As a refresher, the complete text of the Tenth Amendment is included below:
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.
A reasonable interpretation of this amendment is that, if the Constitution doesn't specifically authorize them to do something, they don't have that power. Either the states or the people themselves have it.
And that makes me a "tenther," a cultist, and a person who is incapable of rational thought.
http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/10/21/tenthers-would-abolish-wage-and-child-labor-laws-social-security-medicare-and-more/
Most cults are based in some sort of skewed spiritual vision or the worship of a charismatic leader, but there is a re-emerging cult that bows down at the feet of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Many of them want to bring their cultish beliefs to the halls of Congress and are running for election this fall.
They’re called the “tenthers” and they say federal laws and rules like the minimum wage, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Department of Education, even child labor laws and a laundry list of other federal laws and programs are unconstitutional.
Leaving aside his attempts at name-calling, that's a fairly reasonable description. But he doesn't STAY reasonable.
Their rationale—irrationale would be a better word—is that if a federal power is not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, well the government doesn’t have it, according to their view of the 10th amendment.
It’s a view that has long been discredited, but reappears from time to time, such as during FDR’s New Deal era and after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.
So, the Constitutional limits on the power of the Federal government are "discredited?" How, seeing that the text hasn't changed? People may choose to ignore that text and pretend it says something different, but that doesn't mean that those of us who believe that words mean what they say are crazy, or anything like that.
Are you a Tenther Cultist? I am.
I'm glad to join you in this appreciation for freedom and justice. Even better it is an acceptance of our responsibility as people, as families. The current trends of federal government would like to take away my responsibility for my own health, for the education of my children, for my work choices, for my retirement, for my salary, for my hard work, for my entrepreneurship, and anything else it can get its hands on. Long live the 10th and a strict, literal interpretation of our US Constitution.
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