Supreme Court Delivers False Hope

Supreme Court Delivers False Hope

By Kimberly Fletcher

It’s hard to be anything but disappointed at the decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court this week.  I think by now most of us see the writing on the wall.  Liberty hangs in the balance.  We’ve tried tipping the scale.  We rallied on Washington; we circulated petitions, called our legislators and shouted until we were hoarse.  And when that fell on deaf ears, we placed all our hope on the U.S. Supreme Court.  So now where do we go?  The email flurry among my fellow Tea Party leaders suggests looking to the elections.  I definitely agree that is a good place to focus our attentions but I don’t believe that it is where we should hang our hope.

I’ve been involved in the political “game” a long time.  I have worked on several campaigns and public policy issues, testified on bills, written congressional resolutions, met with legislators on various issues and worked on three presidential campaigns.  I have been around the block long enough to know that putting your hope in Washington is a one-way ticket to severe depression. 

I’m not saying this election isn’t important.  Every election is important from school board to the president.  But in the grand scheme of things, an election is only as good as the people who are doing the electing.  Maybe a change of men will stop Obamacare.  I hope so.  But even if it does, what have we really done? 

Let’s be honest.  We’re only treading water at this point and we’re sinking fast.  A friend of mine teaches elementary school at Schofield Army base in Hawaii.  The students aren’t required to pledge the flag.  In most of the classes they don’t.  And when they do, the children grumble and complain and want to know why they have to do it.  The parents of these students are the men and women who put their very lives on the line for that flag and everything it stands for.  If their children have no respect or appreciation for it, what hope can we possibly have of sustaining liberty? 

We face an onslaught of tyranny and oppression.  Maybe a change of men will stop this particular tyranny this particular time, but it will rear its ugly head again.  And who will be there to stop it—a nation of children who grew up complaining because they had to pledge the flag?  I don’t think so.

We can look to this election for a short-term fix, but if we are looking for hope that will bring about real change with lasting results, that will sustain liberty, we need to stop looking at Washington and start looking at our homes.  That is where we will find the hope of America.  We can’t expect anything to change until we first change our own hearts.

We have the power to turn this whole thing around.  We can keep treading water hoping it will work out in the end or we can do things that will make a real difference.  We have the power to cut the purse strings of Congress and make the federal government come begging the states for money instead of the other way around.  Repeal the 16^th Amendment and that’s exactly what will happen. 

We have the power to strip the senate of its tyrannical control over the states.  Repeal the 17^th Amendment and our Senators will be subject to the states instead of the Senate ruling over them. 

If the States still appointed their U.S. Senators instead of the people electing them, we wouldn’t have had to march to Washington.  We’d just march up to our Statehouse; or better yet, stop by the house of our State Representative who lives ten minutes down the road.  If we didn’t have the 17^th Amendment, we wouldn’t have had all those states filing law suits against their own Senators—the men and women who are supposed to be protecting them from that kind of tyranny.  If we didn’t have the 16^th and 17^th Amendments we wouldn’t have Obamacare. 

Our Founders knew what they were doing when they wrote the Constitution.  All our “fixing” and second guessing has really mucked things up.  It took a hundred years to get us where we are and it is absurdly naive to think that one Supreme Court decision or one presidential election will make it all right. 

What’s wrong with America can’t be fixed by government, taxes, laws, or a president.  There is, however, a sure solution to the problems facing our nation and it begins at home.  We need to grow stronger citizens—citizens who cannot be oppressed; who are capable of tackling tough challenges; who are still in love with liberty and know its cost.  We need to know who we are as a people, know our rights, and our responsibilities, and rise up to be what we were always meant to be—a free people!

Maybe we aren’t there yet.  Maybe we aren’t the ones ready to do something that will really make a difference like repealing Amendments.  Maybe we aren’t ready to make the sacrifices needed.  But if we foster liberty in the hearts of our children today, there is hope, and we can create a strong nation capable of sustaining of freedom. 

Maybe we aren’t the generation that will win this war.  But if we lay a firm foundation of liberty in the hearts of our children, they will.   

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Kimberly Fletcher is the author of WOMEN: America’s Last Best Hope and the president of HomeMakers for America Inc. The views in this article are solely of the author and not representative of HomeMakers for America Inc.  For more information or to contact Kimberly visit www.kimberlyfletcher.com or www.homemakersforamerica.com