In the Hour of the Wolf – Reflections on Hype and the Constitution

As I look out the window, seeing the reflection of the moonlight off the dew like tiny fairy lights I begin to reflect how high America has soared and how far America has fallen.

I reach for my coffee and half listen to the television in the back ground, the normal fair, candidates saying this and that, all of making promises that IF people take a minute and think about, should say, “Wait a minute, that’s sounds good but how is it going to be done in four or maybe eight years. How is it going to be accomplished within the scope and limitations of that forgotten document, the Constitution?”

I’m like every other educated, patriotic American, I am watching the GOP presidential candidates with great interest, however unlike many people, I have yet to support any particular candidate though there are a few, that I can not bring myself to even consider for one reason or another, that is strictly my opinion and will not waste your valuable time.

Looking at the candidates that I am considering, I see a number who have what I would call a cult following, in fact a supporter of one in particular, basically accused me of being a troll, when I asked some very pointed questions and even referenced history.

This person even pointed me to a Twit-longer piece she posted and like everyone should I took the time and courtesy to read it. After reading it I noticed one IMPORTANT item missing, there was absolutely no reference to the Constitution.

With all of the campaign promises made, not one that I’ve heard as even mention that they will do anything according to the Constitution.

That same supporter mentioned that their favorite candidate is a great negotiator and will make America rich again by negotiating “great” deals. I must ask, “Doesn’t this require the legislative branch to approve any deals that regulate commerce with foreign nations?”

Another question that needs to be asked, “How can any POTUS be a great jobs president?” Doesn’t it take congress to pass constitutional laws dealing with taxes, trade etc. or are we to be subject to more of a pen and telephone.

Now, I have also heard a candidate say in the debate back in November say, and I’ll paraphrase, that he wouldn’t be involved in any conflicts in the Middle East, seeing that the money would be better spent on roads and bridges, hospitals and schools. Now again I have ask, just where in the Constitution does the Federal government have the authority to spend tax payer’s money for hospitals and schools. Look hard and if you find it let me know.

Needless to say when all else fails the sure vote getter is support of our military and veterans, and yes being a veteran this hits close home.

Now, the cult follower of one candidate, says, “Our Veterans have been betrayed and discarded by the U.S. government.” YES they have, but it seems that what is forgotten is that it is the people who elected the government who have forgotten the veterans. In fact if I remember correctly, wasn’t it a big issue in the 2014 election? Did anything change?

In fact, there has a long and sorted history of incompetence and waste within Veterans Administration, YET nothing has or will change.

What about the military? Again all funding for the military MUST come out of congress and congress has betrayed the Americans who put them in their positions and passed a trillion plus dollars funding bill, which will remain in effect for two years and thus, short of congress taking action, the military budget is set for two years. Now, just how is the POTUS to improve our military? By cutting funds in one area and moving them to another? Firing people?

Another candidate, one that I am seriously considering is spending a lot of time in Iowa. During his various stops, he is plagued by those who are against any action that may cut or eliminate subsidies for corn used in the production of ethanol.

This candidate stated he is against all subsidies, and I applaud him for that, but he neglected to mention, yep you guessed it, that NO where in the Constitution is the use of tax payer’s money to provide “a direct pecuniary aid furnished by a government to a private industrial undertaking, a charity organization, or the like.” There is an exception and that is if the senate authorizes, “a sum paid, often in accordance with a treaty, by one government to another to secure some service in return.”

In fact, one of the first acts after the passage of the Bill of Rights in the first congress was a bill to pay the cod fishermen a bounty, or to basically subsidize a private interest.

James Madison spoke out against this bill, stating that those who wrote the Constitution and those who ratified it did not conceive that it would not be an indefinite Government, but a limited one saying:

“...tied down to the specified powers, which explain and define general terms, If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor. . . . Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America.”

To the good people of Iowa, I have one question, How can you be in favor of the Constitution, yet at the same time accept other tax payer’s money, redistribution of wealth, to raise crops?

To everyone out there, I will not tell you who support, BUT I will ask you that as you listen to rhetoric from the candidates, listen with one eye on the Constitution and as they make their promises, ask yourself, “Where is it authorized in the Constitution?”