Greetings, everyone! Last night I had the real pleasure of speaking to the Turning Point USA Chapter of the University of Texas at Dallas. Now, I enjoy going on college and university campuses, but sometimes it can get a little cheeky. Take for instance my trip earlier this year to the University of Buffalo, where I had to be escorted off the campus by police . . . because of radical Black students. I found it rather interesting that once upon a time Blacks had to be escorted onto high school, college, and university campuses because of white students. Now, I had to be safeguarded from Black students, who, in turn, threatened and chased down white students. Hmm, I do not think that made any headlines in mainstream media outlets. Of course, many of you, especially young students, saw the interaction I had with a young Black female at Northwestern University when she asked if I identified as Black.

There have been other interactions on college campuses — Gonzaga, St. Louis University, Texas Christian University to name a few. So I am always mentally prepared to engage. But, the event at UTD was very refreshing. The topic was the Constitution, and the students — a diverse audience — was attentive and asked great questions. Standing out was a young Hindu student . . . he was seriously knowledgeable about our rule of law, and will get his US citizenship in ten days. Another was a young Black female student who is a conservative from Houston and confided in me that her parents threatened to put her out for not drinking the leftist, Democrat, Kool-aid. One would think that parents would be proud of their child being an independent thinker and able to reason for themselves, not just follow blindly.

The one student that struck me the most was a fella who came up at the end of the event and said, “Sir, thanks for discussing the Tenth Amendment, we need more people to do so.” How astonishing and serious  props to him as he was spot on. We must restore the right and true constitutional relationship of federalism for our Constitutional Republic.

I had presented that we must read Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution which enumerates the 17 duties, responsibilities, jurisdictions, powers, and purview of the federal government. The Constitution is a restraining document regarding the powers of the federal government. But, in the past 235 years, and mostly in the last 60 years, we have witnessed an incredible, unconstitutional, expansion of federal powers. This is why the Founding Fathers wrote the Tenth Amendment, the last of our first ten amendments to the US Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights. The Tenth Amendment succinctly states, “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.”

Federalism is honoring that prescribed constitutional relationship. Remember, America is not a democracy, it is a Constitutional Republic. Sadly, we must keep hammering that point home. Even in the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, Article VI, Clause 2, it is clear that the supremacy of the federal government over the State is only applicable when the federal government (i.e. United States) is acting “pursuant thereof” to the Constitution. This is why we hear of the concept of “constitutional nullification,” a tool that States must invoke when the federal government is acting outside of their enumerated, delegated, constitutional powers. Ya know, like threatening to cut off school lunch programs if school districts do not adopt the LGBTQ and gender dysphoria ideological agenda. Or seeking to force States, actually bribing them, with funding to support programs, as we are facing with Obamacare Medicaid expansion. And, I have yet to see in the Constitution the enumerated power to the Executive Branch, Article II of the Constitution, to mandate citizens get any shot in their body nor grant anyone reprieve from a private contractual financial obligation to be paid by the American taxpayers.

Yes, we need more discussions about the Tenth Amendment. Yes, we need to restore the constitutional relationship between the federal government, the States, and the People. After all, the preamble of the Constitution begins with “We the People” . . . not da government. Our Declaration of Independence firmly asserts that government exists only by the consent of the governed, We the People.

The problem? Sadly, the government and politicians have done a doggone great job in making more Americans dependent upon them, and not themselves. What is the result? When I was born in 1961, the debt of the United States was $289 billion. Fifty years later, when I was sworn in as a member of the US House of Representatives in 2011, the debt was $14 trillion. Now, ten years later, the debt of the United States has eclipsed $31 trillion. We the People must restore a level of maturity that realizes we need Statesmen who govern and lead, not politicians who rule and give us what we think we want.

Steadfast and Loyal.