Quote Originally Posted by cstone View Post
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While the 10th Amendment does recognize the concept of "State's Rights" the Constitution where there is no power granted to the federal government, Article VI, Clause 2 (supremacy clause) makes the power of the federal government the supreme law of the land.
The Supremacy Clause was specifically and intentionally restrained by the Tenth Amendment. That was the whole point.

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.
The default of "powers not delegated" is to the states, not FedGov.

So yes, FedGov law is supreme but the law itself restrains FedGov from overstep.

An Amendment delegates those powers to FedGov, sure. Are there amendments for... abortion, gay marriage, drug prohibition, healthcare, education, etc. ? Lawfully these powers, and the ability to regulate them, rest with the states yet FedGov runs the show. Disagree with the softer regs and FedGov withholds your state's taxpayers own money from the state.

Quote Originally Posted by cstone View Post
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If people want to make the definition of life or marriage, or just about anything else a part of the Constitution, there is a way to do that as well.
Yes, agree. But that isn't happening (see examples above) and so Republicanism has become Populism. There is choice but it rests with a majority. If you are in the 49%, you lose.

The matters lately are not decided with open debate and Due Process but by a man with a pen and a phone or a judge who offers an ad hoc definition of the word "state" to mean the United States Government. Amendments didn't get us here, elections did.


Quote Originally Posted by cstone View Post
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Demographics are important but not inevitable. The system is dynamic and subject to many influences. The long term trends may seem to be totally against us but that is not enough reason for me to ignore or destroy the system that has served us so well and so many of us have pledged to support and defend. Many of the people who are upset and protesting are learning an important lesson that many of us have been living with for a long time. You can't always get what you want (thanks Mick and Keith). If it wasn't for compromise, this nation would never have existed at all.
I'm not advocating it be destroyed, let me be clear. I'm arguing that it was already destroyed and what exists now is a complete contradiction of that system.

The compromises the Founders made seemed significant at the time and were important but again the prospect of being one election away from black letter law not meaning what it says, and having very real personal impacts because of that, would be completely foreign to them. These were people that shared a values system as well. That isn't the case today. We are being told to compromise with people who openly call for genocide, cheer on Islamic terror, and demand we fund foreign and domestic enemies or be imprisoned (via IRS).

Tax freedom day was April 26th this year (I think). So we believe the Founders fought and killed over a ~2% tax to the Crown on trade income but created a system that has resulted in a 40% tax rate?

I can't fault the Founders though. They put it in black and white as clear as could be in modern language. That fault lies with us but I can't see how this continues without a lot of bloodshed. An amicable divorce doesn't sound so bad to me.