Over the past few years I’ve heard of surveys showing an increasingly favorable view of socialism, especially among younger adults. So why the change in attitude and what does it have to do with the Constitution?
I believe these surveys show the success of the government run school system and the failure of everyday Americans to understand the government our Constitution created. For decades we have turned over the education of our children to the government, starting with the states but more and more directed by the federal government. We shouldn’t be surprised when that government teaches their charges that government can and should provide all. And what is socialism, but a system where the government provides or guarantees most, if not all, of their citizen’s needs. This shows that we did not learn John Jay’s lesson of our need to read and study the Constitution and teach the coming generations to be free.
Every member of the State ought diligently to read and to study the constitution of his country, and teach the rising generation to be free. By knowing their rights, they will sooner perceive when they are violated, and be the better prepared to defend and assert them.
John Jay, First Chief Justice of the supreme Court of the United States
Somewhere along the line we stopped teaching our own children about the Constitution and the union it created. We no longer invested the time and effort to teach our children to be free. We were convinced that turning over the education of our children to “experts” was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, turning our children over to experts became turning them over to the government for education and now the chickens of that particular decision have come home to roost. Now 45% or more of young Americans have a favorable view of socialism. Apparently more and more Americans think turning over their education, healthcare, salary and, in fact, their entire future to the government is a good idea.
So what does this have to do with the Constitution? Socialism is diametrically opposed to the limited republican form of government our founders created.
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.
U.S. Constitution, Amendment X
When the federal government was formed it was given a specific and limited list of powers it was authorized to perform. The Tenth Amendment was meant to guarantee that the federal government would remain focused on the powers delegated to it and leave the states to handle the rest. While I have not yet found anything in the Constitution that prohibits individual states from instituting socialism as long as it is done by the elected representatives of the people, Article IV, Section 4, and it does not violate their Constitutionally protected rights. However, the Constitution strictly prohibits the federal government from taking control over areas that have not been specifically delegated to it. (Not that what the Constitution says seems to matter much in Washington anymore.) Since nothing in the Constitution delegates to the federal government the power to control domestic affairs outside of insuring regular commerce between the states, every goal of socialism at the federal level is prohibited by the Constitution and therefore illegal.
We are fast ditching the idea of being the land of the free when the coming generations wish to be the land of the dependent. The home of the brave will soon be the home of the eternal child, begging for Uncle Sam to take care of them.
So the next time you see or hear someone extolling the benefits of socialism, or a politician proposing another program where you’ll get “free” stuff, remember what they are really asking you to do is hand another part of your life and your freedom over to a government that has proven over and over again to be completely incapable of doing anything quickly, cheaply, or efficiently. For examples just look at the post office, DMV, road construction, military spending, EPA, TSA, VA, Obamacare, and Social Security; sadly, the list goes on and on.
Everything socialism offers is unconstitutional and therefore illegal. We the people of this nation have lost even the most basic understanding of the nation we’ve inherited and now our children are willing to sell their freedom for a bowl of porridge, unaware of the birthright they are abandoning. And it’s all our fault. If we don’t want our children to live as wards of the state we need to educate ourselves, and them, on the gifts they have received as citizens of this great nation. We can no longer allow our government’s indoctrination to go unchallenged. We must find the truth and then teach it if we are to remain free.
