Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
Originally Posted by Senator Hatrack
Originally Posted by logtroll
I see... there are no limits, then.
No, according to Madison, the author of it, the clause, like the rest of our government is limited. To limit our government is why they wrote our Constitution.
I get so tired of shooting down this same erroneous and, frankly, idiotic claptrap over and over again. The purpose of the Constitution was not to limit our government, but the opposite: to create and expand the role of the central government. That is just incontrovertible fact.
What you apparently cannot comprehend is that our Constitution was written to create a limited central government! They realized that the weak central government of the Articles of Confederation wasn't working. Did our Constitution expand the role of the central government? Yes, but not as much as you erroneously think it did. When our Founding Fathers wrote our Constitution they lived in the state of Virginia or the state of New York or the state of Massachusetts, etc. Our Founding Fathers were citizens of their respective states first and the United States of America second! To them the word state was synonymous with the word country. They were extremely reluctant to give the new central government any power. That is why our Constitution was sent to conventions of delegates from the various states to be ratified. The IX and X Amendments to our Constitution are limitations on the power of our central government.
Quote
The IX Amendment
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
The X Amendment
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.
What you should be tired of is shooting yourself in the foot. You do so when claim that our Constitution was not written to limit the power of "slightly enlarged" central government.

The state can never straighten the crooked timber of humanity.
I'm a conservative because I question authority.
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