Time for People to Make States Step Up!

by
Suzann Darnall

WoolyMammoth.Org is very much a collaboration. My husband, Pete, and I came up with the idea of a Conservative political website. We also brainstormed on the name and motto. Next, my father, Curt, joined the fray as a writer and editor. Then, I designed and maintain the website. There is much back-n-forth in all these processes. Jobs sometimes cross the lines between areas or expertise. Advice is sought and given. So, it is not uncommon for some of our articles to be group efforts. This is one such creation. I thank Pete and Dad for their assistance when I got stumped about where to go to wrap it up!

My husband often shares things he runs across in the newspaper or on his iPhone. We also frequently discuss current political concerns and ideas. Also, he messages or emails me. Since his job does not usually allow him the time for writing, I generally run with those concepts that appeal to me or raise my ire. He recently shared some thoughts that were definitely worth consideration.

He wrote, "All this talk about limited fed govt. States rights vs fed govt. It's time for states to quit sitting back, playing the helpless victim, and start taking the initiative. On every issue, health care, job creation, welfare reform, etc. the individual states are waiting for someone else (read Feds) to do their job for them. Time for state governors and legislators to step up and do their jobs. If they won't, then, by default, the Feds have to do it and the rest of us will have to shut up about states rights because the states will have ceded them to the Feds."

I thought this was great as far as it went, but felt he had not mentioned a key element - the People. The People of the Individual States are the ones who have to solve this, bottom up. We do hear a lot of talk about limiting federal government, as well as states rights versus federal control. Well, maybe it is time for citizens to not just expect the Feds to back off, but to demand their state to step up. Citizens should not just be complaining about what Washington DC is doing, they should also be complaining about what their state and even local governments are not doing! We should be putting a fire under the tails of the local and state leaders.

A lot of our social and economic woes would be better served if dealt with by state or local agencies. Some should even be dealt with at the citizen level, rather than relying upon government aid or control.

There are already signs of citizens and states moving in this direction. In response to increasing federal encroachment, a growing number of states have passed and proposed resolutions to assert the Tenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights of the Constitution. Citizens in all states should insist upon their legislations taking similar action. Then, citizens and states should back up the resolutions with action. DC isn't going to just give up their control, we are going to have to take it back. And, that can only be done by handling the problems we've sort of let slide over into their purview, if not allowed them to totally co-opt.

Many participants in the TEA Party movement are proponents of less Federal control, more state involvement, and decided citizen contribution in resolving social, economic and political issues. It is why many of the TEA Party groups got started, telling DC to back off. But, we can't just leave things hanging in a void. Someone has to step up and handle what is left behind after we kick Big Brother out. Let us not forget why Washington has to scream, kick and be dragged out of our business. Power is why. Control is why. If we are suckered into believing there is a smidgen of compassion in 90 percent of our elected representatives in Washington, we probably deserve the treatment we get.

Are our schools teaching the history of how often we have been sold down the river by the politicians so that they can grab more power. No! In some states, the schools are largely in the grasp of the unions and, thus, Washington DC. AND those states are beholden to the unions, not the people. Add this situation to the stranglehold the Progressive elitists have on much of the education structure in America and we have the recipe for our children being doomed to repeat the mistakes of the history they have never learned.

Our nation and Constitution did not start out giving much power to Washington at all. The states and the people had the power. But that has changed as local and state politicians bowed to Congressmen, Senators and Presidents to curry favor and political backing. Now the politicians in Washington actually believe that is the true order of things, and that we are foolish for trying to change it back to what it should be.

What happened this week in Washington with the President sitting in Blair House with the Democrat and Republican leaders, putting on a sham meeting to decide on how to do the Obamacare health plan is a perfect example. They were being told and have been told by the people, pollsters, and true Conservatives that a vast majority of the American People do not want Obamacare. They seem to hide their eyes from millions of people on the National Mall at a Tea Party and other Tea Parties around the nation. They would prefer such outcries not occur, even though it is the sound of freedom. See, they hear the death knell to power, instead. Do they hear what we say? Of course not! Well that is probably not entirely true; they actually hear, probably acutely, and maybe even listen--for an alibi--but the idea is no longer to do the will of the people. It is to figure out how to shove it down our throats and makes us like it--or to make sure we accept it whether we like it or not.

It is up to the citizens to decide what needs to be handled by government and what can be taken care of at the personal level. Then, we need to decide what we need done by federal, state or local government. And, finally, we need to take care of what is left.

I think there are many things that could be handled without government interference. Most charity should be done by citizens, churches, and non-government organizations. I believe job creation would prosper if the Feds stepped back and let businesses do what they do best: work! With as little excessive and needless regulation as possible. And, finally, it is my contention that health care would best be served by the States figuring out how best to allow for citizens to purchase insurance across states lines for health, just as we can for cars, houses, boats, etc. The free market worked for centuries in so many industries, why not give it a chance with one of our major national problem?

I believe I see a pretty fair swath of the American People starting to sift through their representatives in a way not done in many years. They are looking at their representatives with a very jaundiced eye and cynical assessment. They seem to be sorting out the power-mongers, whom I believe make up a majority of the elected, career politicians in Washington, and are about ready to start cutting them loose from their grasp on power. When I see a perfectly rational house wife and mother stand up in a Tea Party and methodically dress down a Congressman Sheila Jackson or a Senator Arlen Specter, leaving them wondering what just happened, I know that the power does lie with the people if we are willing to exercise it. When I see the plummeting approval ratings of the once adulated Barrack Hussein Obama, I know that there are a majority of American People who know they are being had. Maybe a bit too late to prevent damage, but in time to salvage the greatest nation in the world.

November, 2010, is the time, place and way to start getting the power back to the foundation of this nation--with the people and with the 50 sovereign States. To make it happen, the people have to keep up the drumbeat that rather formally started on 15 April 2009 and go through the incumbent tax and spend, repress and tread down crowd like a tornado. That can be done by now being involved in local caucuses, local and state party committees and driving the cream of new people who want to serve to the top. The American People need to cast off Political Machines who choose the candidates for office and start doing it themselves. If anyone thinks that the incumbent crowd we now have will ever install terms limits, that is foolish thinking. They would be deliberately severing the umbilical cord that gives them their ill gotten power. Term limits will have to rise from the lowest level.

Finally, the American People must stop this silliness of looking for the quick fix or the idolized savior. We must choose the person who is dealing with nuts and bolts of how to fairly govern the nation, not one who is giving them a utopian high of that has no more chance of succeeding than pigs have of flying. We do not need rock stars in the State Houses, Congress or White House. We need true Patriots. We do not need lawyers. We need statesmen. Only an understanding of history will tell us what kind of men and women will fill these needs.

We have to realize that situations which have developed over a long period of time will take a long time to fix. During this time there will have to be long debates, ideas thrown back and forth, compromises made, possibly false starts, until finally we arrive at a solution. It is not fast, it is not neat, and it is certainly not pretty. However, it is the way our system has worked since the earliest days of our Republic and as we look back over our long and successful history, we see that it works out to our best interests.

So, let us send a message to our elected representatives at all levels that we expect them to get to work on the priorities we have set. Those who do not get it have to be voted out of office - ever time! Remember, politicians can only buy our votes if we sell them. We can throw the bums out of office if we decide that is what we want to do. Let us take our power back - the power of our vote - and see how quickly our elected representatives start paying attention to us again!

© Suzann C. Darnall, MARCH 2010