By Bruce Stanfield @ Shutterstock.com
At Lewrockwell.com, Gib Kerr reminds readers of the power the American states hold via the Tenth Amendment and the Constitution as a whole. States are simply subservient divisions of the federal government. They carry their own power to protect their residents, even from federal government overreach. Kerr explains that the best hope for liberty lies in the states, writing:
Tyrants never willingly relinquish power. The only way that the authorities in DC will be reformed is if that reform is forced upon them against their will.
From the states.
With an undeniable invasion taking place on the southern border, blatant election interference, violations of civil liberties through a two-tiered system of justice, restrictions on free speech, and threats to the Second Amendment, at what point will the states assert their constitutional authority and reject the destructive, illegitimate policies of the federal government?
As bad as things are today, imagine if the left’s agenda were enacted. They would pack the Supreme Court, implement the Green New Deal, grant statehood for DC and Puerto Rico, issue mandatory gun buy-back (i.e., confiscation) laws, force the closure of Fox News, completely control the flow of information, pass Medicaid For All and student loan forgiveness, bestow amnesty on illegal immigrants, and formalize our open borders.
At some point, the proverbial frog will jump out of the hot water. (I’m optimistic enough to believe that real Americans won’t just relax and get cooked).
Is it far-fetched to imagine a scenario in which the beleaguered Customs and Border Patrol would refuse misguided directives from DC and pledge their allegiance to state authorities in Texas? Or that military commanders in bases along the border would go rogue in support of the states’ efforts to stop the illegal invasion?
Or that the Flyover States, who control not only oil and gas production but also America’s critical food supplies, would refuse to fund an illegitimate, tyrannical power in DC by severing the flow of federal income tax revenue? The states’ ability to starve the beast is the ultimate, existential threat to DC.
Such moves by the states would unquestionably trigger countermoves by the federal government. Just as Lincoln refused to allow the Southern states to secede peacefully—in part because the federal government in 1860 received roughly 90% of its revenues from tariffs and could not afford to lose the income from the Southern ports—today’s federal government cannot survive without the income tax revenue from the Flyover States.
Many people claim that we are already in a cold civil war. As I wrote in States of Rebellion, though, we are dangerously close to the day when things get hot.
The election of 2024 will undoubtedly be the most important contest of our lives, and certainly the most consequential vote since the 1860 election of Lincoln. It is not hyperbole to claim that the Union—and freedom itself—hangs in the balance.
If the United States hopes to survive the coming storm, it will require courageous leadership from the states along with an ironclad commitment to the Constitution to ensure our salvation.
Fasten your chinstraps, America.
Read more here.
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