Comments By a Good Friend

Please welcome my friend John Ellingson, who authored these thoughts ...


10 September 2009

I thought you might appreciate this note I penned for my sister and her liberal friends who were all up in arms about their local school district not wanting to carry the Prez’s live broadcast to students. I can’t wait to see the e-mail traffic that’s sure to follow last night’s outburst from the SC Rep who called Obama a liar.

In the spirit of the dissenting voice, I offer the following...

Back in 1791, our brilliant founders who, having just witnessed and overcome the tyranny of British oppression, were so frightened by the possibility of unchecked, centralized power, they ratified the tenth amendment.

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution reads:

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.

Many at that time argued that the tenth amendment was unnecessary because the powers of the federal government are carefully enumerated and limited in the Constitution. Because the Constitution does not give Congress, the president or the federal judiciary the prerogative to regulate local matters, those opposed concluded that no such power existed and therefore, no such power would ever be exercised. The Tenth Amendment was enacted to limit federal power.

Today, large numbers of average Americans are frightened by both the types of change the majority is trying to implement and by the manner in which they're trying to do it. Deficits in the trillions, billions in "emergency" stimulus still unspent and what was spent was done so without impact, unemployment is at its highest point in 26 years and higher than the administration said it would get without a stimulus bill, a thousand page health care bill that they tried to force through without debate, and the examples go on and on.

The main reason there was so much ado about nothing regarding a presidential address to school children is that President Obama has lost the trust of large numbers of the American population. He campaigned as a centrist - the great unifier who would be willing to take ideas from both sides and implement what works. Unfortunately, so far he has governed from the far left. The transparency he claimed would be a hallmark of his administration is strangely transparent. What does he really believe?

During the congressional recess it became apparent that the vast majority of Americans don't want the same things our president wants. Many of those things have frightened Americans enough for them to say, "Whoa, hold on a minute. Is this what we want for America?"

There is obviously nothing wrong with the president offering encouragement for Americans to take personal responsibility for their education and their personal well being in general. It's unfortunate that, on a number of very key issues, President Obama supports policies that encourage the exact opposite.

John

p.s. - "The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself." - Benjamin Franklin

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