The Liberty Tree Lantern

President Ronald Wilson Reagan said;

“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and in order to restore the division of governmental responsibilities between the national government and the States that was intended by the Framers of the Constitution and to ensure that the principles of federalism established by the Framers guide the Executive departments and agencies in the formulation and implementation of policies….”

Of all his accomplishments, perhaps the most profound part of the Reagan legacy — and we hope the most enduring — was President Reagan’s commitment to our nation’s Constitution and its explication of federalism, though that foundation had been neglected for most of the 20th century. With the constitutional aberrations of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society well-embedded in the nation’s collective consciousness, Reagan’s commitment to constitutionally limited government and the pre-eminence of the states in the American system envisioned by the Founders came as a much-needed shock to the system.

Issued on 26 October 1987, President Reagan’s Executive Order 12612 on federalism [http://reagan2020.com/federalism.asp] speaks directly to the point. Indicating federalism’s “fundamental principles,” Reagan wrote as crisply and cogently as Madison, Hamilton or Jay ever did: “Federalism is rooted in the knowledge that our political liberties are best assured by limiting the size and scope of the national government. … The people of the States created the national government when they delegated to it those enumerated governmental powers relating to matters beyond the competence of the individual States. … All other sovereign powers, save those expressly prohibited the States by the Constitution, are reserved to the States or to the people.”

Unlike many of his political contemporaries, Reagan understood that the fundamental premise of American society, and that society’s greatness, did not reside in, nor was it regulated by, Washington. Instead, he understood that “The people of the States are free, subject only to restrictions in the Constitution itself or in constitutionally authorized Acts of Congress, to define the moral, political, and legal character of their lives.”

Likewise, the President wrote, “In most areas of governmental concern, the States uniquely possess the constitutional authority, the resources, and the competence to discern the sentiments of the people and to govern accordingly.” Quoting Thomas Jefferson, Reagan added that the States are “the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies.”

Never known for his subtlety, Reagan concluded, “Acts of the national government — whether legislative, executive, or judicial in nature — that exceed the enumerated powers of that government under the Constitution violate the principle of federalism established by the Framers.”

Never known for his integrity, constitutional or otherwise, Bill Clinton revoked EO 12612 in 1998 and replaced it with EO 13083, which largely re-justified the excessive unconstitutional role the federal government has assumed since the time of Franklin Roosevelt.

Reagan’s EO was re-established under the current administration, and it is this publication’s ardent hope — and calculated expectation — that the principles of that Order will be seen to bear fruit in a second Bush term.

Economic Liberty

“The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people, and they knew that when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.”

In some ways, Reagan’s economic legacy is so great, so influential, that it is easily overlooked. Today, it is largely assumed by most everyone (with the exception of Fidel Castro, Kim Jong Il, and a few American university professors) that the free market is the best way known to man to produce wealth freely and, in the long term, to distribute it widely.

Article above by The Patriot Post.  (One of the most fabulous reads there is!)