Free Republic

I took a number of steps before I started carrying a gun. I got training, I read books and articles by self-defense experts, I learned the laws of my state, I started going to the range regularly, and I did “dry fire” exercises at home to keep my shooting skills up. I also got a concealed-carry permit, which in Virginia required almost none of the above preparation. All I had to do was get a form notarized and send it in — along with $50 and a copy of the hunter’s-safety card I earned in Wisconsin when I was 13...

The four bullets below are from a lengthy column by blogger Fjordman at the Gates of Vienna. He makes the case for federalism, of local free government by an engaged demos, people with common traditions and values. It’s a great term. In future posts I will use ‘demos’ frequently and interchangeably with We the People, and the sovereign people. Thank you Mr. Fjordman: • There must be a demos. That is, there must be a group of people with a shared pre-political loyalty. This common understanding would include mutual identification and trust between leaders who implement policies and the general...

Think about this for a minute. The 17th was about having state governments have a voice in Washington for legislation to protect the states' interest in reigning in central powers. The 17th took control of selecting Senators from the state's legislative body and gave it to the masses (democracy in action). As it stands today, there are 32 Republican-controlled state legislatures. This would presumably translate into 64 Pubbie seats, likely more conservative and 10th Amendment-conscious than the corrupt, treasonous bastards we have now in both parties. Throw in 6 more split legislatures, and we likely get 6 more from that;...

President Trump will sign an executive order Wednesday to start pulling the federal government out of K-12 education, following through on a campaign promise to return schools to state and local control. The order, dubbed the “Education Federalism Executive Order,” will launch a 300-day review of Obama-era regulations and guidance for school districts and direct Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to modify or repeal measures deemed an overreach by the federal government, according to a senior administration official “With this executive order, President Trump has reaffirmed his commitment to getting the federal government out of the way and returning control over...

Subtitle: Federalism Thwarts Consolidated Government. Federalism describes the vertical division of power between the national and state governments. When Constitutional government is limited to its enumerated powers by a federal senate, the states are free to develop and retain their uniqueness, to keep their largely homogenous interests, habits, and mores. This is diversity. THIS is how republican government is sustained across a vast continent. Federalism keeps consolidation at bay, and makes diversity a reality! However, overnight, the Seventeenth Amendment transformed a stable, federal republic into a wild and unstable democratic form. Being unanchored by senators formerly loyal to the Ninth...

President Trump signed a bill Thursday freeing states to withhold federal family planning grant money from Planned Parenthood, marking the first major pro-life legislation to be signed into law in more than a decade. The bill unravels an Obama-era regulation that insisted states couldn’t refuse to spend family planning money with Planned Parenthood or any other organization that performs abortions. “This is a major pro-life victory,” said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. More than a dozen states moved to strip Planned Parenthood of government funding in recent years as questions arose about the country’s largest abortion provider. In particular, lawmakers...

The Utah state legislature has passed a joint resolution calling for a return to federalism in general, and, in particular, the end of the federal Education Department. The measure passed the Utah State House with a vote of 60-14, and the State Senate, 20-1. It was enrolled on March 17. The measure specifically urges that Congress end the federal Education Department and block grant funds for education to the states: WHEREAS, the [federalism] Commission received the following summary of federal overreach: EDUCATION •Recognize that education is not a power delegated to the federal government under the Constitution, it is reserved...

Consider fedgov allows rogue state and local governments to publicly ignore and deliberately break fedral laws concerning illegal drugs, illegal aliens, the second amendment, and discrimination based on sex and race. Why cannot then states and local govenrments ignore fedgov court imposed gay marriage, obamacare, abortion, and god back in schools? Why is the left the only one who can say no to federal laws at state and local levels? We must start doing the same. They have no problem doing it when they want to. Either we are all equal and can do the exact same things or none...

President Donald Trump promised a large crowd of American governors that he would work to redirect power from the federal government to the states. “We’re going to give you back a lot of the powers that have been taken away from states and great people and great governors, and you can control it better than the federal government because you’re right on top of it,” Trump said. The president delivered a speech at the National Governors Association meeting on Monday. He explained that more states needed to compete for the best solutions around the country, citing the importance of citizens...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall said, “Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that of order and chaos.” -From The Life of George Washington, Revised Edition 1832. The chaos gripping our present society is certainly not the ‘balanced’ republic Marshall was referring to. Our system is functioning more like a plane crashing - like a democracy. Let’s explore ‘balanced republic,’ ‘democracy’ and ‘order and chaos’ by using an analogy. The U.S. government is comparable to a commercial aircraft. The pilot and co-pilot are the elected representatives. They are selected by qualified passengers (or U.S. voters)....

Congress has written some laudable policies into the Pet and Women Safety Act of 2017 (H.R.909) that are designed to protect domestic violence victims from “trauma caused by acts of violence or threats of violence against their pets.”There is one provision of the bill, however, that takes a familiar step too far: It would create a federal crime to harass or intimidate any person’s pet in a way that causes “substantial emotional distress.”Given the threats from cyberattacks, interstate and international crime cartels, terrorist groups, drug trafficking, and the criminal aspects of immigration issues, the resource-constrained federal law enforcement community does...

Yesterday the Trump administration preserved federalism, respected the principle of local control over local schools, and corrected one of the Obama administration’s many lawless and radical executive actions. With a simple, two-page letter, the Departments of Education and Justice withdrew and rescinded two Obama-administration letters that purported to unilaterally redefine Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The Obama administration had expanded Title IX’s explicit ban on sex discrimination in federally funded educational institutions to encompass “gender identity” discrimination and then imposed intrusive “guidance” on every federally funded school in the nation, on matters ranging from pronoun usage to...

FULL TITLE: "California Goes One Step Beyond ObamaCare, Proposes Single-Payer Healthcare System to Include Illegal Aliens" California Democrats made a surprise move late Friday to foil President Trump’s promise to repeal ObamaCare—by introducing a stand-alone, single-payer healthcare system in California. The Mercury News reported that two California lawmakers Friday introduced legislation to replace private insurance with a government-run health care system covering all 38 million Californians—including its undocumented residents. {..snip..}

Congratulations to Secretary DeVos....It is time to resuscitate the Constitution of the United States vis-à-vis the responsibility for education. [huge snip] In 1866, Congressman Andrew J. Rogers, a Democrat representing New Jersey's 4th Congressional District, spoke eloquently against a bill to establish a federal Department of Education. Mr. Rogers declared that the bill: ... proposes to put under the supervision of a bureau established at Washington all the schools and educational institutions of the different States of the Union by collecting such facts and statistics as will warrant them by amendments hereafter to the law now attempted to be passed,...

Britain's biggest supermarket chain is cutting the cost of its female razors to match the same product sold to men. Tesco said it had come under pressure from British lawmaker Paula Sherriff after it was found to charge twice as much for pink disposable twin-blade razors as blue ones. The products are identical excepts for color and price. Tesco had defended the pricing by arguing that it sells many more men's razors, making it easier to keep prices low.

President Trump and the Republican Congress are going to do a lot and will likely act quickly and decisively to help the economy become strong, make the borders secure and the immigration laws effective, protect us from terrorists and rogue nations, and improve our education system. It is vitally important, however, to grasp at the outset that Washington cannot work. Federal solutions always fail. The best thing federal politicians can do is to get Washington out of the lives of ordinary Americans, their businesses, and their communities. This must happen fast, because Washington is crawling with folks who will work...

Headline of the Day Poll Should the Electoral College be abolished? Yes, direct democracy is the only fair way to hold elections No, it preserves the vital concept of Federalism

While Donald Trump resoundingly won the electoral college — the state-based “point system” we’ve used in presidential elections for more than two centuries — Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by about 780,000 as of a week out of the election. In other words, more Americans wanted Clinton to win, reason enough to revisit the wisdom of using the electoral college to determine elections. But a larger, more important argument is often overlooked in this ongoing debate.

In the last week since Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in a stunning electoral blowout, there have been calls from many on the left to abolish America’s unique presidential election system.It still hasn’t been settled whether Trump or Clinton won the popular vote, but many Democrats are upset about the possibility that their candidate may have won more total votes, yet lost the election.Progressives are taking aim at the Electoral College and want to replace it with a national popular vote. This would both remove the indirect mediation of the electors’ votes, and more damagingly, eliminate the power of states...

The Electoral College remains in place over two centuries after the framers of the Constitution empowered it to select presidents. Though occasionally maligned, this system of electing a chief executive has been incredibly successful for the American people. Many modern voters might be surprised to learn that when they step into a ballot box to select their candidate for president, they actually are casting a vote for fellow Americans called electors. These electors, appointed by the states, are pledged to support the presidential candidate the voters have supported. The Electoral College holds its vote the Monday after the second Wednesday...