Freedom-Fighters Forum

By William J. Dell – 13 January 2010

In the Bill of Rights of our U. S. Constitution, ratified December 15, 1791, we find the following two Amendments:

Amendment 9 – Construction of Constitution.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 10 – Powers of the States and People.

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.

By these the U. S. Constitution clearly limited the Federal Government to EXTERNAL issues as defined in Article I. Issues dealing with import and export of goods from the United States. Issues of representing the United States to other national governments. Issues relating to the defense of the United States from external forces. Issues relating to interstate commerce, but not intrastate commerce, of the 50 States.

It will be helpful to define two words – provide and promote – before we discuss the Federal Government’s involvement in social-justice programs. To do this I have used Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary. I have done this so that we might get closer to the intent of our Founding Fathers as they wrote our Constitution.

Provide: 1. To procure beforehand; to get, collect or make ready for future use; to prepare. 2. To furnish; to supply; followed by with. 3. To stipulate previously.

Promote: 1. To forward; to advance; to contribute to the growth, enlargement or excellence of any thing valuable or to the increase of any thing evil; as, to, promote learning, knowledge, virtue or religion; to promote the interests of commerce or agriculture; to promote the arts; to promote civilization or refinement; to promote the propagation of the gospel; to promote vice and disorder. 2. To excite; as, to, promote mutiny. 3. To exalt; to elevate; to raise; to prefer in rank or honor.

With these definitions in mind, let us look at the Preamble of our Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. [Emphasis added.]

You will note that the Founding Father used “provide” when mentioning the defense of our nation, but they used “promote” when mentioning the general Welfare. Clearly they intended to convey in their language that the Federal Government was responsible for the defense of our nation from its enemies because “provid[ing] for the common defense” is enumerated in Article I, Section 8 as follows:

To define and punish Piracies…; To declare War…; To raise and support Armies…; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval forces;

No such delineation of responsibilities can be found however regarding “promot[ing] the general Welfare.” Our Founding Father intended to express a difference between these two elements of the Preamble. One “provide for the common defense” was an assignment TO DO. The other “promote the general Welfare” was an assignment to ENCOURAGE but NOT be involved with directly.

To fund unconstitutional federal social-justice programs, the Federal Government has and continues to plundered the property of its citizens and take revenues rightly belonging to the 50 States. If we are to have social-justice programs, they rightly belong to the 50 States because of the Tenth Amendment. Additionally, how social-justice program are administered also rightly belong to the 50 Governors and their Legislatures not the President and the Congress.

If the citizens of the separate 50 States refuse to fund a program within their state borders, the other 49 States’ citizens should NOT be taxed by the federal government to provide it. Redistribution of wealth by the federal government between the 50 States and/or their citizens for social-justice programs is unconstitutional. Our Founding Fathers only desired that the Federal Government “promote the general Welfare” not provide for it.

It is a lie that the Federal Government has to raise and give monies to the 50 States and to the States’ counties and municipalities for social-justice programs. States, counties, and municipalities are taxing entities. As such, they are empowered to raise their own revenues if their citizens will allow them. The problem is that the funds are NOT available to State and local taxing entities because of the plundering of  We the People’s  property by the Federal Government for unconstitutional social-justice programs. Additionally in many instances, We the People  do not want these social-justice programs, in either federal or state form, because they destroy the self-reliance of a free citizenry.

Our government was instituted to protect every individual citizen’s right to life, liberty and property. Social-justice programs all require that the property of “haves” be redistributed to “have nots” in one form or another. There are two greatest latent cancers of the “government dole.”

1. It destroys the self-reliance of the recipient. It develops within the recipient and “entitlement mentality” which creates an attitude of if the government is going to take care of me why should I work or strive to improve myself.

2. It destroys the initiative of the provider. It develops in the provider a “defeatist mentality” which creates an attitude of why work harder for a greater increase in property because the government is just going to steal it anyway.

For more than sixty years, the Socialist-DINOs (Democrats In Name Only) and Marxists in our Federal Government have through the “New Deal,” the “Fair Deal,” and the “Great Society” caused this cancer to fester in our nation. Now ObamaCare threatens to explode the malignancy throughout the entire fiber of our Constitutional Republic destroying personal liberty and property in its wake. When that is gone, there will be NO CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC! We will be left with a Welfare Socialist State.

I find it interesting that those who struggled so long to be free of the chains of their ancestors have now chosen to cheerleader us along a path that can only lead us back to the chains of slavery. Free citizens are self-reliant and live in a Constitutional Republic protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Citizens of a Welfare Socialist State are slaves dependant on the State for their substance. Those who desire a Welfare Socialist State should consider the following: Any government that has the power to redistribute wealth under the guise of assisting the less fortunate, by plundering rather than protecting the property rights of its citizens, can and will eventually redistribute every citizens wealth – even your wealth. Why? Because there is always someone less fortunate than you! [From: The Race Card, 30 September 2009]

There must be some cause, some good reason, why Americans, who fought tyranny over 200 years ago to obtain their liberty, are now eager to accept tyranny from a federal government determined to encircle them with the “chains of slavery.”