Before we continue — did you take a moment to send or post any links to this web site, as was suggested at the end of the previous page? If you did, give yourself a pat on the back, because you've taken effective action. Action that can actually result in fundamental change in our government and in our lives. If you didn't, what are you waiting for? This isn't all just talk! America really does need YOU to participate in this effort! Don't donate money and expect someone else to do all of the work for you. We don't need your money. We need YOUR HELP to spread these ideas and get ourselves organized. We need your help as we begin to use our republic exactly as the founders intended when they designed it and left it for us to run. Please do whatever you're willing to do, even just a little tiny bit. We need to pull together, in the same general direction, if we're ever going to improve things. The next election is approaching fast!

To continue...

Why even have a government?

Before we decide to participate in our government, we should understand what it's supposed to be doing, and how it's supposed to be doing it. Because unless we know that, we can't tell where things went wrong, or how to fix them. Fortunately, it's all set forth in the Constitution. So let's begin by taking a fresh look at it.

The reasons for setting up the federal government in the first place are stated plainly in the very first paragraph of the Constitution in its "preamble", or introduction. Those reasons were, and still are, "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." In the body of the document, the Constitution recognizes the sovereignty (the independent power and authority) of the states that would be asked to ratify (endorse) it, and creates a new sovereign central government if they do. This new central government was created as a republic. That is, a government in which we, the people, choose agents from among ourselves, to gather together periodically to make our own laws. And those laws should be calculated to carry out the legitimate purposes of our government, set forth in the preamble. This is all as true today as it was well over two hundred years ago, when the federal government was first set up under the plan and for the reasons set forth in the Constitution.

It is vital that we recognize the primary military forces within the borders of the United States were originally the militias, and it is perfectly clear that the plan was to continue that practice. The militias were not professional soldiers. Instead, they were ordinary citizens with their own weapons, who could be speedily assembled to meet an emergency. When Paul Revere rode through town yelling "the redcoats are coming", it wasn't so people could grab their kids and hide in the basement. It was so people could grab their guns and form up in their militias, and be ready to fight (to fight the British Regulars, their own government's army!). That's why they were called "minutemen"; they could assemble a powerful fighting force on a minute's notice. And the same could be done anywhere in the country. 

Only a minimal standing army would ever be under the direct control of the federal government. That army was sufficient at first only to secure the western border and the eastern ports against raids or invasions. It could be expanded, by congress, when and if needed. The plan was, if anyone (even including the new federal government) ever tried to dominate the people, the people would always be able defend themselves by grabbing their guns and deploying their militias to repel the danger. Many states' militias could even join together to form a massive fighting force that could not be beaten. And, under certain specific circumstances that were clearly set forth, congress could also activate and coordinate the militias. Those circumstances were, and still are, “to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions”. And that's all. 

We don't follow that plan any more, even though the Constitution requires it. But if we did, today militias could be assembled to form a coordinated fighting force covering the whole nation with something like 200 million armed and trained citizen-soldiers. They would be able to meet any emergency, resist any invasion, oppose any oppression. This is the Constitutional plan for securing our freedom. Consider the text of the second amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Why is a well regulated militia necessary to the security of a free state, and what does the people's right to keep and bear arms have to do with it? It's because governments, all governments including ours, can't always be trusted. Eventually, someone (like a Hitler, or a Stalin, or a Mao) may succeed through force or deception in seizing the government's power, and perverting it for their own purposes. And if that ever happens, the people can grab their weapons and deploy their militias, and protect themselves from the corrupt government, or from any other threat that may arise. The founders, while still British subjects, had experienced their own government sending its army to the American colonies to crush their rebellion. That army, one of the most powerful fighting forces in the world at the time, was defeated by ordinary people, with their own guns, in their own militias. And the Constitution guarantees this will always be possible by securing the right of the people, our right, to have and carry our own weapons ("to keep and bear arms").

This is all important and relevant today because, contrary to the plain language of the Constitution, we've all been conditioned to accept that it may not be a good idea to own guns, and gun control has been made into a huge political issue. By the politicians who run the government! This would cause the founders to roll over in their graves. They secured our right to keep and bear arms precisely so we would always be able to defend ourselves, especially from the government. How are we supposed to do that if we don't have any weapons?

Additional measures were also set forth in the Constitution to ensure the people could never legitimately be dominated by the federal government. For example, the Constitution defines a federal government that has three distinct branches. Each branch was assigned to handle separate and distinct governmental powers. The powers of the government were deliberately and purposefully divided and separated to make it difficult for any one person or group to control too much of the government's power. The King had held essentially all governmental powers, and his “subjects” were subject to his absolute authority over them, imposed and enforced by his soldiers. Unfortunately, the King ruled the colonies so badly that the colonists finally had enough, and declared their independence. They cut their ties to the King, and declared they were not colonies any more, but instead were "free and independent States", each of which had the same powers as the "State of Great Britain". The founders understood only too well that putting an overabundance of power into the hands of one person is a bad idea. 

So, to prevent such a thing from ever happening here again, the founders formed a new union that would include as many of the newly "free and independent states" as wanted to join. They divided up the powers of the "federal" (union) government and assigned them in the Constitution permanently and exclusively to different branches, whose separated powers could not be held by a single person or group without amending the Constitution itself. And, Article 5 of the Constitution provides that amending the Constitution requires a great consensus of the people and the states of the entire nation. To even propose an amendment requires that the proposal be passed by 2/3 of both chambers of congress, or 2/3 of the state legislatures. To ratify an amendment thus proposed then requires the explicit approval of 3/4 of the states. Note, the federal government is not permitted to participate at all in passing a proposed amendment! It cannot amend the Constitution on its own authority. That doesn't just mean the federal government can't change the words of the Constitution on its own. It also means, far more importantly, that the government can't change by itself the way it operates or the distribution of power set forth in the Constitution. Because that would effectively alter the plan of government that's laid out in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights in the tenth Amendment explicitly provides "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, ...are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." 

So the government can't legitimately redistribute its own powers among its different branches, even temporarily, for any reason whatsoever. If the government could do that, then every branch could delegate all of its power and concentrate it in one person. That person would then effectively be a dictator, an outcome the Constitution was specifically designed to prevent. Similarly, no part of the government can legitimately delegate any of its power to some other party such as a contractor, or a corporation, or another government, or any other combination of any kind such as the United Nations, or the World Trade Organization, or NAFTA. Not even temporarily, for any reason whatsoever. In addition, the government can't legitimately exercise more power than is provided for in the Constitution, even temporarily, for any reason whatsoever. Every single power of all three branches of the entire federal government has to remain as it was set forth in the Constitution. Because the federal government has no legitimate power or authority that wasn't given to it by the states. And the states, for reasons that should be obvious, have never given to the federal government the power to change the rule book that defines and limits its powers, or to rearrange its powers on its own.