Keeping a Constitutional Republic

Though we often think of the U.S.A. as a democracy we are actually a constitutional republic.  The founding fathers mistrusted a pure democracy, knowing that it could become as tyrannical as any monarchy or dictatorship.  They also knew the weakness of men, even great and noble men, and the temptation that power would present.  Therefore, instead of a government of men, they sought to create a government of law as a lasting gift to the future generations.  The Constitution was created to protect our liberty and our rights as a free people and to define and limit the powers of the federal government.  The Constitution was ratified by the people of the states and thus, by the consent of the people, made valid.  The 10th amendment was created as a final reinforcement and guarantee that the powers of the federal government would be limited to those enumerated in the Constitution and as a safeguard against the infringement of rights and powers retained by the states and their people.  The 10th amendment clearly states: " 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.".  thus the executive, legislative, and judicial branches and subsidiaries of the federal government have only those powers and those powers alone that are delegated to them by the Constitution.  All other powers are reserved to the state and the people and are prohibited to the federal government except by amendment to the Constitution.  Also, states do not derive their rights from the federal judiciary, nor have they delegated that power to the federal judges.  As a state we reserve the power to determine our unalienable rights to ourselves, therefore, the 10th amendment cannot be left to the federal government and it's courts to ignore or interpret for themselves.  A defining characteristic of a Constitutional government is that power must not be allowed to define it's own limit.  Power must be checked and restrained by an equal or greater power.  Our liberty will never be safe if we depend on the judiciary alone to protect us, Congress and and the stae must continually insist that federal judges abide by the Constitution.  Failure to honor and enforce the 10th amendment by the judiciary, Congress, the states and the people has caused an ever escalating abuse of power, social nonsense, and political chaos.  In it's unconstitutional zeal to impose a liberal and godless social agenda on the American people, the federal judiciary has overstepped it's powers so often that judicial tyranny is now accepted and defended as "the Rule of Law".  However, there is a big difference between the true Rule of Law, which is constitutionally based and the rule of judges, legislating their own agenda.  Any judge who flouts the 10th amendment, distorts the 1st amendment and creates federal powers not enumerated in the Constitution is not upholding the Rule of Law but is destroying the Law and has become a tyrant.  We, as a people, have been lulled into complacent surrender of the principles we inherited as a Constitutional and federal republic, and it seem the majority or our elected officials lack the moral courage to defend our rights and our republic.  This is why the issue of states rights is so important, it is the last bulwark against executive, congressional, and judicial tyranny.  States rights were largely ignored before the "Civil War" and completely ignored during the war.  When states rights were defeated on the battlefield in 1865, the Constitution and the legal structures to resist tyranny were weakened and there has been an ongoing trend since then of large government overstepping it's constitutional boundaries and slowly but surely taking away our sovereign, God given rights as a free people.  Not only are our states rights being threatened but also our religious and political rights.  The 1st amendment states that: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" and yet we see the government attacking the Christian faith left and right, prohibiting the free exercise thereof in public schools and public places.  In this time, courage is the virtue most needed to save our republic.  As our founding fathers and the great Southern heroes of the Civil War, we must fight to preserve our rights and defend the Constitution.  All free men must stand for liberty.  Let us pray that, as South Carolinian Henry Laurens (1742 - 1792) said: "At a time when liberty is under attack, decency under assault, the family under seige, and life itself is threatened, the good will arise in truth.".