Romeo group issues tea party doctrine

 

The Romeo Area Tea Party, one of the most active tea party groups in the state, has thrown down the gauntlet and called for a strict set of principles – a doctrine, of sorts – for all tea party supporters to follow.

The doctrine and the preamble, both written by the RATP’s communications director, Phil Dyer, demonstrates a growing allegiance with the 10thers – those conservatives who believe the 10^th Amendment to the Constitution gives the states the right to create exemptions or outright nullification regarding federal laws and programs within their state boundaries.

Here’s what the RATP sent out to its members over the weekend:

Hello Romeo Area Tea Party:

I was just reflecting on the Medicaid expansion and … it is so frustrating because this is another example of the state simply doing something stupid to get the federal money tied to it.  The money that flows from D.C. makes states do things that they would otherwise not even think about.  Medicaid and Common Core (via “Race to the Top”) are current examples.

With all the tumult happening in the world, the gridlock in DC and federal debt spiraling out of control, I am wondering if now may be the time that the states can wake up and reclaim their proper role and begin to push back on the out of control federal bureaucracy.    

The bubbling frustration gave me the energy and motivation to write an open letter to those people in our state government, who took oaths to defend the constitution and to represent the best interests of Michigan citizens.  I will be (sending) this to my representatives and I will post it on the RATP website.  Feel free to use all, or none of it for your own quest to restore sanity to our beloved country.
P.S.: This topic relates to goal No. 6 of the 100 year Tea Party Plan: "Use the Constitution to restore a constitutional republic" http://romeoareateaparty.org/wordpress/

*****

Dear Gov. Snyder, Attorney General Bill Schuette and elected officials in Lansing:

Enough is enough! Stop cozying up with DC and start defending Michigan citizens from the federal government.  You have all sworn oaths to uphold the Constitution and have promised to faithfully represent your constituents, yet you continue to let the out-of-control federal behemoth trample us.  Not only are you not defending us, you are a big part of the problem.

I can hear your plea back to me, "We are just humble state government civil servants.  What can we do?"  The fact of the matter is you can do a lot, but because you are dependent on the money coming from Washington, you don't want to stop the gravy train. The states are not subservient to the federal government. 

Since the founding, the states were equal to the federal government.  This has been lost in recent times but the time has come for balance to be restored.
Allow me to give a list of offenses that exceed what our founders complained against with King George. Here is just a short list of the bad legislation, scandals,  federal overreach and mismanagement that has come from the federal government:

ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank/Consumer Financial Protection Bureau , FATCA, amnesty, the Federal Reserve/inflation, $17 trillion dollar debt, 3 trillion dollar deficits, IRS bullying conservative groups, NSA snooping on citizens, endless wars, warrantless DNA collection, Race to the Top/Common Core, Lifeline (“ObamaPhones”), Benghazi, Illegal appointees to the NLRB, crony handouts to green energy firms and labor unions, an assault on 2nd amendment rights, Keystone Pipeline, EPA regulations, etc. …  

So now you may ask what can a state do against such a huge and powerful entity? It can be summed up in one word: resist.  For the benefit of all Michigan citizens and for the future of the country, please … resist imbalance of power and the status quo.

If other states do the same, then we will see the required change happen in Washington.  The bottom line is the federal government is too drunk with power, money and narcissism to fix itself.  It must be done from the local level up.  

Please fight this leviathan for us and we will support you.  If you choose not to, we will need to find others who will.  Employ all the tools available to you as a state, by the Constitution.  There was a time in American history when the states had power.  The founders specifically wanted federalism to balance power and constrain the central government.  Utilize that power once again.  Let Michigan lead the charge to help restore our republic to its founding principles, by simply defending your constituents from our own federal government.
 
Here are some ideas on how you can resist:
1) Stop taking money from DC:  There are always strings attached and their spending is unsustainable, so don’t be reliant on it (Medicaid expansion/ Common Core).
 

2) Write legislation to specifically counteract federal law:  You did this (with the) gun law. This will force a showdown with the feds in court and bring awareness to the public.
 

3) Sue:  Our attorney general must use the full power of the office to fight federal government overreach and unconstitutional mandates.
 

4) Nullify:  If the federal government, or the (U.S.) Supreme Court approve a clearly unconstitutional law or edict, we expect you utilize the power granted to you in the 10^th Amendment and simply do not comply. Ignore it and work with other states to do the same.

5) Use the Constitution to save the Constitution and restore a constitutional republic: The federal government has reached the point of unbridled power.  The founders knew that this day would likely happen, so they placed Article V in the Constitution, which gives the states the power to have a convention of the states, to write new amendments to the Constitution.  (The federal government would have very little involvement in this process.)  The purpose of any convention of the states, and new amendments, should be to reset the balance of power and once again have healthy constraints upon all three branches of the federal government. 

Support the convention of the states: http://www.conventionofstates.com.  Refer to Mark Levin’s book, "The Liberty Amendments” for ideas on what amendments to consider.
 

Sincerely,

Michigan citizens 

*****

Btw: A clarification – Of the 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, only one -- and certainly not a profound one -- was adopted through an Article V convention of the states, as allowed by the Fifth Amendment. That was the 21^st Amendment, adopted 80 years ago, to repeal Prohibition. The rest were adopted through gradual, individual votes by state legislatures until three-fourths of the states were in agreement.