




If there are flaws in our state and federal constitutions, they are these:
There are no specified remedies for violating them. Our founders assumed we’d know (i.e., nullification, impeachment, and …quit reelecting them!), but we clearly do not know! Not surprising, after a couple hundred years of politicians’ lies.
Seemingly equivocal prohibitions against the “whispering down the lane” or “telephone game” judicial/ legislative/bureaucratic corruption of our constitutions by incrementally perverted interpretation. While the constitutions do clearly say what they say, it’s obvious that with every new case, every new law, every legal argument, there are new divergences from core principles and fundamental laws. It’s gotten so bad through the past century that instead of consulting the actual words of our constitutions, we now consider previous court decrees as the authoritative law.
So now, politicians assert in court and in practice, that whatever’s not specifically prohibited from politicians, is within their authority.
That is of course opposite of the whole point of constitutions.
Constitutions are to restrain politicians, not citizens.
Despots have for millennia gained power without elections, and made their own rules as they wished. The USA was supposed to be better than that.
Instead, we’re drowning in corruption. It’s been too long since there’s been any organized attempt to legitimize and govern our government by the actual words of our federal and state constitutions.
So, about now, the Indiana Election Division should receive the CAN-I candidate filing challenge I signed on July 10.
Besides the fact that it’s an obvious trick to appoint a GOP-insider/swamp incumbent for the next SOS race, there’s a legal problem with the candidacy of incumbent Secretary of State Connie Lawson. Please note, it has nothing to do with her, personally, and everything to do with corruption of our constitutional Rule of Law:
Article 6, Section 1 of the Indiana Constitution specifies that, “There shall be elected, by the voters of the state, a Secretary, an Auditor and a Treasurer of State, who shall, severally, hold their offices for four years. They shall perform such duties as may be enjoined by law; and no person shall be eligible to either (sic) of said offices, more than eight years in any period of twelve years.” – (As Amended November 3, 1970)
Now, legislators can and do make mistakes. Frequently. The word “either” is, for example, a mistake. But please note these key words and phrases:
“There shall be elected… who shall… hold their offices for four years.”
“…and no person shall be eligible to …said offices, more than eight years in any period of twelve years.”
“Shall” is a strong imperative. It is not “may hold” or “can, if the law doesn’t prohibit it, hold.”
No, it’s SHALL, as if written in stone tablets.
The word “shall” is in all the key places of “elected,” “hold,” “perform,” and “eligible.”
So, very clearly by the letter and intent of this constitutional term limit, no person shall be eligible for election to a public role they are constitutionally forbidden from performing as mandated in the letter and intent of the law.
The state will of course claim that Lawson’s first term was pro tempore; and that it therefore doesn’t count as a term of office. But Jerry Bonnet was the actual pro tempore SOS. Lawson was a full replacement for the ousted Charlie White…and Jerry Bonnet!
So, no…there is no constitutional excuse for this.
Incumbent Secretary of State Connie Lawson is constitutionally forbidden from performing the specified role in the terms clearly specified in the constitution.
She is an ineligible candidate. And the GOP is using her situation to hoodwink us.
Again.
I say no. I’m throwing a flag on this play.
But voters, as always, must choose
Freedom, IN – Many feel that our “Major Party” choices on Election Day have been getting worse and worse, while the general condition of our society and individual lives seems to be devolving toward calamity.
That’s true, of course.
But we could fix it if only we’d acknowledge the problem, admit who freely chose this, and realize who’s got the power to turn this around. The fix itself is simple enough, and mostly written-down already.
The most important three steps are:
That’s in reverse order, unfortunately; because as congressmen I could address the first two listed only after voters take a stand against the recent (since the 1970’s), self-appointed and irretrievably corrupt, “Two Party System”…by electing me!
Only voters can topple the two-party-in-name-only, crony network, which has become little more than a front, distraction, protection and marketing group for the finance and militarism elites who run the world behind the Two Party Firewall.
So before we can nullify the unjust, profligate, unconstitutional judgments, agencies, laws and actions which produced the welfare cliff, the horrific cost of healthcare, oppressive lawless bureaucracy, and of course endless war and ever-more militarization, voters must first say something to the ruling elites that they’ve not heard in a hundred years:
…NO!
The other 8th district candidates have no intention or ability to fix the mess they choose to represent. So, first, voters must vote against that corrupt monstrosity. Yes, it’s good to vote against what’s wrong. To say otherwise is a terrible misunderstanding of the whole point of elections; and that is for peaceful revolution. If they feel that they can vote for me, that’d be great. But first, voters must fire the Two Party System!
After voters fire that shot heard ‘round the world, we can talk about other reforms including:
None of the preceding is ideological, untested or even new. Most of it is already law.
It’s all in voters’ power to set things right. But first, in order to use their power, they must understand that they’ve always had it, and used it to get to where we are today. And for that to happen, they need to be better informed of their choices, and how elections have been working up to now.
Liberty or Bust!
Andrew Horning
Libertarian for 8th District US House of Representatives
Facebook www.facebook.com/HorningForCongress/
Besides the complaints about jobs, money and immigration that now seem ubiquitous on this planet, the Brexit supporters complained about the “unelected bureaucrats” in Brussels who write laws for all of Europe. This ruling cabal of commissioners was called things like, “…overpaid and arrogant, but opaque and unaccountable…”
USA wonks nodded their smug comprehension, apparently thinking that at least we elect our lawmakers on this side of the pond. At least our lawmakers can be fired.
But we don’t fire them. Nor can we; because most of our laws aren’t written by people authorized to write laws. And we didn’t elect them.
And, no, I’m not even talking about the lobbyists who write most of what Congress makes law.
You see, while the “lawmakers” in the US Congress are of course overpaid, arrogant, and almost completely corrupt, they’re practically irrelevant now.
Unelected bureaucrats in innumerable federal agencies (DOE, FDA, FCC, USDA, IRS…) and even private organizations with governing powers like “The Federal Reserve System,” make thirty times as many regulations as does the US Congress, though Article I Section I of the Constitution for the USA restricts all legislative powers to only congress. Even if counting only those regulations that affect USA citizens directly, bureaucrats wrote sixteen times as many laws as did the US Congress.
Some say the rapidly growing regulatory burden amounts to around $15K per year for every USA household. Whatever the actual cost, unregulated regulation is literally criminal, and very destructive to our prosperity, independence, opportunity and of course, freedom.
What’s worse is that these agencies are also, quite unlike our US Congress, heavily armed against us.
They have been granted legislative, judicial, and executive powers (armed with SWAT teams and military gear…the USDA has machine guns! Even the federal DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION is armed now!!!) without checks and balances, without an electoral accountability, and without any constitutional authority.
And this doesn’t even count the UN…
So,
I propose we limit lawmaking to only lawmakers, as the constitution demands.
I propose a sunset rule or constitutional amendment – a 10-year expiration date for all non-constitutionally specified agencies, laws, powers and programs to gracefully remove, or at least review for reinstatement, everything that’s not specifically written into the constitution.
I propose a Rule of Law reboot, to affirm that politicians must obey laws too…at last.
I propose we stand down our global military “whack-a-mole” machine, and concentrate on defending our homeland instead of browbeating and manipulating the world.
I propose that our government issue only sound money as constitutionally required, and allow free market trade and monetary alternatives as our constitution also demands (Amendments 9 and 10 in particular).
All this is what we’re supposed to be doing anyway. It’s what many of us think is what’s happening now.
It’s unfortunate that this sane, legal, proven sensibility would be nothing less than a revolution.
What’s fortunate is that it already belongs to us. We need only to choose it on Election Day.