Not really two different questions. Every nation has laws of some kind, so at face value every nation is a "nation of laws". The meaning behind the statement is the question here, not the face value of the phrase. When people say "we are a nation of laws" the implication is about the people and enforcement of the laws that are on the books, as if we exceptional and enforce our laws better and more honestly than every other nation.
The 10th Amendment reference regards the fact that it is virtually ignored today, and pretty much has been ignored since the beginning. Some of the deviation to the Commerce Clause is legit, much of said deviation is not. In other words, not even our political leaders and our courts follow the law as intended when/if it doesn't suit their purposes.
That explanation of your reasoning behind your statement makes a hell of a lot of sense, and actually concurs with my statement as well, at its base.
We are founded as a nation of laws and not men, however, in recent times (the last 70-80 years depending on whether you start with Roosevelt's first term or later terms in office) those laws have more and more been ignored by men to give power to those men and less power to the meaning and purpose of the law, especially the Tenth Amendment.
Although every President and Congress since the 1940's has eroded our foundation in the law with interpretations, misapplication and down right ignoring of that very law, and each President and Congress has moved us further and further away, our current President has crossed the Rubicon with his total disregard for the foundation of all of our laws, the US Constitution as a whole.
If we the people do not take back our country from the men and put it back into the realm of the law, we will get exactly what we deserve... slavery to the whims of men with no freedom or liberty for the people protected by law.
We have two simple choices, ignore the lawlessness of our current form of government and become what we are headed toward rapidly - an authoritarian tyrannical regime - or fight to get back to the Constitutional form of government where the people hold the true power.
The US House of Representatives is where the power of the people is held, and should be protected. Not the Senate and damn sure not the White House. The Senate was supposed to represent the States, the White House was supposed to be the CEO of the administration and Commander-in-Chief of the military, and the US House of Representatives is where the peoples voice, rights and freedoms are to be fiercely protected and defended.
None of these are true anymore, wherein each of these three work for toward the growth in size and power of each other, at the cost of the freedom and liberty of the average citizen. This actually started to change on May 3rd, 1912 when the Congress passed the 17th Amendment and sent it to the states for ratification, which is when the sates voluntarily gave up their power and rights to representation at the Federal level. We went further down this road when we began accepting direct democracy rather than a republican based government, giving the majority the power to deny the minority their rights granted under the Constitution. Referendums, ballot propositions and the like have been the most dangerous events threatening our law, freedom and rights that have ever been allowed to exist. The next on this evolutionary path is the direct election of the President, which we almost already have given the way many states apportion their electors to the Electoral College. We have to stop this change before it happens.
We continually hear about the scary and dangerous power of corporations and banks by the same people that are the progenitors of the all powerful and all controlling central government, wherein lies the real threat to our freedoms and rights... the ever increasing and ever more powerful centralized federal government over the people.
:rantoff:
