TEA Parties Are About States' Rights

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: There has been a lot of talk lately about the TEA Parties, what they are and what they represent. There has even been talk about them forming their own third party. Let me state here definitively that the TEA Parties are not about any one candidate, or any one political party, or any one demographic. The TEA Parties are essentially about states' rights. They are both a protest and a statement that Americans are "Taxed Enough Already" (TEA) and are sick and tired of an ever expansive federal government, which knows no limits, spends too much and has mortgaged the future of our children and grandchildren with a massive federal debt which we will never be able to pay off.

States' rights are outlined by the ninth and tenth amendments of the U.S. CONSTITUTION...

ARTICLE IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

ARTICLE X
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.

TEA Party participants agree the federal government has overstepped these Constitutional restraints for a very long time, and it is now time to return many powers, previously seized by the fed, back to the states. The principle of TEA Party governance is not "anarchy" is some on the Left would have you believe, nor is it "the government that governs least governs best," as some Right-wing talk show radio hosts would have you believe. Rather, the principle of the TEA Party movement is simply "the government that governs best, governs close to home." In other words states' rights.

So when you see those yellow flags at TEA Parties across the nation, please understand what they're about. They're about bringing government back home, to the states, which have proved to exercise far more fiscal responsibility over the last century than the federal government.

For the record 'The Catholic Knight' supports the TEA Party movement, insofar as TEA Parties remain peaceful and family-friendly demonstrations. This is because the underlying TEA Party message is virtually identical to the Principle of Subsidiarity taught by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Principle of Subsidiarity is the "hinge" upon which the rest of Catholic Social Justice turns. If you believe in Catholic Social Justice, then you must believe in Subsidiarity, and if you're a Catholic American who believes in Subsidiarity, then you are a supporter of the TEA Party movement, whether you realize it or not.