A Bright Hope for a Better Tomorrow

by Matt Erickson, Patriot Corps, public domain

(May 14, 2021) — Americans are increasingly losing hope of a better tomorrow.  Fear and dejection are on the rise, largely because people cannot seem to get a grasp or handle on the serious political issues we face, as society unravels a bit more every day.

When trying to wrap one’s head around a difficult and persistent problem, it is best to break it down to its constituent parts and examine one part, while largely ignoring the others.

Let’s ask *The Question* that our adversaries who yearn for unlimited political power never want us to ask—If the many federal actions that we oppose today were instead admittedly limited to only affect the District Seat, would we still object to them?

I’m not asking here whether the government should do them, but whether the government could do them, legally, without contorting the U.S. Constitution.

And, that is a very simple question, one that deserves a full and complete consideration.

After all, federal actions allowed in the District of Columbia are wholly different than the federal actions directly allowed in all the States—in fact, differing standards even apply.

Throughout the whole Union of States, the U.S. Constitution allows Congress and the U.S. Government the exercise of enumerated powers, using only necessary and proper means.

But, in D.C., almost anything goes—members of Congress and federal officials need only avoid a few express prohibitions.

Please realize that in the normal case, ratification of the U.S. Constitution divided available governing powers into enumerated federal powers, and reserved States powers.

But, in the highly-unusual case—for the District of Columbia—all governing powers were allowed to be united in Congress, after “particular” States ceded particular parcels of land for the District Seat, who would give up all their local governing power over the parcels, to Congress and the U.S. Government.

Because of these special cessions of land and governing authority, in the District Seat, members of Congress now have “exclusive” governing authority “in all Cases whatsoever”, without violating the Tenth Amendment.  In D.C., Congress and the U.S. Government have all available governing authority; they need only avoid the few things prohibited them.

It is imperative to realize that in D.C., however, no local State, State-like, or District Constitution exists to guide and direct Congress, like State Constitutions guide and direct the State legislatures, State governors, and State courts.

Thus, in D.C., members of Congress and federal officials must make up all their own rules, as they go along.  In the District Seat, the servants are the masters!

The District of Columbia is so different that not even the fundamental building block of the Union exists therein—legislative representation.  Well, if not even the most basic of political protections exist in D.C., imagine what else may be ignored politically!

But, the real issue is not how D.C. residents are affected, but how those special powers may ever be extended beyond District boundaries.  By rights, they shouldn’t have been, but in reality, they were, and that is all that we face now—an allowed tyranny that has escaped its true boundaries.

Once one realizes the necessary implications of this unusual power escaping its proper boundaries, then one also realizes that he or she just discovered the light at the end of the tunnel, which signals the return of hope for people yearning to live in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.  Because what may be accurately diagnosed may be cured, at least in this instance.

We must realize that no longer do we face a multitude of different problems that we cannot even quantify. Instead, now we realize everything else isn’t even a problem, but simply a different symptom that all point to the same underlying disease.

Thus, we may now concentrate on the single issue we really face, which is how did these clever rascals ever take an allowed exception of unlimited power, far beyond its limited confines?

Tragically, the Supreme Court cleared that pathway 200 years ago, by saying that even the clause found in the Constitution allowing for the District Seat is a clause within the Constitution, and as such, then even it is *part” of “This Constitution” which Article VI expressly declares is the “supreme Law of the Land” that binds the States through their judges.

Thus, even though the spirit of the Constitution would hold the special D.C. powers to D.C.—to give the remainder of clauses within the Constitution their rightful due—the letter of the Constitution holds that even the exclusive legislative power of Congress binds the States.

It is now proper to amend the Constitution, to provide the omitted words, that would finally exempt the exclusive legislative powers of Congress, from being any part of the supreme Law of the Land that binds the States.  No laws of one State ever bind another—neither should the otherwise local laws of Congress enacted under their exclusive power for the District Seat, just because members of Congress are involved.

Or, alternatively, it is now time to repeal the exclusive legislative powers completely, removing the source of inherent discretion from every square foot of American soil, not even letting it have a breeding ground of ten miles square.

Since every federal servant must swear an oath to support the Constitution—signifying their subservience to it—thankfully nothing they have ever done has actually changed the Constitution, which may be changed only by formal amendments ratified by three-fourths of the States.

Therefore, we may finally throw off all the improper accumulation of District Seat powers, that have been deviously extended beyond their rightful confines.  Now that is a very bright light, awaiting us at the end of our tunnel of despair, that we may leave, almost immediately.