?!

I received an email from an immediate family member announcing her support of the local Tax Day Tea Party that took place here in town last week. I didn’t have any desire to participate, but the whole premise got me thinking… From my limited exposure to the Tea Party movement, I’ve gleaned that a large group of people is disappointed by the way that the Federal Government has grown and the ways that they are spending taxpayer monies. From there, I went here:

In fifth grade, I was given an assignment to memorize the Preamble to the US Constitution. You may be familiar with it – perhaps the School House Rock musical version is playing over and over in your mind now – but here it is:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.

Now, if you recite that in the way that I learned it, or in the way that you learn it from School House Rocks, I think you miss part of it’s intention. I recently realized that I was thinking the Preamble said this:

We, the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union [do the following]:

• Establish Justice
• Ensure domestic Tranquility
• Provide for the common defense
• Promote the general Welfare
• and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity

[and for that purpose, we] do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

However, I think it’s supposed to be read more like this:

We, the People of the United States, in Order to:

• form a more perfect Union
• establish Justice
• ensure domestic Tranquility
• provide for the common defense
• promote the general Welfare
• and secure the Blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our Posterity

do Ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

If that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, you could rearrange it:

We, the People of the United States, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America, in Order to:

(see bulleted list from above)

So, with that in mind, how do you think your Federal Government is doing to accomplish the goal(s) of the Constitution? Isn’t that what we have elected them to do? I venture to say that, if we really evaluate the bills, laws, motions, etc. that are currently in front of our Legistlators, we should be disappointed at how distracted they really are. It’s as if we have allowed them to be directed/guided/influenced by lobbyists and special interest groups to the point that they no longer represent their constituents AT ALL.

Here is just one minor, almost trivial, example:

There are some REALLY substantial things happening in/with our nation right now. Whether you are focused on the Troops that are still actively serving our country in the Middle East or the financial troubles that so many are facing, there is a lot going on. However, one of my own local representatives has sponsored this bill in the US House:

Requires the President to issue a proclamation each year: 
(1) recognizing the anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln; and 
(2) encouraging state and local educational agencies to devote sufficient time to study and appreciate the significance of Lincoln in the development of American history and the spread of freedom worldwide.

Really?! Hmmm.

Just out of curiosity – do you see a place in the Preamble that covers “Celebrating the birthday of a past President”? Perhaps that falls under “provide for the common defense”? Hmmm.

I started to read up on the drafting of the US Constitution, and I found it interesting to read that the authors intended for the rest of the Constitution to work towards the goals outlined in the Preamble – almost as if the Preamble was really the Mission Statement that was intended to drive the budding nation toward success. And even though the Preamble is fairly broad in its statements, it still seems to imply limitatiosn on what the Federal government should be focused on.

In later years, with the discussion of establishing a national bank, the people of the United States found it necessary to limit the powers or responisbilities of the Feds to only cover the items specifically outlined within the Constitution. This was the beginning of what became the Tenth Amendment, which essentially says that the State governments are responsible to address everything that isn’t either outlined in the US Constitution or otherwise prohibited therein.

So let’s go back to the previous example – who’s really responsible for determining which President’s birthdays should be recognized? Or who should legislate the requirements for primary and secondary school performance? Or who should determine which roads need the most attention? I’m guessing the State and Local governments have a better idea of the things that will be most beneficial to the people within their respective boundaries.

But there is one more piece of the puzzle that I haven’t even begun to mention yet – the REAL reason that the Federal Government has taken so much control for themselves. I doubt that many of you are truly oblivious to this fact, but nearly all of the legislation that passes through the US Congress comes from lobbyests and special interest groups. Hardly any of the actual legislation is proposed because of the needs of a specific district or state. Instead, it ends up being a whole bunch of silly bills that only benefit a small portion of the population.

Some legislators think that they can “do something” for their consituents by hooking their own special projects onto the more significant bills. But this is merely the dreaded “pork barrel spending” that gets so much bad press and really doesn’t solve any problems. It just means that more and more garbage is passed through to allow for the pet projects to go through as well.

Anyway, I’d like to ramble on this topic for a while longer, but I need to stop for now. I feel like I should do some more reading so that I can form a stronger opinion on the matter. In the meantime, what do you think? What is your take on the whole concept?