DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: What was the original federal government intended to do versus where we are today?

Do you know what the federal government of the United States was actually designed to do at the beginning of the United States experiment?

Let’s go over it in case you need a refresher.

The federal government of the United States had a limited set of national functions, and it was their job to leave most day-to-day governing power to the states and the people.

Does anyone feel like we aren’t living in that reality anymore?

Yea – I don’t either.

There is no exact total of all the laws, regulations, court rulings, state laws, and local ordinances that have been passed since 1789, but for federal laws passed by Congress, historians estimate there have been more than 30,000 federal statutes enacted since that year.

A useful way to wrap your head around is that Congress usually passes 200 to 600 laws every two-year session (in short, not leaving the day-to-day governing power to the states and the people).

The original design for the federal government was to “mind its own business” and that came out of debates at the Constitutional Convention and was written into the United States Constitution.

At its core, the federal government was meant to:

• Create a stable national union

• Provide for national defense

• Manage foreign relations

• Regulate interstate and international commerce

• Maintain a national legal framework and currency

• Protect certain constitutional rights and liberties

To take that a step further, the Constitution itself summarizes these goals in the Preamble:

“Form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty…”

Does anyone have an idea when or why our lawmakers got so seriously off track (and that means both sides of the aisle)?

In my research I read that the founders were reacting to the weaknesses of the earlier Articles of Confederation, under which the national government was too weak to tax effectively, regulate trade, enforce laws, or coordinate defense.

A major principle was federalism – splitting power between the national government and the states.

Powers specifically given to the federal government in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution lists many “enumerated powers,” including:

• Raising and supporting armies and navies

• Declaring war

• Coining money

• Establishing post offices

• Regulating trade between states and with foreign nations

• Collecting taxes

• Creating federal courts below the Supreme Court

• Making laws “necessary and proper” to carry out those powers

So that means what was NOT originally intended for the federal government were mostly local matters, which were meant to remain under state control, including:

• Education

• Local policing

• Property law

• Elections administration

• Family law

• Most criminal law

• Local infrastructure

This was later reinforced by the United States Bill of Rights, especially the Tenth Amendment, which says powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states or the people.

The structure was designed to limit concentrated power.

The founders of the United States were deeply concerned about tyranny, so they divided power in several ways:

Three branches:

• Legislative (Congress)

• Executive (President)

• Judicial (Courts)

Checks and balances:

• Congress makes laws

• The president enforces laws

• Courts interpret laws

• Each branch can restrain the others

Over time, the federal government became much larger and more active due to the American Civil War, industrialization, The Great Depression and the New Deal, world wars, civil rights enforcement, expansion of federal regulation and social programs, to name a few.

So, where are we now?

When did ideas like the Federal Reserve, the Rockefeller education system, the three-letter agencies that have, over the years literally experimented on humans and circumstances abroad, and the list goes on to the tune of where we are today. When did that become for the good of the people?

Instead, from my audience seat it looks like an ugly snowball that has gotten fatter and dirtier as it has rolled downhill.

Obviously, the modern federal government exceeds the founders’ intended scope, and that goes for the red and blue people.

Of course, others argue the Constitution was deliberately flexible enough to allow expansion as the country changed.

But when does a country change to the point you do not recognize it anymore?

Do you think our forefathers would have approved of the complete surveillance that is beginning to look like George Orwell’s dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, published in 1949.

That book depicted a totalitarian society where the government exercises near-total control over truth, language, history, and private life.

The only difference is in the book they were more honest about it.

The novel follows Winston Smith, a man living in the superstate of Oceania under the rule of “Big Brother.” The ruling party maintains power through:

• Constant surveillance

• Propaganda

• Censorship

• Historical revision

• Fear and torture.

• Control of language (“Newspeak”)

Some of the novel’s most famous ideas and terms include:

• Big Brother – the ever-present symbol of state surveillance

• Thoughtcrime – criminalizing dissenting thoughts

• Newspeak – shrinking language to limit independent thinking

• Doublethink – accepting contradictory ideas as true

• The Ministry of Truth – rewriting history and Information

One of the books best lines is, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

And as a final fun fact, throw in the lobbyist and PACS we deal with today when it comes to our politicians and elections motivated by greed and a need for power – and you have a formula that does not feed the soul.

Fortunately, the brainwashed will keep sleeping so they will not be part of the equation either way. The weak-minded people willing to sell their souls will eventually be sold out by their puppeteers and that leaves those who can see the matrix for what it is.

And that, my friend is where we are headed – because humans were born to be free.

Fortunately, there are now enough people who have realized that truth while at the same time realizing this country is worth saving.

Rita Cook is a freelance writer for The Ellis County Press. She can be reached at rcook13@earthlink.net.