Curtis Coleman, Contributing Author: Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s refusal to join 21 other state Attorneys General in suing the federal government over the recently passed health care law constituted an uncontested surrender of the State’s sovereignty. By supporting McDaniel’s decision, Governor Mike Beebe is complicit in the surrender. Consistent with his laissez-faire approach to state government, Beebe’s attitude toward state sovereignty was further revealed in his reaction to Secure Arkansas’ petition to deny government benefits to illegal aliens. Beebe’s abdicative response? “Congress should deal with immigration.”This is an uncontested surrender of state sovereignty because, as Dr. Robert Moffit, Senior Fellow, Domestic and Economic Policy Studies for The Heritage Foundation, writes in his outstanding treatise, Revitalizing Federalism: The High Road Back to Health Care Independence, “Inaction by the states is an invitation to the federal government to take over their legitimate power when there is a popular demand for action.” (Emphasis mine.)
“Federalism.” Now there’s a word most Americans don’t use in their everyday vocabularies. For many Americans, a word association exercise for “Federalism” produces these: “federal”, “the federal government”, and “Washington.” But the word sounds the opposite from what it means. Federalism stands at the very heart of liberty – and very far from the halls of Congress.
James Madison provided one of the best descriptions of federalism:
“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 powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people; and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the state.”[Federalist No. 45]Federalism is the policy that limits the powers of the federal government and protects the powers and rights reserved to the states and the people. Federalism is the opposite of a powerful centralized federal government; it is the principle that guarantees the sovereignty of the states and the liberties of the people. Moffit also writes, “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act represents more than a federal takeover of health care; it is a direct threat to federalism itself.”[Federalist No. 45] Moffit could have just as well written, “it is a direct threat to liberty itself.”
Federalism is the battleground for the revival of our commitment to the Constitution and the restoration of our liberties and freedoms being eroded one election, one bill and one vote at a time. Federalism and the freedoms and liberties it represents are under unprecedented attack. Why? Because socialism demands a powerful centralized government. And because globalization demands the demise of the sovereignty of the individual states.
How real is this attack? Twenty one states are suing the federal government. And the federal government is suing at least one state over its right to protect its borders and it citizens. Very real, I’d say. Perhaps Arkansas will be spared by the victory of 22 Attorneys General and Governors committed to the sovereignty of their states.
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Curtis Coleman is President of The Curtis Coleman Institute for Constitutional Policy, headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. He submitted this article to the ARRA News Service Editor. Coleman is also the Cofounder and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Safe Foods Corporation. He lectures on team building and servant leadership in the Emerging Leaders program at the Center for Management and Executive Development, University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton School of Business.
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