Whatever happened to the sovereignty of the States? It seems to me the Federal monster has destroyed it. Do most Americans realize that the Bill of Rights limited the Federal government and not the states? Here is an example that will blow your top: (Warning ACLU members stop reading and go to your usual government subsidized coffee house now) If a state wanted to declare a state religion and use state taxes to support it they could do it constitutionally. If a state wanted to exterminate every wolf in its borders, it had the right to, and the Feds couldn't do a damn thing about it. Today we have the Feds meddling in everything. Remember a few years ago when the state of Michigan was being fined thousands of dollars a day by the Supreme Court for not having enough beds in its prisons? (cruel and unusual punishment I guess) Why did nobody ask the question, "hey who the hell is the Federal government to tell us how many prison beds to have?" When was it that the Feds usurped the sovereignty of the states and America went from Republic to Empire? The watershed moment was....The Civil War.
You see the south was right...........on principle. Clearly the south was wrong on the issue (slavery) but they were right on the principle of States Rights. It is often stated that for the first hundred years after a war only the winners side of things is declared, as has been the case with the Civil War. Remember in school, it was all about slavery, States Rights was never once brought up, and that was truly what the southern States were fighting for. Robert E. Lee was offered the command of the Union Forces, but he would not turn his loyalty away from Virginia. You see Robert E. Lee was hardly unique, most peoples loyalty "back in the day" was to their state first. The generation of the Founders even called their respective colonies/states their country.
The Civil war changed all that. After the south lost, to gain admittance back into the union they had to ratify new amendments to the Constitution, these new amendments (like the 13th, 14th & a little later the 15th) where clearly aimed at the southern states. This is the point in American history that the chains that were placed on the federal government (the U.S. Constitution) were now considered binding on all the states. A huge power shift had occurred and most people at the time didn't even realize it. Add over 150 years of the Federal government deciding what powers it has and doesn't have (which Thomas Jefferson said was a no no) is it any wonder we are to the point we are at in 2010? I've been in college with kids that really have no idea why each state has its own capital and government, that's how far removed we are from the vision of the Founders. The vision needs to be restored. There is a very good reason for decentralization, it really makes tyranny hard to accomplish. That was the beauty of having semi sovereign states and a limited federal government. But over time the feds bloated and bloated and bloated, and took more and more of the states sovereignty. How can we shrink such a power hungry, fat, bloated monster? There is an old southern trick called "nullification" and it may be the only way left to regain our liberty, our sovereignty and our local government.
Nullification is basically where a state says NO! to the Federal Government. Oh like say just for the sake of argument of course that you have a big bloated federal government and it is kinda getting a little tyrannical. Well lets say about oh, 30 or 35 states have had enough and they get together and say "you know what feds? we are Nullifying your income tax laws in our states. Come talk to us after you shrink down and straighten up!" What can the federal government do at that point? Invade 30 or 35 states? hardly. Reagan was right when he said "remember the states created the Federal government, the Federal government didn't create the states." It may be time to remind them of that!