act of insurrection. This is a proposal for restoration, not revolution, seeded most recently in the Second "Tea Party" Revolt of 2010.
This proposal could, I think, generate national momentum and would most assuredly generate a LOT of heartburn for the socialist Democrats and their legions of useful idiots. The notion of the unalienable Rights of Man are anathema to the Left's statist worldview and objective of total state authority.
Founder Patrick Henry wrote of seemingly benign encroachments upon Liberty: "It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth — and listen to the song of that syren... For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it."
It is time to fully object to the degraded state of our Constitution and reject any further degradation by way of "illusions of hope" that these depredations will magically repair themselves. It is the responsibility of our generation of Patriots to provide for its revitalization. In the spirit of Thomas Paine's 1776 assertion, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace," so, too, it should be in our day.
Why mention this now? First, because the 2A sanctuary movement is endeavoring to do in Virginia and other states precisely what a Constitutional Confederation can do across our entire nation, starting with resolutions in support of such a confederation.
And second, because for the last four years, we've witnessed deep-state operatives endeavoring to undermine our Constitution by undermining the duly elected president of the United States. They did so first by attempting a coup d'état to take down Trump without firing a shot. When that failed, they undertook an impeachment charade — also originating with one deep-state operative, whose primary handlers are Rep. Adam Schiff and Sen. Chuck Schumer — who are now overseeing the prosecution of Trump in the Senate.
We can all agree that our nation is besieged with BIG and systemic problems. And I would submit that nearly every major problem facing our country today can trace its roots to lawless extraconstitutional legislation and policies. This notion of a Constitutional Confederation of States is representative of the BIG ideas that need to be considered in order to ensure future generations of Americans are not beset with the current degraded state of our Constitution. This proposal is entirely consistent with our Patriot mission to extend Liberty to the next generation.
As Ronald Reagan declared: "There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. ... You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness."
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776 |
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