Today’s Citizens’ Constitutional Workshop was worth the while. Dr. Troy Kickler spoke with ease about North Carolina’s role in the birth of this nation. Clearly a classical federalist, he encouraged The Wee People to assert their rights as others in the state’s history had done. He fielded challenging questions with alacrity that showed a good grounding in pro-liberty principles. It was clear he understood the importance of a Constitution that limits powers and imposes checks and balances in a place of power. He told how human nature seeped into creating some funny scenes in history. Admirable was the way he presented information based only on records, and left it to class members to draw obvious conclusions.
Michael Sanera spoke of historical attempts to use government to create perfect societies. He told how concepts of forcing a Utopian society grabbed a toehold in the universities, that in turn trained the teachers. He was not optimistic about seeing one audience member’s dream of having the Constitution read in all classrooms coming to fruition due to the large education bureaucracy. In fact, Sanera argues this country has transitioned into an administrative state. Congressmen, seeking goodwill for re-election, pass bills that create agencies with vague authority. This in effect is a delegation of powers to unelected bureaucrats to legislate (regulate), enforce their own laws, and try challenges in their own courts. The executive branch now claims legislative powers through the presidential budget, and the judiciary does the same through activism. Sanera would like to see Supreme Court precedents “de-legitimized.” Constitutional law courses should return to teaching from the Constitution. The Constitution is irrelevant as long as those who are to be controlled by its bounds ignore it and The Wee People let them.
If you missed the workshop, future opportunities to catch it are listed here.
