The Great Compromise Compromised

 

One Party Rule

The Great Compromise Compromised

The Person

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

 

            It is interesting observing the confirmation of a New Mexico native, Deb Haaland, to the position of Secretary of Interior.

            There are a number of firsts, not the least of which is the candidate is a daughter of the Laguna Pueblo. If successful, she would bring honor and respect to the second pueblo of the state in placing one of its own into that position (San Ildefonso Pueblo’s Manuel Lujan, Jr. was similarly named in 1989).

            As a candidate and the current occupant of the state’s 1^st Congressional District, Representative Haaland arguably represents the historical face of New Mexico like no other candidate. Claiming 35 generations of heritage in the land of Enchantment, her voting record mirrors the dominate reliance on government.

            Considering employees within the 15 largest employers in the state, 73% rely on taxpayer contributions while only 27% rely on private businesses.

            Further, her plank positions are antagonistic to the hard money sources that drive this state’s educational funding. Vowing to be reliant on renewable energy by 2030 may send goosebumps up and down the Rio Grande, but temblors erupt across the Permian Basin. Declaring war on oil only to be followed by similar actions against other extractive industries puts nearly $1B annual contributions of this state’s educational trust fund at risk.

            It is a direct threat to the producing economy. It ushers back the doctrine of the old world that the people were made for kings, not … kings for the people.

            One Party Rule

            Five counties in Oregon don’t know it, but they have kindred brothers and sisters in most of New Mexico aside from those in the above noted progressive Rio Grande rift colonies. Baker, Grant, Lake, Malheur, and Sherman County, Oregon have decided Portland has no right to rule, and in an increasingly number of cases, ruin their lives.

            They are claiming they have enough signatures to pursue secession.

            What they are saying and yet not verbalizing effectively, though, is that they are tired of being held in bondage without representation. What they do agree on is to secede and join Idaho in an expanded state they are referring to as Greater Idaho.

            The absence of representation is the underpinning of the debate during the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787. We should have learned that in high school American history. The powers delegated by the Constitution to the federal government were assured to be defined and few. Those that remained with the states were numerous and indefinite.

            That never really happened and certainly doesn’t exist today.

            Federalist Paper 45 speaks to the intention by setting forth the powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the People, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.

            The five counties in Oregon know that isn’t a modern truth.

            Their restatement must now read the powers reserved to the several states are now in reserved to the most dominant political party and will extend to all objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the power, the agenda, and the will of the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the Party.

            The federal government and central party rule have seized all powers both multiple and undefined. The states are merely geographic adjuncts to Washington.

There is no bicameral distinction in Washington and there hasn’t been for at least a century. Both chambers, the Senate and the House, have long been ruled by the plan advocated by Madison whereby both chambers should be seated by the Right of Suffrage which translates into the sanctioning and the transfer of the permanent power base to the population centers.

            The Great Compromise Compromised

            The miracle of the Constitution came in the compromise that assured the small states would have a permanent voice shouting from their political wilderness. Several colonies threatened to walk out and go it alone if some assurance of their rights, and, hence, the rights of their citizenry was not enshrined in protections.

            The Great Compromise was struck whereby Madison’s proportional representation of the masses would be assembled in the House, but the Senate would be represented by equally with similar representation. Only two senators would be seated not by popular vote, but by representatives of the people within the states.

            It was a check against the mobs.

            That distinction was crushed with the 17^th Amendment which transferred the election of the two senators to the masses. It created the ultimate pathway to domination of one-party and all-powerful government rule, but more specifically, it reduced the authority of the individual.

            The warning of Federalist Paper 47 has come to pass. The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of Tyranny.

            Indeed, we have arrived at that juncture.

            One Person

            There is a fascinating perspective by Joseph Story who can be found in the archives as a Constitutional Commentator.

            The lesson comes from the debate relating to the number of senators assigned to each state. It was clear that only one senator was tentative due to risk of a state being underrepresented in the case of sickness or difficulty of travel. Three senators were determined to pose another risk. There was concern that the importance of the individual would be undermined by the third person. That is hugely insightful. The Framers attempted to elevate the purity of the individual against the risks of a mob.

            The decision was two senators appointed by elders (state governments) living within local communities to protect state’s rights. That protection is gone. The five counties in Oregon recognize it and the appointment of unelected party line administrators to enforce the one-party rule assures it.

 

            Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico.