Property in Rights

          In 1792 James Madison wrote, “"As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions."

          What Madison meant is that we “own” our rights, just as a farmer owns his land and what that land produces.  This idea, first expounded by English philosopher John Locke in the 17^th century, played a very important part in the rebellion of the American colonies.  While loyal to the British crown, Americans prized their liberty, including the right to govern themselves.  When faced with taxes, fees, and tariffs imposed by England’s Parliament without their consent (“excess of power” in Madison’s words), they began to conclude that a fight for independence was worth the risk.  That’s what the words “unalienable rights” and “consent of the governed” in our Declaration of Independence mean. 
          The Bill of Rights spells it all out: free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, etc.  It should be the duty of every American who prizes liberty to read the Bill of Rights periodically, so as not to forget what our founders fought for, and what we should all be ready to defend.
          The violation of the10^th Amendment in the Bill of Rights is, in my opinion, the gravest danger to our democracy and therefore to our liberty. 
          “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.”
          If Madison were alive today, he would be aghast at the attempt by this Administration and its Progressive supporters to control every aspect of our lives.  He would be screaming at the top of his lungs upon hearing President Obama announce his intention to circumvent Congress via executive action; he would demand to know upon what authority the EPA, the IRS and the departments of National Security, Energy, Interior, and Education regulate American lives; and he would ask where in the Constitution does the President find the right to redistribute income, to control health care, and to wage war on fossil fuels.
          The Declaration of Independence also says:
          --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [securing our rights], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
          Our forefathers fought for liberty in the American Revolution and won the freedom we enjoy today.  It is our duty to preserve that freedom.  We can begin by doing our part in the voting booth…while we still can.

         

 

The Tyrannical EPA

          Congress is not very popular these days.  That’s not surprising, considering hardly anything gets done under the Capitol dome when our national legislature is divided into two partisan camps.  Whenever the Senate sends bills to the House, they are routinely blocked.  When the House sends bills to the Senate, it is even worse.  Not a single jobs bills, ObamaCare fix, or domestic energy development bill has been brought up for a vote in the Senate.  In fact, over 350 House bills are sitting on Harry Reid’s desk, even as President Obama accuses Republicans of being obstructionists.  

          With our dysfunctional Congress powerless to stop them, federal agencies meanwhile are routinely putting out regulations that have the force of law. These agencies, in fact, function as lawmakers, enforcement officers, and judges, compelling businesses and individuals to comply with their regulations, or else--damn the consequences.

          We all know about the excesses of the IRS, but there’s an agency that’s even more out of control, and that’s the Environmental Protection Agency.  Its war on coal, for instance, is a major job killer.  Tens of thousands of workers in the coal industry have already been thrown out of work, and the worst is yet to come.  Even though the United States has done the most of any country to control air and water pollution, the EPA is never satisfied.  As it ups the ante, coal-fired plants have to close and plans for new ones must be shelved.
          When we think of coal, we normally think of West Virginia, but North Carolina will not escape the wrath of the EPA.  According to a report by the National Association of Manufacturers, if the EPA puts through regulations to reduce ozone concentration from the current 75 parts to the proposed 60 parts per billion, 24% of the state’s coal-fired generating capacity would be shut down.  The NAM estimates that this would cost North Carolina 127,000 jobs and $150 billion in projected annual growth, with the manufacturing sector being the hardest hit.  Skyrocketing costs of electricity would reduce household buying power $1,820 annually as a result.
         This wouldn’t be so bad if the Administration pursued an aggressive policy of energy independence.  But it frowns upon nuclear energy, seeks to find fault with fracking, and discourages off-shore exploration and drilling on public lands, while pouring subsidies into solar and wind projects that produce relatively little energy but kill lots of birds.
          Let’s hope that a new, unified Congress in January can begin to put a stop to all this nonsense.

A response to a Personal Attack

As a frequent contributor to my local paper I often get responses from people who don't agree with me.  Since people are entitled to their opinions, I never bother to reply. However, a letter from a particular critic went too far, and I couldn't let it stand.

 

Dear Editor:

          In a recent letter to the editor I was accused by Catherine Poropatic of writing as if I have never listened to anything President Obama has said since he first entered the White House.  In one sense she is correct:  I have never been taken in by Obama’s masterful oratory or his elegant reading of a teleprompter script.  But I have taken notice of the repeated lies, the empty promises, and the embarrassing pronouncements on the international stage.  Normally, I wouldn’t bother with such an unfounded accusation.  But Ms. Poropatic went on to say that perhaps I don’t like Obama because “he wasn’t experienced or smart enough to understand that White House really means ‘white house.’”  This is nothing less than a scurrilous insinuation of racism on my part, and it must not stand.  The use of the race card by anyone is shameful and dishonest, and doesn’t belong in any debate on issues that affect all races.
          Typical of the Left, Ms. Poropatic prefers to launch personal attacks on those she disagrees with rather than making a case for her point of view.  In this letter she not only implies that I am a racist, she also accuses Calvin Lacy and Warren Boiselle of being haters and sanctimoniously recommends they do some soul searching before facing divine judgment.  While she was at it, she also included State Senator Bill Cook and the Perquimans Board of Elections in her broadside.  Ms. Poropatic is an intelligent and articulate person who should know better.
          By the way, Cathy, I did hear part of President Obama’s Labor Day speech in Milwaukee in which he said, “…by almost every measure, the American economy, the American workers are better off than when I took office.”  In my opinion, that was a grotesque falsehood: poverty is up, household income is down, welfare payments are up, participation in the workforce is down, healthcare costs are up, full-time employment is down.  If you think the President was telling the truth, would you care to debate me on this issue? 

         

Vouchers Shot Down in NC

          A news story out of Raleigh on August 21st should concern everyone interested in education.  The lead paragraph read: “A judge’s ruling on Thursday declaring North Carolina’s school voucher program unconstitutional threw hundreds of families into chaos and struck a blow against the Republican education agenda in North Carolina.”

          Once again we have the Left and the Right doing battle on ideological grounds.  Only this time the victims are children.
          Last year North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed an education bill popularly known as “Opportunity Scholarships.”  The bill, signed into law by Governor McCrory, provides vouchers worth up to $4,200 to low-income families that would enable qualified children to attend private schools.  Compared to public school enrollment of 1.5 million students in the state, this program is tiny, offering vouchers to just 1,900 families.  Moreover, the $4,200 cost to the state treasury is less than half the average cost per student in public schools.  So why the opposition?
          Reading the hyperbolic statements from opponents of the program, you would think that Republicans are out to destroy public education.  Organizations like the NC Association of Educators, the left-leaning advocacy group NC Justice Center, and the NC School Boards Association all went ballistic and sued.  Superior Court Justice Robert Hobgood, a Democrat, agreed with them.  His ruling, coming just days before the start of the school year, was particularly cruel to the families who had been approved for the program, leaving them wondering how they would be able to afford the tuition.  The latest news is that most of these families will still send their children to private schools in the hope that the judge’s ruling will be reversed.  They have reason to be optimistic, since other courts have ruled in favor of the constitutionality of school vouchers.
          There are no private schools in Perquimans County, so it not affected by the voucher decision.  My limited experience here has been more than satisfactory, a credit to the administrators and the teachers in this school district.  But this is no reason to be complacent, nor to viscerally oppose new ideas, especially the ones that benefit the poor and the disadvantaged. 
          The North Carolina Legislature is paying attention.  So should we all.

 

Let's All Make Sure

          When I watched NBC’s Chuck Todd interview the President on Meet the Press, I was struck by the number of times Mr. Obama used the locution “make sure,” as in “…make sure we got eyes on the problem…” or “…make sure that the public understands…”  Out of curiosity I went to the full transcript of the interview to see just how many times he used it.  I don’t know if I missed any, but I counted four times when the President spoke about ISIL, six times when discussing his immigration policies, and three more on his relations with Congress.

          This wasn’t the first time Obama used this expression; he uses it in practically every speech he makes.  More than an odd habit, I think it reveals something about his mindset that I find very disturbing.  For instance, when Todd asked Obama if he was preparing the country to go back to war, the President answered, “I’m preparing the country to MAKE SURE that we deal with a threat from ISIL.” 
          What does this answer tell me?  First of all, it evades the question, just as State Department spokesmen have been evading the same direct question from the press.  It denotes a lack of forcefulness, an indecision on policy and tactics, a vagueness that does not reassure us that the President is committed to action—or to anything at all. 
          The President also said we have to “MAKE SURE we have a good policy.”  But you, Mr. President is the one who sets policy.  How long will you continue to dither before telling us what your policy is, or whether you even have one?  Was it part of your policy to admit publicly, to everyone’s cringing embarrassment, that you have no strategy for dealing with ISIL?   
          MAKE SURE, then, is a sign of hesitation, weakness, and timidity, and an inability to deal with reality in concrete terms.  And that is not something we want from the leader of the free world when asked if he is preparing the country for war.  If the President leads, we will follow.  But first he must lead.

           

Let's Convene

          Congress’s popularity ratings are down in the dumpster, yet we don’t seem to be able to throw the bums out.  Taxes and spending are out of control, but no one is capable or willing to rein them in.  National debt is unsustainable and threatens to bankrupt this country, yet it keeps growing.  The economy is stifled by thousands of pages of regulations written every year, but no controls are placed on regulators.  The president should be impeached for making his own laws and ignoring the ones he doesn’t like, but politics makes impeachment unrealistic.  So the people are powerless to stop the insanity.  But are they?

          What if we could impose term limits on Congress?  What if we could require a balanced federal budget?  What if we could prevent regulators from governing every aspect of our lives?  What if we could make the president accountable for his unconstitutional actions?
          These measures would require constitutional amendments, but that route is blocked by Congress, because we could never get three-quarters of self-interested legislators to commit political suicide.  But there is another way that puts the power in the hands of the people.  And that way is spelled out in the Constitution.
          Article V of the Constitution gives the states the power to call a Constitutional Convention to propose amendments.  Two-thirds of the state legislatures are required to call the Convention and three-fourths are needed to ratify proposed amendments.  This would take the power out of the hands of Congress and place it squarely in the hands of the people through their elected state legislatures.
          Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin have been talking about this for years, but what we need is someone to take charge and rally the troops.  And now I think we have just the man in Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.  Senator Coburn, who is suffering from cancer, has decided not to run for re-election.  Instead, he is going to devote his remaining energies to persuading states to approve a Constitutional Convention.  Florida, Georgia and Alaska have already done so.  Only 20 more states are needed.
          It’s never been done before.  But, as the saying goes, there’s a first time for everything.  Just imagine a giant earthquake shaking Washington to its very foundations: term limits, a balanced budget, control of regulators, executive accountability…Just Imagine.