“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 to the U.S. Constitution
The American “Bill of Rights” were and are unique in world history. In 1215, the British had Magna Carta (and, later, other similar documents that bore the same name) that periodically placed a check on some of the abuses of the English crown against its noblemen, but, for several centuries after, monarchs still ruled by decree with very little restraint.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson
The American Constitution was the world’s first governing document that expressly limited the power and the reach of the national government and spelled out the rights of the people. It proclaimed that these rights were not given by government but were given to us by the God of the universe and the government was acknowledging that it had no right to infringe on what the All-Mighty had accomplished.
The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite. Thomas Jefferson
The Founders did not just make up a ‘nice’ list (as the French attempted to do in their “Rights of Man”). The drafters of the Constitution applied their faith in the Word of God to codify what Yahweh had already accomplished.
Man had the right to speak truth, not because the government thought it was a good idea, but because Yahweh had given man His Word and Yeshua told them to go out at teach the nations.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:19-20
The people had the right to bear arms, not because the government sanctioned it, but because Yahweh told man to build, but to keep their sword at hand for protection.
16 And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. 17 They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. 18 For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me. Nehemiah 4:16-18
The people had a right to their own property, not because government was benevolent, but because Elohim had made the Earth for man and decreed that personal property rights be observed (Leviticus 5 & 19; Deuteronomy 19, 22 & 24; and others).
When Israel settled in the promised land, they were unique in that they did not have a king – they were governed by people appointed by Yahweh as “judges” (see the book of Judges). Eventually, Israel demanded that Yahweh name them a king (so they could be like the other nations), and He warned them against the abuses they would endure under a king (1Samuel 8:11-18). The people persisted and Yahweh acquiesced – annointing them a king. They paid dearly for this mistake. David was a good king, but absolute power generally degenerates to men like Ahab.
Our Founders also saw the error in having a king (though many thought that being like the European countries was desirable as long as that king was George Washington) because of the tyranny they had seen in George III and the long line of despotic kings in the Old Testament.
If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. James Madison
The Constitution concerns itself with the framework of the government. It lists the powers the individual branches could exercise and expressly prohibited several acts would have led to an over-sized government that would eventually become tyrannical.
Government is best which governs least. Thomas Paine
The Federalists opposed the Bill of Rights because the Constitution did not grant the government the power to sanction against the rights of the people – it would be like saying, ‘don’t do what I just told you that you can not do’. They also feared that stating protected freedoms would then exclude unstated freedoms from protection. The Anti-Federalists were opposed to ratifying the Constitution without an enumeration of the rights of the people.
The ninth Amendment was a way of over-coming this disagreement.
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Though many are familiar with the first eight amendments. The ninth and tenth amendments were the soul of American freedoms:
- 9th – Just because a right is not specifically listed, the government cannot impose itself on personal freedom, and
- 10th – Whatever is not specifically addressed in the U.S. Constitution is left to the individual States to govern, or, in the absence of State guidelines, to the people to decide for themselves.
These are two very powerful statements calling for the freedom of man, but they have been abused and ignored.
The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. Thomas Jefferson
Our Founders could not have imagined an America that relied upon elected ‘elites’ to instruct us in every aspect of life. Government restrictions on the exercise of legal activities (e.g., the size of soft drink containers; the use of lightbulbs; and attending church services) is an exercise in authority that was once considered an unconstitutional acquisition of power.
The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. Daniel Webster
Our government has evolved from protecting our freedoms to ‘ensuring’ that we are all protected from their conception of harm. Do certain ideas hurt your sensibilities, the government can place a ban through ‘hate speech’ legislation or ‘political correctness’
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. Thomas Jefferson
Are you a poor, single-mother? Don’t want to ask for charity? You can demand the taxpayers give you a stipend – the government is happy to help as long as you promise to never enter into a meaningful relationship that could provide your children with stability and parental role-models.
Additionally, it costs tax-payers over twice as much, per recipient, as it would cost a private charity that doesn’t extort tax money to provide the service (Costs of Public Income Redistribution and Private Charity). This does not include the cost of fraud, which is rampant in government bureaucracies,
The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. Milton Friedman
Government picks winners and losers and controls your decisions by controlling your choices. Government claims to want to protect the environment by subsidizing ‘clean energy’ (e.g., wind and solar) and punishing proven, reliable forms of energy (e.g., coal and nuclear). Any promotion of ‘clean energy’ that ignores nuclear power is not a promotion of clean power, but rather the abuse of power.
When government bureaucrats demand that you buy insurance from them instead of from businesses that use actual actuarials; that health care decisions be made by government bureaucrats rather than doctors; and that school curriculums be mandated by federal bureaucrats rather than teachers and parents; then you have clear violations of our tenth amendment protections
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened. Norman Thomas
The government has a dismal record of making things work, because it is not the job of government to make things work. Society is fraught with peril and we manage it as best we can – the government is to protect our right to manage within society, not dictate it.
Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all . . . . It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain. Frederic Bastiat
During the “Great Leap Forward” in China (1958-62), folks in the city were relocated to farms and harvest quotas were set by the government based on the increased manpower. The new “farmers” did not know how to grow crops so the increases did not occur.
Not wanting to expose the government’s plan as a failure, officials confiscated the projected “surpluses” leaving no food for the farming communes to eat or grain to plant a crop for the following year. Fifty-five million were estimated to have died of starvation.
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. Louis D. Brandeis
Government cannot know or ever implement programs that meet the needs of all its citizens. A government that tries to is a government that does not trust its own people to make their own choices. The power to accomplish this enormous task eventually requires absolute power.
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. H. L. Mencken
At the beginning of the “Covid crisis”, States were ordered to ‘lock-down’ all non-essential businesses and public events for two weeks to prevent hospitals and their staffs from being over-run. Over a year later, many States with liberal governors are still oppressing their citizens with draconian edicts that have crushed small businesses and condemned their elderly population to death (Yes I’m calling you out, Gov Cuomo and others)
There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. Daniel Webster
It was discovered rather quickly that the outbreak could be ‘managed’ without the restrictive lock-downs if people were free to take their own precautions. Countries and States that lifted the bans were vilified by the government coddling media, but their infection and death rates were substantially lower and private businesses survived,
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem. It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so. Ronald Reagan
President Biden has unveiled over ten trillion dollars in spending initiatives in his first 100 days alone. Such massive spending has never been proposed in the history of our country. Every dollar that the government takes from you in taxes is another loss of freedom to choose.
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too. W. Somerset Maugham
Automobiles, airplanes, telephones, any number of consumer items were designed and improved on because Americans were free to choose, or not choose, where to spend their earnings. Products got better and cheaper because business had to entice buyers. When government takes that money from the consumer, products do not come to market and improvements do not happen.
The USSR had one official automaker and two styles of cars – one for the masses and one for the elites. Prices were oppressive and wait times for a purchase could take years because there was no incentive to be efficient or productive.
I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts. Ronald Reagan
The sheer size of the laws being proposed means that no one can know what is in them. The initial ‘Covid relief bill’ was $1.9 trillion. Only ten-percent of that spending went to Covid relief. The other 90% went to reward agencies and foreign countries that the elites approved of and diminished the tax-payers’ ability to contribute to charities that the individual approved of (which is often counter to what the government is funding).
It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. James Madison
The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government. Tacitus
The idea of limited government is now a fiction. There is no area of life that is exempt from government regulation. The 10th Amendment was intended to push power down to the people. The Federal government, over decades, has eliminated any prohibitions against their exercise of power.
The liberals have built this structure over time and we ignored their work believing that Americans would never give up their freedoms. We believed the Constitution would save us as we sat by passively and watched the government eviscerate every provision of it.
When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic. Donald James
Democrats and establishment Republicans (approximately 85 – 90% of the existing Congress) are drunk with power and are busy implementing voting laws (under the guise of protecting us from the ravages of Covid) that will ensure a return to a Constitutional Republic and a reversal of their unlimited power can never happen.
Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Louis D. Brandeis
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. James Madison
Whenever Socialist regimes come to power, they claim that freedom must be limited to avert an imminent threat. When they take over industries, the production of those industries fails to meet the needs of the people.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin
China, the USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea (even the Plymouth Rock colony in America) saw massive starvation under Socialist policies . . . policies that are still embraced because the leaders of these Socialist states never share in the deprivations of the masses.
Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. C. S. Lewis
We have lost our God-given liberties to a group of madmen who wish to rule and will not be denied. You still have the freedom of individual thought even though they are bent on conforming you to their ethos.
Go to the Word. Read it and keep it in your heart. No matter what man may do to you, you will be rewarded at the Bema (judgment seat) for standing in faith on the one thing that has ever mattered in all history . . . the Word of Yahweh.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6
This is not IQ knowledge. Surround yourself with believers and speak the truth into one another (Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend – Proverbs 27:17) so that you will be able to stand on the Word when your test comes. Be an example to those that are weaker in their faith.
Faith in anything other than the government threatens them.
Be a threat. Robert Keck
If you are new to the Scriptures, or find that the establishment church leaves you unfulfilled, read my newly revised book (GRAFTED: Embracing Torah) on learning and keeping the Word. Yahweh’s truths are true forever
Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
Psalm 119:160
I cleaned up some of the grammar mistakes and provided new and/or improved on many of the existing examples I used to help explain many of the premises I share. It is not a substitution for you going to the Word yourself, but it can be a great help to begin your journey
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton