The full transcript of the speech (that is auto generated by YouTube) is available at this link:
If you do not watch the entire speech you are doing yourself a great disservice. But if that is your decision, then please at least read these highlights:
... when Jefferson writes in the
Declaration of Independence that all men are
created equal and endowed by their creator
with certain inalienable rights the
reference to "by their creator" and "the inalienability of rights" is the recognition of the
natural law, that our rights come from our humanity ... our rights come from our humanity and not from the government. This is the theory of the natural law.
We fought a revolution and won the revolution and wrote the
constitution, the purpose of which was to define
the government and confine the
government. Define and confine at the same time. There was of course in Philadelphia
in 1787 a lot of disagreement over what
the Constitution was going to look like. In fact if you recall your
history and I'm sure you do the delegates
were sent to Philadelphia in 1787 not to write a constitution but to offer amendments to the Articles of Confederation.
The Commerce Clause [of the Constitution] which permits the government
the federal government the Congress to regulate commerce among the several states is the favorite hook for the Congress today and the courts today
to hang their hat on when they want to engage in expansive federal authority ... the original meaning of the Commerce Clause was to regulate the movement
of goods between merchants as that
crossed state lines stated differently to
get rid of state tariffs.
Madisonian government ... that concept is that
the federal government can only do what
is specifically authorized to it in the Constitution. Justice Scalia put a
sort of tail on that with his theory of originalism, which means that the Constitution, if it is the supreme
law the land, can't change with the
passage of time and it must mean the same
thing today as was the original public understanding of it at the time it
was ratified. If Little Jimmy [James Madison] and big
Nino [Justice Scalia] had their way then the Commerce
Clause would have its original public
meaning which was giving only to Congress
the power to regulate the movement of
goods between merchants as they cross the interstate lines.
... a famous farmer named Roscoe Filburn in an infamous [supreme court] case during World War II decided that
all the wheat in his backyard would not
be sold, it would be ground by Mrs. Filburn into flour and she would bake it
into baked goods for your family. Can that
be regulated by the federal government? Answer, yes. Because by not putting
that wheat into interstate commerce there
was theoretically an effect on
Interstate Commerce and since Congress can
regulate anything that affects interstate commerce and can regulate what
Roscoe Filburn does with his wheat in his backyard.
Woodrow Wilson turned Madisonian democracy
on its head. [in the] Madisonian [theory] the
government the federal government can only do
what it is expressly authorized to do in
the Constitution. Wilsonian the federal government can do whatever it needs
to address a national problem and
for which there is political will except that which is expressly prohibited
to it in the Constitution. So these are
really polar opposites and I'm sorry to
tell you that every president of the
United States since Woodrow Wilson no matter what the president has said, no
matter what the times required, no matter
what war was being fought, no matter how prosperous we may have been at the moment, has been a Wilsonian.
I expect that I will die, when I do, faithful to my first principles to
our first principles in my bed in my
house surrounded by people that love me. But not all of you particularly the
young people will have that luxury. Some of
you will die in a government prison
faithful to first principles and some of you
may die faithful to the first principles in
a government Town Square to the sound
of the government's trumpets blaring. When the time comes to make that horrible decision, stay faithful to the first principles or give in to the
government, you will know what to do because
freedom lies in the human heart and while it
is there, no tyranny of the majority and
no tyrant can take it away, but you must exercise, it it must do more than lie there.
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