I continue to find myself both intrigued and appalled by the action and reaction to Dobbs. I'm just, frankly, baffled at the reaction of the left. And somewhere between irritated and angered by the utter failure of the right. Yeah, the issue is – far – bigger than abortion.
The idiocy of the right in the majority of responses only ensures the children’s party will continue to bash the adults over the head with it this November.
America is a nation of laws. We talk of "our democracy." Democracy only can and only does exist under those laws. Our Constitutional government is the foundation for our laws; it is "the Supreme Law of the Land." The federal government created by the states under the Constitution is designed to be limited; the limitations placed on the federal government are the foundations of our liberties. The limits keep us free.
The federal government is just that: federal, not national. Its authorized powers are defined in the enumerated powers of Article 1, Section Eight. The Ninth Amendment, the penultimate amendment of the Bill of Rights, is a catch-all, saying essentially: if we forgot something, it's still in here and it belongs to the people. And the ultimate, Tenth Amendment could not be more clear and concise:
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.
Simply, abortion is NOT among the authorized powers or authority of the federal government. The issue is not in the text of the Constitution, leaving it to the Ninth Amendment, and, as it is not delegated to the feds, per the Tenth Amendment, it is an authority “reserved to the states, respectively, or to the people.”
This is the whole and entire issue regarding the authority of the federal government over abortion: They have NO authority. Because the Constitution established all three branches of the federal government, NONE of them have authority over abortion – not the Executive Branch, not the Legislative Branch, and not the Judicial Branch.
SCOTUS, in 1973, had no Constitutional authority to hear the case.
This is exactly what was held in Dobbs: It is a STATE authority.
Period.
End of memo.
Had the left, years ago, not given up on doing things legally and accepted the Constitution and rule of law, they’d have spent the past 50 years getting an amendment ratified for abortion along the lines of Roe: the first trimester (if you’ve not read Roe, that’s what was held) or whatever limits could be ratified.
Trump had an excellent opportunity for a ten-second shot at explaining this during the June debate. He could – easily – have said
As Joe knows, we have a government of limited, enumerated powers. Abortion is not among them. As a Tenth Amendment issue, it belongs to the states, which is what Dobbs held. So I guess the real question for Joe is: What other parts of the Constitution do you not understand or just ignore?
But he didn’t do so. Epic Fail.
And Lindsey Graham (R-Idiot) fails on the right of the Constitution. The day Dobbs was announced, he said we needed a national prohibition. He doesn’t get it; the federal government has NO AUTHORITY on abortion.
Or marriage.
Or sports
Or bathrooms
Or “gender”
Or education
Or energy
Or housing
…
Imagine how much freer, stable and peaceful a country we’d be if we just understood and agreed to abide by the law.
None of the social issues tearing us apart area the business of the federal government. Z E R O.
If we’d just accept the foundation of our liberties and work within it, we – all – would be happier.
Right on.