RE: I am in a quandary here. I do realize that the US has foreign enemies, but I also realize that the Federal government is the number one threat to my liberty and prosperity.
National defense is the priority job of the national government. Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution lists 17 separate powers that are granted to the Congress.
Six of those powers deal exclusively with the national defense—far more than any other specific area of governance—and grant the full range of authorities necessary for establishing the defense of the nation as it was then understood. Congress is given specific authority to declare war, raise and support armies, provide for a navy, establish the rules for the operation of American military forces, organize and arm the militias of the states, and specify the conditions for converting the militias into national service.
Article Two establishes the President as the government’s chief executive officer. Much of that Article relates to the method for choosing the President and sets forth the general executive powers of his office, such as the appointment and veto powers.
The only substantive function of government specifically assigned to the President relates to national security and foreign policy, and the first such responsibility granted him is authority to command the military; he is the “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.”
National defense is the only mandatory function of the national government.
Constitution does require the federal government to protect the nation. Article Four, Section Four states that the “United States shall guarantee to every State a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion.” In other words, even if the federal government chose to exercise no other power, it must, under the Constitution, provide for the common defense.
All the others -— healthcare, welfare, education, energy, job training, etc. should really be left to the states.
Here’s what the 10th amendment says:
“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 we had strictly followed the constitution, wthis country would not be in the financial mess it is in today.
We had a song about the day the music died, but progressives (demonrats and rinos) will sing their song with Pride for the day the Constitution died.
It is but a memory, not even an inconvenience now, to those sworn to uphold it.
Reagan was right about that generational window, which, since he left office, has been broken out, boarded up and now is covered with marxist graffiti.