This page was last updated on July 12, 2013.
No such thing as states’ rights; Jerry Miskulin; Beaver County Times; July 11, 2013.
I encourage you to review Mr. Miskulin’s body of work in the archives. Mr. Miskulin has written at least 92 letters since 2004 (I didn’t critique all of them.). Most (all?) are illogical and full of falsehoods (not just wrong).
Mr. Miskulin expressed displeasure with the tea parties (here and here), proclaimed
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“All through the Reagan years and afterward, the Republican mantra was ‘states’ rights this, states’ rights that.’ I can tell you why states’ rights isn’t an attractive feature; it’s because there is no such thing as states’ rights.”
[RWC] If you’re familiar with Mr. Miskulin’s letter-writing body of work, you’ll remember he has a “thing” about Mr. Reagan.
That “there is no such thing as states’ rights” would come as a surprise to the Founding Fathers/Mothers as well as anyone who reads the Federalist Papers and U.S. Constitution. If “there is no such thing as states’ rights,” why do the states exist?
In Federalist Paper #45, James Madison (a Founding Father and fourth President) wrote, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments [and the people] are numerous and indefinite.” The intent described by Mr. Madison is why the 10th Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved for the States respectively, or to the people.”
“If you’re going to make government smaller, then it will quickly morph into an oligarchy at the state level. The Boss Man becomes the main man of his county or within his state. History is littered with those who had statewide power and often were the power behind the scenes. The Republican attempts to institute states’ rights are a regression that surface in every time of chaos. Instead of looking ahead, they rehash every failed policy from the past.”
[RWC] Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution states, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.”
Since the beginning of humankind some people have always wanted to control the lives of other people. The history of man is tyranny. Despite that history, Mr. Miskulin’s idea “of looking ahead” is a strong central government, like the USSR, Red China, Cuba, Roman Empire, pharaoh Egypt, a laundry list of kingdoms, and so on.
Perhaps Mr. Miskulin can describe how limited government is a “failed policy from the past.” While he’s at it, perhaps Mr. Miskulin can point to all the successful big-government policies.
“States’ rights, as we know it, is really a Communist endeavor whereby a small tightly knit group of individuals or a minority has control over the majority. We can only be thankful that so far the Republican fallacies have not been put into operation. If they would have, there would be all kind of crimes we would be afraid to mention. Ronald Reagan wasn’t the man you thought he was, and I try not to think about it now.”
[RWC] So, our Founding Fathers/Mothers were really communists? Who knew?
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