Coalition for a Conservative Majority – Phoenix Chapter
Date: May 11, 2009 Time: 7:00pm
Location: American Italian Club, 7509 N 12th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85020
General Meeting Minutes
Opening: Pledge of Allegiance & Opening Prayer
Today’s meeting focused on the need to become educated on the U.S. Constitution and our government – its history, its practices and its current state of affairs. Phoenix Chapter CCM’s president, Robert Zuluaga, hosted the meeting and led the discussion which was the beginning of our Boot Camp into brushing up on and further understanding these concepts.
Robert outlined the mission of the CCM and stated this chapter’s executive committee is focused on meetings and discussions with our Arizona state legislators. The analogy of the starfish and the spider was used to illustrate differences in organizational structure. A starfish cut in half yields two starfish. A spider cut in half yields a dead spider. When Cortez conquered the Aztecs and the Incas he only had to cut off the head, kill their respective leaders, in order to subdue and defeat the people. No such strategy would work against the Native American tribes because they did not have a centralized head of state structure like the Aztecs and the Incas and thus did not succumb to the same fate by the Spanish.
We learned the founding fathers incorporated a de-centralized structure for the U.S. government when they created the Constitution. The 180 years from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to the Constitutional Convention of 1887 served our founders well as many forms of governing had been tried and failed. When Jamestown and later Plymouth Rock in 1620 were founded, they were sent forth with a charter that no one was to own private property or to be in charge of the produce of their own labor, i.e., no self-determination. They were to be communal entities-everyone having a share in the production and the outcome of everyone else’s labor and efforts. This early form of communism failed miserably and may have been the downfall of Jamestown and certainly was the near downfall of Plymouth Rock.
William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Rock, realized the error of this centrally planned economy and government. In order to save the struggling colony, Bradford divided the land into private property parcels and instructed the pilgrims to produce or perish. This recognition of human nature tied to a sense of survival and prosperity and ultimately self-determination unleashed human innovation and creativity not seen in human history in the past 5000 years.
Robert introduced us to a book and a course created by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, NCCS, which is titled The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World. It is a book supported by a lecture series on DVD and a study guide. We watched three video clips highlighting some of this program taught by Earl Taylor, Jr. We learned that the federal government was limited in its creation and purpose while the majority of power and governance was left with the states and the individuals living in those states. We begin to understand how far our current government deviates from the founder’s intent.
A significant turning point occurred in 1936 when FDR successfully bullied the Supreme Court to find the constitutionality in his New Deal legislation. The federal government gained massive new powers to intrude in the economy and every facet of our lives that it had not previously had. This was accomplished by Supreme Court’s expansion of scope of the Constitution’s General Welfare Clause. This set forth a cascade of laws and legislation since that allows the federal government to expand greatly beyond its enumerated limited constitutional duties and responsibilities.
We watched a very interesting video presentation by Ken Bennett, Arizona’s current Secretary of State. Mr. Bennett explained how the state budget process works and where the money comes from. It was eye opening to see how much money is spent on education and how much of the budget is consumed by this funding. It was also amazing to find out how much of the money which comes into the state coffers comes from the federal government vs. locally. Most of this money is already designated to specific agencies and/or programs and leaves the state legislature little or no control over how this money is spent. Mr. Bennett’s presentation also discussed how we got into our current budget crisis and what shortfalls in revenues we face at this point in time.
We were given a homework assignment by CCM’s secretary, Ted Naekel. Ted provided us with a handout titled Restoring the “General” to the General Welfare Clause by John C. Eastman. Ted voiced the need for our states to reassert their Tenth Amendment rights.