Over the past 80 years, the country has “deviated dangerously” from what was once an obvious distinction between federal and state power, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah said. In the new series “Fox Nation 101: The Constitution” Lee took viewers through the history and significance of America’s founding documents, highlighting the principles and core values that have shifted over the nation’s history. The “dangerous” shift began in the 1930’s, Lee said, as the country, paralyzed by the Great Depression turned toward the federal government, thereby increasing its economic role significantly. “People understandably wanted solutions to the Great Depression. It’s understandable why some people approach this from the mistaken viewpoint that it was appropriate for the federal government to do everything that it did during the New Deal era,” Lee explained. But, he went on, “I think that planted some seeds that have proven dangerous over time. A lot of it resulted in our gradual neglect of these core constitutional protections of federalism and separation of powers.” Until the enactment of the New Deal, the country “more or less respected the difference between federal power and state power,” Lee said. “And we more or less recognized and respected the difference between legislative, executive and judicial power. That started to fray during the New Deal era, when we started pulling more and more responsibilities of government away from the American people and to Washington, D.C. “This, in turn, has created a lot of other problems because when Congress found itself all of a sudden having all this power, Congress realized that it couldn’t make that much law,” the senator added. Prior to that time, a law had to be passed in the House of Representatives, later passed in the Senate, and then submitted to the President of the United States for signature or veto, Lee explained. “If the President vetoes, it and it doesn’t become law unless two-thirds of both houses override that veto,” he said, adding “We’ve deviated dangerously from that formula over the last 80 years.” Click here to watch this Fox Nation 101 series, and to sign up.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is exactly right.  We really need to get back to basics and teach American civics.  If more Americans actually knew the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, we wouldn’t be having many of the issues we’re having today.  As it relates to what Sen. Lee is talking about here.. the particular Amendment that comes to mind is the 10th Amendment to the Constitution which states, ” The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  In other words..  If the Constitution doesn’t specify that a function belongs to the federal government, then the federal government has NO authority in that area, and those powers/functions belong to the states.  That is the one Amendment to the Constitution in our great Bill of Rights that Congress routinely violates and ignores and nobody says anything.  IF we actually adhered to that amendment, we wouldn’t have a U.S. Dept of Education and a slew of other cabinet-level agencies.  Ironically, ever since Pres. Jimmy Carter (D) created the U.S. Dept of Education as a payoff to the teachers unions who helped get him elected, education in this country has tanked.  Again, if we followed the rulebook (i.e. the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights), we’d be doing MUCH better.  And, if more Americans knew these founding documents, and were taught actual American civics, we would be throwing a LOT of the bums in Washington D.C. out on their butts in the next election.  We recommend the following book:  “The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History” by Dr. Thomas E. Woods, which you can get in paperback on Amazon.com for under $20.  Great read!!