[Durus]

Your reasoning is circular. The “people” actually retain no power as power without a means of enforcement is mute. It is power in name only as it only becomes realized when it’s transferred via conduit to the legislature.

If the people retain no power that would mean that the 10th amendment is meaningless and the state has has practically unlimited powers while intimating that the 9th amendment is equally meaningless. It would also mean that there is no purpose to state constitutions, lays ruin to the concept of limited powers, and boils down to us being subjects of the state, not the state being subject to the people. Retained powers of the people are commonly referred to as rights. Rights ceded to government become powers.

[traderrob6]

It’s just a matter of semantics. The “people” retain the power to cede power but the people in and of themselves have no tangible power.

But don’t confuse rights with power as obviously people have many rights that they have conferred upon themselves though constitutions both federal and state.

[traderrob6]

I really don’t think we disagree. The constitution refers to “the people” but in reality they mean the legislature. Nowadays however, many look upon the legislature as being the state rather than the people.