Government Overreach Didn’t Start Today — The Founders Saw It Coming

James Madison, one of our Founding Fathers, wrote in his letters to Thomas Jefferson and others that the Bill of Rights, if passed, would eventually be used by future leaders to limit any rights that were not explicitly outlined in the text.

He eventually caved to pressure and compromised. He authored the Ninth Amendment specifically to protect all rights that were not listed in the initial bill.

Yet, the Supreme Court of the United States has almost never used this amendment to protect the rights of citizens; rather, the Court has tended to do exactly as Madison feared.

In point of fact, I would argue that even the citizens of this great country have been conditioned to nitpick individual commas in the written text, rather than looking at the broader intent of our Founders by reading the letters they wrote to each other.

A prime example of this nitpicking is the Second Amendment. Many argue that because of a comma, or the lack thereof, the Founders did not intend to guarantee your right to keep and bear arms outside of a government-regulated military force, such as the National Guard.

If we actually taught civics, and made people read the Federalist Papers, understand them, and live them, there would be no argument.

The Anti-Federalists originally feared that if rights were not explicitly listed, the government would overreach and start taking rights away immediately through legislation. The Anti-Federalists insisted on the Bill of Rights because they didn't trust the government at all.

The Federalists, on the other hand, did not want any rights listed because they felt the government would try to use them to limit the rights of the people. They felt the Constitution was a limiter on government powers and didn’t need clarification. They believed anyone with half a brain would understand that the government was given its power by the people.

Turns out the Federalists were correct about one thing: they did use the Bill of Rights against us.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you do not have a right. The powers of the Federal and State governments are limited to those outlined in the United States Constitution and your State’s Constitution. They are not the source of your rights.

Our right to assemble, our right to peace, our right to privacy, our right to property, our right to the pursuit of happiness, our right to follow a religious belief or not… These are just a few of the things that political parties have trodden upon over the past 250 years.

As for the Second Amendment argument, all you have to do is look at every State’s constitution, which must be in line with the Constitution of the United States before a state can become a member of the Union.

Wyoming’s Constitution is quite clear. Article 17, Section 1 originally read:

“The militia of the state shall consist of all able-bodied male citizens of the state between the ages of eighteen (18) and forty-five (45) years, except such as are exempted by the laws of the United States or the state.”

Even more recently, when it was ‘modernized,’ it reads:

“The militia of the state shall consist of all able-bodied qualified residents of the state, and those nonresidents who are accepted into service, between the ages of seventeen (17) and seventy (70) years; except those exempted by the law of the United States or of the state.”

So whether we are looking at the original text from 1889 that had to be accepted by the United States Congress for Wyoming to become a state, or the modern version, the intent is clear. This is not a reference to a government-controlled standing force. It is a reference to the people themselves.

The Founders were clear. Power belongs closest to the people. We must take our government back into the hands of the people. We must insist that local governance is where the power belongs, not at the State or Federal level.

"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." — 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution

When elected to the position of Natrona County Commissioner, I will, to the best of my ability, ensure that mine and the Founders’ philosophy of limited, local control is the way I do business.

I will strive to ensure that the government’s primary responsibility of protecting the citizens is not forgotten. And you will know that every vote I cast, even if you disagree with it, will be rooted in the principles I’ve described.

Cameron Savage

Candidate for Natrona County Commissioner