By Mike Scruggs
Category: Mike Scruggs' Column

National Self-Destruction by Appalling Dishonesty - Part 3 of 3

Carpetbagger Politics 1872 - Thomas Nast cartoon, Harper’s Weekly.
Carpetbagger Politics 1872 - Thomas Nast cartoon, Harper’s Weekly.

The 14th Amendment, passed by dubious ethical and outrageously coercive means in 1868, facilitated turning the original Constitution and the first Ten Amendments on their head by strengthening Federal power and weakening effective counterbalances to it. Since the 14th Amendment, the nation has progressed from a philosophy of decentralized and limited government to a government increasingly characterized by highly expanded and centralized powers. States’ Rights, once an essential check against excessive executive, judicial, and congressional power has been reduced to a meek whisper. Only recently, under the Trump Administration from 2017 to 2021 and the new conservative majority in the Supreme Court since then, has States’ Rights begun to reemerge as a counterbalance to Federal excesses and potential tyranny.

One immediate effect of the 14th Amendment was to further facilitate Radical Republican political dominance in the Southern States. This strongly facilitated carpetbagger economics—exploiting a defeated people for economic gain and virtue-signaling this merciless greed as a righteous cause.

Before the 14th Amendment’s expanding use, few Federal judges would have dared contemplate removing the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court building, striking down state legislation on abortion, massive and disruptive bussing of public school children far from their homes, removing Christian influences in public schools and prayer at high school athletic events, and expanding judicial manipulation into every conceivable public and private sphere.

Perhaps the federalization of American education goals has something to do with why 15-year-old high school students in the U.S. according to a Pew Research Report in 2017, ranked only 24th in Reading, 24th in Science, and 38th in Math of 71 countries taking international student assessment tests.   

For many decades Congress has been passing sweeping legislation that is clearly beyond the bounds of their enumerated powers in the Articles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, especially the 10th Amendment. The damage to freedom has been significant and cumulative.

The 14th Amendment has some positives. More attention is paid to civil rights, but its interpretation has disproportionately emphasized class civil rights rather than individual civil rights. This has come at the price of considerable loss of freedom and liberties to individuals, businesses, churches, civic, educational, and social organizations, and various spheres of local and state government. It also made us a coercive and government dependent society rather than a confident voluntary and innovative society. The net social and economic damage of all this is seldom considered, but it is by no means insignificant. Every year under the penumbra of the 14th Amendment, we progress further toward totalitarian government with little accountability or responsiveness to the governed or any concern for constitutional limits of power. It is good that the Supreme Court is beginning to give us some relief. The improvements, however, are subject to political reversal in the future.   

The history of the passage of the 14th Amendment unveils a remarkable corruption of the spirit of liberty and flagrant despotism that has been covered with decades of politically correct whitewash.  Such demonstrations of human depravity and course tyranny, though shameful, should not be covered up by a misguided sense of American patriotism. Few things are as necessary to a just society as truth. Hence a sine qua non of all genuine patriotism is a high regard for truth. Truth is always the high ground. 

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” Proverbs 28: 13, ESV.

Why the 14th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution Is Invalid

  1. Twenty-three Senators* and fifty-eight Representatives were unlawfully excluded in securing the necessary two-thirds majority to adopt the Joint Resolution.

     *(Twenty-two Senators from eleven Southern States and one from New Jersey)

These actions violated Article I.3, I.2, and V of U.S. Constitution.

   2. The joint Resolution was not submitted to the President for approval.

This violated Article I.5 of the Constitution

  1. The proposed Amendment was rejected by more than one-quarter of the States and never received the required approval of three-fourths of all States in the Union, since Ohio and New Jersey reversed their approval. Thus Article V.1 of the Constitution was violated. .
  2. The governments and legislatures of ten States that had rejected the Amendment were unlawfully removed by military force and their reinstatement made contingent on approving the 14th Amendment, violating Article IV.4 of the Constitution.
  3. The Proclamation declaring the 14th Amendment valid included five States whose lawful legislatures had been replaced by unlawful puppet legislatures and two States (Ohio and New Jersey) whose legislatures had rescinded their initial approval.

This violates Article IV.2 and V of the Constitution.

In a post-Civil War interview with former Confederate Lt. General Richard Taylor (son of President Zachary Taylor), Republican Thaddeus Stevens, the author of the 14th Amendment, called the Constitution “a worthless bit of old parchment.”

Stevens, who was the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was the most powerful man in Congress. Following the assassination of President Lincoln, he was frequently referred to as “the Boss of America.” He bore a strong enmity against the South:

“The intent of the Reconstruction Act is to work a radical reorganization in Southern institutions, habits, and manners, and to break up the foundations of their institutions.”—Thaddeus Stevens

The present January 6 Committee plans to use the 14th Amendment to block President Trump from running for President again. Besides the anti-Trump propaganda value of the present Soviet-style show trial, where the Republican minority in the House is allowed no cross-examination of witnesses and have no input on choosing witnesses, Adam Schiff, senior and most influential member of the January Committee, is already asking the Justice Department to investigate Trump. We can be sure that this will become a Democratic theme in the coming 2022

Congressional elections. Meanwhile, Schiff is maneuvering to be a future Democrat Speaker of the House.

Schiff, a Hollywood Democrat,  has a sterling record for leftist voting in the House. Not only is he proud of his 0% F rating with the NRA, but he has a 1 percent rating with a D- grade on immigration by the conservative NumbersUSA Foundation. His Planned Parenthood rating is 100%. In fact, none of the 7 Democrats on the January 6 Committee scores less than 100% support for Planned Parenthood. Schiff has a zero rating for the Family Research Council (FRC),  and the Heritage Action Committee. His two most conservative ratings are 3% for the American Conservative Union (ACU) and 5% for the Center for Security Policy (CSP).

Bennie Thompson (D) of Mississippi, the Chairman of the January 6 Committee, has a 0% F- rating on immigration, zero on CSP, 10% on ACU, 9 % on FRC, and a 5% rating on Heritage Action.  He also has a 0% F rating by the NRA, as do all of the Democrat members of the Committee.

Pete Aguilar (D) of California is in line with all the Democrats on the Committee, having no more than a 1% D- or F rating on immigration. He has a 10% on ACU and 4 percent on FRC. His Heritage Action rating is 0%, but he did receive a 32 percent with CSP in 2016.

Zoe Lofgren (D), also of California, has 0% to 5% on all the conservative ratings and perfect leftist credentials on NRA and Planned Parenthood.

Jamie Raskin (D) of Maryland is a perfect leftist with two conservative ratings, ACU and FRC, at 3% and 5% respectively.

Elaine Liura (D) of Virginia is a military veteran with the highest ACU rating of the Democrats, 14%. She also has a 4% from FRC.

Stephanie Murphy (D) of California is a perfect leftist on immigration, planned parenthood, and NRA, but she has an ACU rating of 8%, a Heritage Action rating of 5 percent, and an FRC rating of 4 percent. 

The two Republicans appointed to the Committee by Nancy Pelosi, are there by virtue of their almost uncontrollable hatred of Donald Trump.

Liz Cheney (R), the daughter of George W. Bush’s Vice President, Dick Cheney, has a primary in August 16 in which she is running about 15 points behind her Republican opponent. She is, however, getting loads of California Democrat money, and Wyoming Democrats have a campaign going to get Democrats to change their Party registration to vote for Liz Cheney in the Republican Primary. Astonishingly, Cheney is welcoming speculation that she would like to be President. Under which Party banner? Cheney has a 71% B rating on immigration and 71 percent on ACU. She is zero on Planned Parenthood, 92% on NRA, 77% on Heritage Action, and 95% on FRC. She is prone to virtue-signaling on any issue or controversy concerning race.

Adam Kinzinger (R) from Illinois has a 68% B- on immigration, 42 percent on ACU, only 17% on NRA, 95% on CSP, 45% on Heritage Action, and 71 percent on FRC. He is no true friend of Planned Parenthood, with only a 25 percent rating.

All 9 members of the Committee are, however, dedicated enemies of Donald Trump. Just like the leaders pushing the 14th Amendment from 1866 to 1868, they seem to have no moral compass regarding due process or the truth, although they are constantly calling Trump a liar.

In 1868,  General Richard Taylor summed up the political situation then:

“Greed of office, curse of democracies, will impel demagogues to grovel deeper and deeper in the mire in pursuit of ignorant votes.”

General Taylor’s words still apply today, and one of the strongest indicators is the dishonest Kangaroo Court being conducted by the January 6 Committee. This has recently been topped only by naming a $433 billion climate spending swindle and taxing bill “the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.”  The Penn Wharton School of Economics says it will raise taxes but will have minimal impact on inflation. The title is thus an outrageous lie. Knowing how Democrat spending always goes, I can confidently forecast the bill will result in more inflation, painful taxes on businesses, and corruption. Our county is being destroyed by appalling dishonesty, unconscionable lies, and moral cowardice.

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