Does your vote still matter?By Mark Alexander Last week we observed Constitution Day (September 17th), marking the anniversary of the signing of our Republic's formative document, the Constitution of the United States, at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. It is the most consequential manmade governing covenant in history, a dramatic departure from the brutal rule of tyrants over the course of all preceding generations. It enshrined the foundation of American Liberty enumerated in our Declaration of Independence, providing the assurance that Rule of Law would prevail over rule of men, the terminus of the latter being tyranny. We know with great precision what the plain language of our Constitution meant then and now because its principal author, James Madison, along with founders Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, authored The Federalist Papers (1787-88), the definitive explication of our national Constitution. The Constitution was, by design, enacted to prevent the centralization of power. Our Founders codified the assurance of decentralized power, and other irrevocable rights, in our Constitution's Bill of Rights. Limiting the power of the central government was expressly detailed in Article Ten, which succinctly 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." As Madison wrote in Federalist No. 45: "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce. ... The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State." Warning of the danger of centralization of power, Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of our Declaration of Independence, wrote, "When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another." And of the consequences of that failure, he wrote, "Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread." The founding principles of our Constitution were to be followed exegetically — as written. Our Constitution established a judicial branch in order to reduce or rectify legislative error, which offends the foundational principles of constitutional Rule of Law. But Jefferson feared that in the future the federal courts would become a "despotic branch." If that happened, he wrote, "The Constitution [would become] a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please." And he was correct. There has been, and always will be, great tension between the advocates of Liberty and tyranny, the latter being those seeking to undermine Rule of Law. Over the last century, the Republican Party has generally been the advocate for Liberty. The now-socialist Democrat Party has endlessly sought to empower central government rulers to the detriment of Liberty. Democrats have succeeded in large measure by ensuring their judicial appointees engage in constitutional eisegesis. They have politicized the Supreme Court and lower branches of the judiciary in order to circumvent the Constitution. These judges, like their political benefactors, have forsaken their oaths to uphold our Constitution and have devolved into nothing more than political pawns. The most significant civil measure to correct Democrat corruption of our Constitution is the ballot box. But what if your vote no longer counts? After the 2020 election, Donald Trump claimed that the election was stolen because of ballot miscounts and voting machine irregularities. These claims were the basis for the rioting at our nation's Capitol building on January 6, 2021, which reinforced the Left's hatred and fear of Trump — and, some 30 months later, resulted in a plethora of indictments against Trump. Democrat strategists have used those indictments to promote Trump's popularity among his base, believing that they can defeat Trump again by utilizing the "hate and fear" factor. And as I wrote a year ago, I believe Joe Biden will NOT be their 2024 nominee. Instead, he will pull out at some point ahead of or at the end of the upcoming primary, leaving the selection of his successor to the delegates. And that will be a younger and more dynamic candidate who they hope will implement the next phase of their political platform. They may have overplayed their hand, but a Trump victory, even against Biden, is a steep uphill climb. That notwithstanding, what Trump should have focused on, and seems to finally understand now, is that it was the Demos' massive bulk-mail ballot fraud strategy that accounted for Biden's election in 2020 — and most elements of that fraudulent strategy are still intact. Of the 155 million votes cast in 2020, 43% (66 million ballots) were cast by mail — and a majority of those in states where authentication of the person receiving and casting the ballot is not required. Of all those who voted in person, 66% voted for Trump versus 42% for Biden — which is to say that 58% of Biden ballots, almost 47 million votes, were cast by mail. Demos protest any measure to require voter ID, unlike any other civilized nation on the planet. The result is that millions of votes nationwide were not authenticated, which, in combination with massive Demo ballot-harvesting operations, significantly eroded the integrity of authentic votes — meaning your vote. In addition to pushing for ever-longer voting periods instead of an election day to ensure they can rig elections with bulk-mail ballot fraud, Demos are simultaneously attempting to discard the constitutionally mandated Electoral College process. While electoral count ambiguity should be eliminated, discarding the Electoral College altogether would further undermine the power of votes in smaller states. For the record, in the 2020 election, there were more votes cast in Los Angeles County than the vote totals in 38 states. More than 80% of LA votes were bulk-mail ballots. Democrats would like to give LA County a much louder voice than the people of those 38 states. This summarizes the Left's strategy for imposing a permanent Democrat majority at the national level and over many states. And combined with the fact that the Leftmedia talkingheads and scribes serve as their publicists, as demonstrated most vividly by their blackout of the Biden/ChiCom connection just before the 2020 election, it is a formidable strategy. Bottom line: Democrats are doing what they have done for decades — relegating our Constitution and the integrity of our election system to the trash heap of history. Republicans want to restore Rule of Law while Demos want to demolish it. So, again, what if the only civil measure to correct Democrat corruption of the judiciary is the ballot box, but your vote no longer counts? One answer is a disconcerting thought for many Americans, particularly all those urban and suburban "white privilege" leftists who keep Democrats in power. The singular reason that Democrats are so focused on the erosion of the fundamental Second Amendment rights of Americans is precisely because they understand, as did our Founders, that the ultimate defense of our Constitution, if they completely erode the corrective judicial checks and the integrity of the ballot box, is the bullet box. Fortunately, there are other measures that have potential to resolve these issues, and the one I believe has the most promise is a Constitutional Confederation of states, an alliance of those states that are not under the mob rule of urban leftists, whose delegations could assemble to affirm the authority of our Constitution — in effect, re-ratify it and the Rule of Law it enshrines. Our Constitution established a Republic intended to reflect the consent of the governed, a nation of laws, not men. Article IV, Section 4 states unambiguously, "The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government..." A Constitutional Confederation of States should demand no less than the Federalist standard prescribed by our Constitution and affirmed in its Tenth Amendment. Those states re-ratifying as members of the Constitutional Confederation would determine an orderly plan to withdraw from the plethora of extra-constitutional regulations and taxes that are in clear violation of Tenth Amendment Federalism as was prescribed when each state first ratified our Constitution. This serious movement to restore the authority of our Constitution is a genuine act in support of "We the People" rather than an act of insurrection. It most assuredly could generate national momentum and would generate a LOT of heartburn for Democrats and their socialist cadres, as constitutional authority is anathema to their objective of state authority. A Constitutional Confederation is representative of the big ideas that need to be considered in order to resolve big problems. In 2020, Virginia was among the first states to begin passing laws or resolutions to prohibit or impede the enforcement of unlawful and unconstitutional actions, in effect giving the Constitution itself sanctuary. Other states have followed this model, and a confederation of those states around those constitutional protections is an alliance that could be achieved. Finally, we are the beneficiaries of generations of American Patriots who have pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor "to support and defend" Liberty, and extend it to the next generation. Maintaining Liberty requires constant vigilance because the nature of unprincipled men and women is to corrupt our Constitution in order to accumulate power and influence. Patriots, hold the line! Mark Alexander is the executive editor of the Patriot Post.
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