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No One Asked Me But… (April 18, 2018)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… The question of state sovereignty has been raised again. The strange thing is not that this issue has been raised, but that it is being raised by liberals in the State of California.
Much to the disgust of liberals, one of the mantras of the extreme right has, for years, been “state’s rights” over federal law. Men like Gov. Jerry Brown of California spent much of their younger days championing the federal government’s attack on those who would make state law supreme over federal law.

Many of us remember 1957, when the Democrat Gov. Orval Faubus called out the Alabama National Guard to prevent nine African-American students from integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Eisenhower nationalized the guard and used them to enforce the integration ruling of the Supreme Court.

In 1963, Democrat Gov. George Wallace stood in the doorway at the University of Alabama blocking the entrance of a black student who integrated the institution under an order of the Supreme Court.

We now have Gov. Jerry Brown figuratively standing in the doorway blocking ICE agents as they attempt to enforce immigration laws.

We have a California mayor who actually tipped off criminal illegal immigrants as to the ICE attempt to round up the criminals and begin deportation efforts.

We have a number of states, including Nevada, flaunting federal narcotics laws. These are the same people who would go ballistic if the citizens of their states were to defy federal abortion laws and arrest people for murder who kill the child in the womb of the mother.

These are the same people who vehemently opposed a Nevada rancher who proclaimed the federal government had no right to tell him he could not graze his cattle on land where his family had grazed cattle since the 1880’s. They demanded that he comply with federal laws. The irony of the situation is if the federal government had followed the law as written, there would have been no issue and the rancher would be able to continue to graze his cattle without federal interference.

I am not arguing the merit of federal immigration laws nor the ban of narcotics. I am not arguing the merits of federal abortion or land laws.

I believe that there is a real need for a pathway to citizenship for both the parent and the child who have entered the United States illegally to become citizens.

I have no problem with doing away with all drug laws. If a person is dumb enough to put that stuff in their body, they should have every right to do so. Drug laws have caused a great many of the crimes in America today.

However, today we have federal laws that prohibit drug selling and use. We have federal laws that pertain to the legal entry into the United States and these laws should either be enforced or rewritten. As much as I hate Roe v. Wade, it is the law of the land.

We are either a country of law or we are a country of anarchy where every man decides what is law and how it pertains to him.

I would suggest that, for the most part, if the law is followed as written, we as a nation would fare much better. There are laws I do not like. It is my obligation as a citizen to work to change those laws, not defy them.

No one asked me but… President Trump claims a large number of illegal immigrants in California voted in the 2016 presidential election. He would indicate that this is in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 611 which states “ it shall be unlawful for any alien to vote in any election held solely or in part for the purpose of electing a candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, members of the House of Representatives.”

President Trump offers no proof of this, but factual data no longer have a place in American politics. Both political parties now operate under the theory that if a statement is made, it is the duty of those who disagree to prove the validity of the statement. As our own ex-Senator Reid when caught in a lie about Mitt Romney justified the lie by saying “he didn’t get elected did he?” The ends have come to justify the means.

One must keep in mind that there are no federal elections within the United States. Our national Senators and Assembly members are elected at the state level under Constitutional law allowing the State, not the federal government, to determine the election process.

Under Article I, Section 5, clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution, each house of Congress is granted the express authority to judge the “elections,” the “returns,” and the “qualifications” of its own Members. While the Senate by a majority vote may refuse to seat an elected member, they cannot replace the individual.

While most Americans are under the illusion that they voted for a President, they never have and never will; unless the Constitution is changed. The vote is taken to elect members of the Electoral College who are free to vote as they see fit.

The two major political parties have taken control of the Electoral College. In most states the candidate representing the party receiving the most votes gets all of the electoral votes from that state. Maine and Nebraska are the exceptions as they use the congressional district method, which allocates two electoral votes to the popular vote winner in the state, with one going to the popular vote winner in each individual congressional district.

The actual 2016 electoral count was Trump 306, Clinton 232. Moving Maine to winner take all state Trump wins 305-233. Under the congressional district method, 15 electoral votes would shift to Clinton, and Trump wins a closer race, by a 290-248 total.

This is opposite of what we saw in 2012, when Mitt Romney’s 206 electoral votes would have become 274, putting him into the White House. The point being made is not that one method is better than the other. It is merely to indicated that the states under the Constitution determine the electoral process within the state.

Thought of the week… “Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy; such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure…”
– John Adams

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