Conservatives Must Unite
For President Obama’s power grab to be stopped, everyone who opposes his collectivist quasi-socialism, anti-sovereign globalism, social engineering, centralization of power, and court packing must unite. We cannot allow differences on one or two issues—even important ones—to keep us from working together for our common goal of stopping the most radical leftist president in America’s history. And, needless to say, if we cannot allow policy differences to divide us, then we certainly cannot allow egos, personality conflicts, and old grudges to stand in the way. It’s true that Washington, D.C., is full of prima donnas and control freaks, and that some of these people are as intolerably arrogant as they are self-serving.
But Barack Obama is counting on those divisions to keep us from working together. He believes that these issues and feuds—many legitimate, but some not—will prevent us from working together to stop him from permanently changing the United States, moving it away from our Founding Fathers’ ideals of limited government, personal responsibility, Judeo-Christian morality, and economic opportunity. We must prove him wrong.
At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, one of the most revered Founders uttered words that are as true today as they were then. Benjamin Franklin admonished all those present that, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
The final clause of the Declaration concludes, “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” They meant those words, because they knew that their lives were on the line. If they failed in the Revolutionary War and Britain re established control in America, then all the names we’ve grown up revering—Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and the father of our country, George Washington—would all have been executed as traitors. Their lands and wealth would have been confiscated, and they would have been vilified for all time in British history.
We do not face times such as those. But as you’ll read in this book, Barack Obama and his team seek not to cooperate and collaborate with any Republicans or other non-Democrats. Instead, they plan to divide opposition forces, and beat conservative interest groups one at a time, until none are left. In President Obama’s America, dissent will not be tolerated.
The only solution is to unite. As the president’s numbers remain consistently under 50 percent, there are more who disapprove of what he is doing than those who do approve. By marshaling resources and educating our fellow citizens, this unconstitutional power grab can be stopped, and this ultra-left ideologue can be defeated in 2012.
Many conservatives are starting to come to the same conclusion. On February 17, 2010, more than one hundred conservative leaders gathered to sign the “Mount Vernon Statement,” also titled “Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century.” This document makes the case that all three types of conservative Americans—social, economic, and national security conservatives—need to act as one. It makes the case that a prosperous society requires ethical citizens; that an overspending big government is dangerous to personal morality; and that national security requires both brave and virtuous citizens and a thriving, robust economy.
Conservatives are starting to understand that we’re all in it together. The Constitution that serves as the Supreme Law of the Land also mandates conservative policies in all three of these areas.
The Constitution’s Promise: A Federal Government of Limited Powers
There are plenty of books out there on why what Barack Obama is doing is wrong. What’s different about this book is that we show how President Obama’s actions are not just wrong; they are illegal. More precisely, they are unconstitutional—they violate our country’s supreme law.
It’s impossible to overstate how important this distinction is. Our Constitution isn’t just some random collection of do’s and don’ts. It lays out the charter of our government, but what’s truly important here is why those charter provisions design the government the way that they do.
The Constitution creates a federal government of limited powers. After the American colonies declared independence in 1776, there was a reason that the Constitution wasn’t written until 1787 (and not ratified until 1789). The Continental Congress, operating under the Articles of Confederation that were adopted in 1777, was a weak and disorganized entity that had almost no power, and the states were entirely sovereign entities that were essentially small countries unto themselves.
The American nation was a disorganized mess as a result; people may have been free, but the way they did things differed so much from state to state that it was impossible to organize a national defense, or conduct diplomacy with other countries, or for a thriving national economy to develop.
Yet for more than a decade there was no Constitution. The Founders were so concerned about the danger of replacing the British king with an American king that they didn’t want much at all by way of a national government. Every year made clear, however, that the country could not survive without a stronger, unifying government. How could America have both a viable national government and still make sure that such a government wouldn’t threaten the freedom of the people and the states?
The solution was to adopt a Constitution that established a government of strictly limited powers and a federal system with sovereign states.
A new national government would be created primarily to handle three areas of governing: military and national security, diplomacy with foreign countries, and regulating interstate and international commerce. The new government would have all the necessary powers to handle those three areas, such as raising and equipping an army and navy, and making a national currency. Beyond these, the only other federal powers would be those necessary for carrying out those express powers, which were thus implied in the Constitution. Any powers not explicitly granted to this federal government, nor implicit in performing those express powers, nor explicitly denied to the states, would be reserved to the states or the people. It’s the perfect definition of a limited government.
This is one of the biggest differences between the federal government and state government in America’s federalist system. The legal terms are “general jurisdiction” versus “limited jurisdiction.”
The states are governments of general jurisdiction, meaning they have the authority to make laws in every area of life as explained in their state constitutions, except for those few areas that the U.S. Constitution expressly reserves to the federal government. This general jurisdiction includes a government power called the police power, which is the authority to make laws for public health, public safety, public welfare, and social morality.17 States have this police power.
The federal government, by contrast, is a government of limited jurisdiction. As a government of “enumerated powers,” it only has those powers specifically granted to it in the Constitution. The federal government has no police power. This means more than the fact that the government cannot violate any of your constitutional rights. It means that beyond protecting your individual rights, if any federal law is not authorized by at least one specific provision of the Constitution, then that law is unconstitutional.
Unconstitutional laws are a nullity. Any Act of Congress “contrary to the Constitution is not law,” as the Supreme Court explained in its most consequential case, Marbury v. Madison, adding that any action of the federal government “repugnant to the Constitution is void.” Anything done by the federal government that violates the Constitution is irredeemably illegal, with no rightful authority over any American citizen. Such unconstitutional laws must be recognized as such and struck down by the federal courts, and the voters should expel from office those officials who enact such illegal measures.
Conclusion
Freedom itself is in danger under the administration of President Barack Obama, aided and abetted by a far-left Congress led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Our supreme law is being ignored and at times even trampled underfoot, and the government is running rampant over the liberties of American citizens. The concept of limited government is on the verge of disappearing. That’s what is at stake in America today.
Barack Obama is waging a war against the U.S. Constitution. He made his beliefs clear on a Chicago radio show (years before he became president), saying that the courts have not done their job in terms of bringing about “redistributive change” (i.e., government- and court-ordered “spreading the wealth”) and “economic justice.”22 These are (easily deciphered) code words for the Radical Ultra Left when speaking about government redistribution of wealth through cradle-to-grave government entitlement programs, paid for through crippling taxes and regulations.
These things are not simply the opposite of America’s free-market economy and our concepts of personal liberty. They violate critical provisions of the Constitution that are designed to keep government at bay so that we may live free and happy lives, raising our children as we see fit, keeping most of what we earn, and living in a society where we can defend ourselves, each other, and our way of life.
President Barack Obama has a different vision for America than that of our Founders. It is one that is radically different in terms of social values, economic prosperity, the role of families, and the role of government. To get to his vision of America, he must violate critical parts of the Constitution, relying either on political allies to support him, or shaping a judiciary that will agree with him. Such changes would be so sweeping that they would forever change our nation.
Remember—we should not be surprised by what President Obama is doing. He told us he would do it. And now you know the basic techniques he’s employing to sell specific parts of his plan to the American people. What you are about to read is a breakdown of the staggering number of changes Obama is attempting to make to our country, and the shockingly unconstitutional ways he will make them. The first step in preventing the current president from “fundamentally transforming the United States of America” is to inform ourselves of all the steps he’s taking to make it happen.
