“Winning” will be making the presidency and Washington, D.C., largely irrelevant to our lives.
Guest blog by Andy Hopper, co-founder of Wise County Conservatives
August 8, 2022 ~ Mar-a-Lago
With news of an unthinkable raid by America’s once-storied FBI, the eyes of even apolitical Americans were opened to the possibility that not only is our federal government not working for us, it is absolutely working against our Republic and even will target you and me as its enemies. Many of us have long felt that the main threat to our Republic is, as the founders believed, the “ambitious encroachments of the federal government.” Whether you saw this coming 20 years ago when they started patting down your grandma at the airport, 10 years ago when we realized they were recording all of our personal communications, or just days ago when a former president was raided by the FBI, we are glad you are with us ~ finally.
That said, only three days have passed, (when this was written) and many are already of the mistaken belief that our victory in this struggle will be realized by retaking the presidency in 2024. While that’s a great start and we should absolutely add “winning in 2024” to our very long “Save Our Republic” to-do list, we must nevertheless take a long, hard look at where we are and be willing to say out loud that this country—and moreover, the federal union—is not working as designed. In fact, our federal government and our union would be unrecognizable to our founders.
States Have Ceded Power to the Federal Government
At the same time, whereas our states were meant to function as independent and self-governing states held in a loose union, retaining almost all authority as if they were independent nations, they have ceded almost every single inch of that authority to the federal government. The states were meant to hold the federal government to its end of the bargain, and they have thus far failed. In order for conservatives to declare victory, we must either put the federal government back in its box or render it irrelevant.
We Must Fire the Federal Government!
As presumptive Arizona Governor Kari Lake so eloquently put it in her recent statement, “We must fire the federal government.” As conservatives, we stand for principle, first and foremost. We fight for the timeless notions of individual liberty, limited government, and self-rule. We refer to this last principle as “independence.” Each of the 50 states was always intended to be more or less independent, self-governing states that function as part of a larger union. The founders used the word “state” because in every sense to our 18th century founders, the word “state” meant “nation,” just as Great Britain referred to itself as “the State of Great Britain.”
“Winning” will not merely be beating the Democrats and taking back the White House. “Winning” will be making the presidency and Washington, D.C., largely irrelevant to our lives.
Winning starts with the governor ordering DPS to arrest federal agents unconstitutionally operating in Texas. This would include FBI or ATF agents harassing citizens or seizing their constitutionally owned firearms, or any one of the 87,000 new IRS agents seeking to extort hardworking Texans. Winning starts with our Legislature nullifying the expansive commerce clause and allowing Texas oil to flow from Texas-owned wells into Texas-based refineries and Texas-owned vehicles, all without one nod to the right of D.C. to regulate any of it. Winning starts with our governor and Legislature declaring an invasion of the southern border, arresting federal agents who provide aid and transport to invaders, and condemning federal land along the border that is being used to provide a pathway for cartels and human trafficking.
Article 1, Sections 1 and 2 of the Texas Constitution well characterize not only the proper role of government but also the limited scope of the federal government, which is the type of union our forebears actually agreed to. It is our duty to re-establish and assert our sovereignty per our own Constitution. Not doing so now is an affront to those many who gave their lives at the Alamo, at Goliad, and during the nine years that Texas stood among the nations. We are Texans. We can and should lead the way, instead of leading from behind.
Let us all commit today to do whatever it takes for Texas to shine forward as the beacon of light and liberty in our hemisphere. Only with a resolute and bold Texas can America be saved, God willing.
THE TEXAS CONSTITUTION
That the general, great and essential principles of liberty and free government may be recognized and established, we declare: Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States, and the maintenance of our free institutions and the perpetuity of the Union depend upon the preservation of the right of local self-government, unimpaired to all the States. All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit. The faith of the people of Texas stands pledged to the preservation of a republican form of government, and, subject to this limitation only, they have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient…
