Grassroots in Michigan

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This sentence has been called “one of the best-known sentences in the English language”

And rightly so…

John Adams – Declaration of Independence

From the movie “John Adams” may be rented at most video stores
The book “John Adams” by David G. McCullough

4th of July

“Stars and Stripes Forever” is a patriotic American march widely considered to be the magnum opus of composer John Philip Sousa. By act of Congress, it is the National March of the United States of America.

American Beauty
When I first heard this song I knew a video had to made. In the capable hands of Dan Silengo, it is the anthem of Independence Day Tea Party, Lansing, Michigan, 2009

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14

A mash-up using Carmon’s “America Again” to celebrate July 4th, 2010. God bless America! By Dan Silengo,Common Sense Radio

A recent article in the New York Times covered the growth of state-level resistance to a future national health care plan. For example, in 2010, voters in Arizona will have a chance to approve a state constitutional amendment that would effectively ban national health care in that state. Legislators in Florida and Michigan have already introduced similar legislation, and potentially, 15 other states will do so in the 2010 legislative session. But heres something fundamentally important that NYT writer Monica Davey claims in her article:

the Constitutions supremacy clause ordinarily allows federal law to, in essence, trump a state law that conflicts with it

A best, this is a highly-misleading statement.

There are two main points to make here:

1. The supremacy clause does not allow federal law to trump state law in all situations, or even ordinarily as Davey claims. It only does so when both laws are in pursuance of a power that has been delegated to the federal government by We the People. in the Constitution.

2. We know that this is the case because Monicas version of the supremacy clause was actually proposed by leading founders and rejected. When the Constitution was being drafted, James Madison and others proposed what came to be known as the Virginia Plan. A major part of this plan was to give the congress a veto over state laws. It was defeated. That means, in plain English, the founders considered this idea, and said no. And Davey is irrefutably wrong in her claim.

So we know from this short lesson that the supremacy clause did not authorize the power that Davey is claiming. In reality, things are pretty much the other way around. The biggest Constitutional problems that actually exist in this country are those times when the federal government exercises powers not delegated to it by We the People. And that happens far more often than not.

Unfortunately, though, not enough people know this important history of the Virginia Plan, and this basic premise of the Constitution, so they’re easily swayed by patently false statements by people like Davey and the New York