Let’s start with a quiz. In our constitutional Republic (attention Democrats/RINOS: we’re not a “democracy”), what is the most powerful branch of government? Congress? The Supreme Court? The presidency?

Tell you what, go research that and we’ll come back to that question shortly. But first, let’s examine why the answer matters so much to our future liberty.

Recently, the inhabitants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue rolled out new Title IX guidelines, aiming to overrule good law coming out of state legislatures that protect girls’ sports—or, to be more precise, ensure that cross-dressing boys don’t destroy the right of biological females to compete against other biological females.

Moms for Liberty summed up the situation well:

These new rules come just days after a U.S. district judge halted a new Tennessee law that banned drag shows with minors in attendance. Just days before that, a federal judge struck down Missouri’s new Second Amendment Preservation Act, which prevented the enforcement of unconstitutional gun laws in the state.

Last November, a federal judge halted Florida’s “Individual Freedom Act,” which banned teaching critical race theory in publicly funded Florida schools. That same month, another federal judge blocked the use of Title 42 to quickly expel invaders back to Mexico. And last August, a federal judge struck down Texas Senate Bill 1111, which requires voters who register with a P.O. box to provide proof of a home address in the state.

These egregious transgressions represent a mere sampling of the increasingly despotic federal government that daily sacrifices the last vestiges of the authority of the states at the altar of centralized authority. The justification given for these ridiculous overreaches usually relies on some combination of the “Supremacy Clause” and the “Commerce Clause,” always assuming the veracity of the “Incorporation Doctrine,” which has had the effect of pillaging the Ninth and 10th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The Ninth Amendment, now nearly forgotten, was intended to alleviate the concerns of our Founders that the few enumerated rights listed in the U.S. Bill of Rights would have the effect of limiting the rights of the states and the people. This amendment thus recognized the supremacy of the Bills of Rights that were maintained by the individual states. Thus, if you are an ardent original-intent constitutionalist who seeks an enumeration of rights, you would start not with the U.S. Bill of Rights, but the Texas Bill of Rights.

Did you learn this in school? Probably not.

Just as the Ninth Amendment protects the rights not listed in the U.S. Bill of Rights, the 10th Amendment protects the powers not delegated to the federal government by the states. James Madison explained, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

Our Founders expected the federal government to operate within very well-defined parameters, exercising very few powers. They expected the federal Bill of Rights to be almost redundant, with the states themselves enumerating a much greater set of rights and, conversely, the Founders expected the states to retain almost all powers that any other nation on earth would exercise. This is why our Founders did not call the individual principalities that made the Union “provinces” or “territories.” They called them states, which in 18th century parlance was synonymous with the word “nation.” Indeed, in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Jefferson referred to our adversary as the “State of Great Britain.”

If you’ve hung with me this far, by all means, let’s press a little bit deeper. In Federalist #39, Madison explains how the central federal government was to be created from this network of individual nations. Madison explains that because the states (not the people themselves) created the Constitution, the creation of the federal government was not a national act, but a federal act because it relied upon the unanimous consent of each state and not upon the majority vote of the people themselves. “Each state in ratifying the constitution, is considered as a sovereign body independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation then the new constitution will, if established, be a federal and not a national constitution.”

Let that sink in. Madison is saying that the states are nations because they each exist by the consent of the people. The United States is a federal Union because it exists by the consent of the states. But if the people didn’t personally vote to ratify the Constitution, then how did the states agree to the Constitution in the first place?

The state legislatures agreed to the Constitution. By unanimous and voluntary consent, the state legislatures created the federal government. But let’s return to our original question. What is the most powerful branch of government in our American system?

The state Legislature.

If you’re not yet convinced, read the words of the ardent Federalist Alexander Hamilton in Federalist #26:

…the state Legislatures, who will always be not only vigilant but suspicious and jealous guardians of the rights of the citizens, against incroachments from the Federal government, will constantly have their attention awake to the conduct of the national rulers and will be ready enough, if any thing improper appears, to sound the alarm to the people and not only to be the VOICE but if necessary the ARM of their discontent.

Nearly every Texan would agree with the following statement: “Texas will save the free world.” We know it to be true because God has put it on the heart of every Texan, from 1836 until now, to embody the fearless spirit of a few men who would not surrender, regardless of their own personal risk. There is a line that is drawn through history from that pivotal year when Texas wrested its freedom from a tyrant until today, which charts the trajectory of Texas’ destiny to be the last beacon of hope and to save the Western world.

Today, the capitol of our Union of States is the biggest advocate for the march toward globalism and a radical Marxist agenda. Washington, D.C., spends our hard-earned tax money to split our nation along racial and cultural boundaries, weaponizes federal agencies against those who oppose it, and indoctrinates our children to reject the nuclear family and American exceptionalism. Our country simultaneously gives tens, even hundreds, of billions of dollars a year to protect the borders of foreign nations, while perpetrating and facilitating an invasion of its own southern border. In Texas, every month that passes brings another 250,000 invaders over our border with the full support of the federal government. At the same time, Washington, D.C., seeks to disarm us and steal fair elections away from the control of the sovereign states. Lenin himself would be proud to see the weaponization of the federal government against our constitutional rights.

The Union is not operating as designed. Our country is in distress. But hope is not lost.

In the face of a radicalized federal government, pushing woke, communist, and even globalist agenda down the throats of the sovereign states, usurping powers not delegated and trampling the protected rights of their citizens, to whom should we look to stand up to this blatant power grab?

According to our Founders, it is the duty of our state Legislature, which has the responsibility and the authority to refute the false and unconstitutional assertions of federal power at the expense of our beloved Texas. At this dark juncture in our history, Texans require our Legislature not just to pass solid legislation that protects the rights of Texans and our way of life, but to tenaciously stand up for the sovereign powers of Texas, bought by the blood of Texas patriots.

Whereas so many in our state government erroneously look to federal courts as the supreme arbiter of our rights, we should instead expect our Texas Legislature to be the VOICE that sounds the alarm and the ARM that takes historic measures to protect our state from the ambitious encroachments of the federal government at the expense of our state and our people. In 1820, Thomas Jefferson affirmed that it is this “voice of the people” which constitutes the ultimate arbiter of the Constitution, rather than the courts. “You seem to consider the judges the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy… The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal… I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves.”

Texas should take its rightful place as the leader of the charge to put the federal government back in its small box. Texans know that it is their job to save the free world. Today, it should be crystal clear to every Texan that “fixing Washington” will not be effected from the Oval Office, but instead from a building in Austin, Texas, crowned with a pink dome standing atop a seal with the words “Republic of Texas.”

In 1776, and later in 1836, our forefathers of America and Texas voluntarily signed their names to Declarations of Independence that would ensure that their home states would be free, not forever subjugated by a far-off central power. Our Founders understood that freedom must be preserved at any cost. Their names scratched in ink signified more than a signature on a piece of paper. It was a tangible decision to fight for freedom despite the fear of losing everything. They knew their choice could lead to the destruction of their families and even death. Their courage preserved our freedom hundreds of years later. Today, with our liberties and those of our posterity at stake, what steps will we take to restore the type of Republic that our ancestors fought to establish? Decades from now, what will our grandchildren say of our legacy?

This is a commentary published with the author’s permission. If you wish to submit a commentary to Texas Scorecard, please submit your article to submission@texasscorecard.com

Andy Hopper

Andy Hopper is a co-founder of Wise County Conservatives, serves as a warrant officer in the Texas State Guard, and has worked in the private sector and defense industry as a software engineer for the last 24 years.

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