“Folks used to pray for rain. Now they just call Washington…” Sadly, this type of thinking is endemic among our society. Something bad happens, the problem is identified and we give it over to the Federal Government for resolution. Sounds simple enough, don’t you think?

But that is not how the national government was designed to work. The Constitution was specifically drafted so that a very limited number of stated powers would be granted to the federal government.

You see, it was understood among the people of this fledgling country that the greatest threat to the people’s freedoms came not from beyond our borders, but rather from our very own government. And so a combination of states insisted on the insertion of a Bill of Rights to the Constitution in order to protect the sacred liberty these People had just won from Britain. These rights were capped off by one of the most central, and also most commonly usurped, amendments to the Constitution: the 10th Amendment.

This amendment 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.” Today we stand at the dawn of a new awakening, a new opportunity if you will. Although we have come to believe that there are only two sides to any political argument – Republican and Democrat – in more recent years we have seen the lines between the two factions are bleeding into each other.

Here in Texas, the Congressional District 22 race has become a contest between Libertarian Candidate, Bob Smither, and Democrat, Nick Lampson. For perhaps the first time in the district’s history, we are provided the opportunity to look at core issues and not simply party jargon.

Bob Smither will work assiduously as our Congressman to reduce big government and, thereby big taxation! He will labor to renew the founder’s basis for constitutional government by allowing the People and their respective states to not only enjoy greater freedom, but greater control over their own lives and liberties. He will do so through practicing a policy of not being a “spendthrift” politician.

I challenge each of you to take responsibility as a voter and to seriously do your homework. When the “founding fathers” structured the new government they had no idea as to whether their work would be fruitful. And to that same question, unfamiliarity with the Libertarian Party and its principles should not dissuade you from giving its platform and its candidates an intense look.

Texas has always delineated itself as a panacea for republican values, willing to maintain an unyielding struggle to secure those beliefs. Is not the time at hand for Texans to take a stand for the People as well as the State? Isn’t it now time for us to move the nation towards a true republic, and thereby a true America? We all must be willing to make that consideration; if you’re reading this, you may be the “stuff” that Libertarians are made of!

Candace Sessums
Sugar Land, Texas

But that is not how the national government was designed to work. The Constitution was specifically drafted so that a very limited number of stated powers would be granted to the federal government.

Candace Sessums
Sugar Land, Texas