Earning widespread applause from activists, analysts, and Tea Party groups nationwide, state lawmakers in the Virginia House of Delegates passed several important resolutions this week on issues that have been gaining increasing prominence in recent years. The measures, which mostly passed with broad support, deal with everything from restraining an out-of-control federal government and United Nations to ensuring that Virginians are protected in the event of a collapse of the increasingly unstable Federal Reserve fiat dollar system.
Of course, Virginia is not alone in its efforts to protect citizens and their rights. In recent years, dozens of states have passed similar laws and resolutions on these issues. Alabama, for example, in an effort to defend private property rights and due process, completely banned the UN’s “sustainable development” plot known as Agenda 21 last year. Utah, meanwhile, passed a law making gold and silver legal tender within the state, becoming a leader in the growing nationwide movement for sound money.
More than a few state governments have also recently nullified unconstitutional federal usurpations by relying on the U.S. Constitution’s Tenth Amendment, which reserves to the states and the people all powers not delegated to the U.S. government. Everything from unconstitutional federal drug laws and indefinite military detention without trial to infringements on gun rights and national ID cards have been targeted by states in recent years.
Now, lawmakers in Virginia are taking center stage. One of the most widely celebrated measures adopted this week slams the United Nations’ so-called “sustainability” scheme known as UN Agenda 21. The controversial global plan, promoted by a broad coalition ranging from Big Business interests to ruthless communist despots, calls for a dramatic transformation of human civilization, gradual elimination of private property rights, increasing government control over the economy, empowering of the UN at the expense of national sovereignty, and much more.
“United Nations Agenda 21, a radical plan of purported ‘sustainable development,’ envisions the American way of life of private property ownership, single-family homes, and individual freedoms as destructive to the environment,” notes the Virginia resolution, approved by an almost two-to-one margin in the House. The measure also points out that the UN scheme calls for redistribution of wealth and the erosion of American sovereignty.
As such, if the resolution passes in the state Senate, the Virginia General Assembly resolves to “recognize the need to oppose United Nations Agenda 21 due to its radical plan of purported ‘sustainable development,’ and … recognize the policy’s infringement on the American way of life and individual freedoms and ability to erode American sovereignty.” Upon approval in the Virginia Senate, the resolution, similar to others adopted in states such as Kansas and Tennessee, will be forwarded to various state, federal, and UN officials.
Another bill adopted by the state House this week by a two-to-one margin would create and fund a commission to study the effects of a potential collapse of the increasingly unstable Federal Reserve System’s U.S. dollar, along with possible ways to deal with the fallout. The committee would meet four times over the year and “consider recommendations for legislation, with respect to the need, means and schedule for establishing a metallic-based monetary unit to serve as a contingency currency for the Commonwealth.”
Republican Delegate Bob Marshall, who introduced the popular bill, told The New American that the short-term goal of the proposed law was to protect Virginians from the effects of a potential cyber-attack on the financial system. Such attacks have become increasingly frequent — some apparently conducted by foreign powers — and could result in disastrous consequences if, for instance, the banking system were to go down and leave credit and debit cards useless.
Longer term, however, there are other considerations. “If there are competing currencies that are not subject to inflation, consumers may decide to use those instead of Federal Reserve notes,” Marshall said in an interview. “We want to do this within constitutional parameters, but the possibility … of inflation or super-inflation is real, and I just want to have a plan B if this happens.”
As many economists and even state legislatures have been warning, with the privately owned central bank inflating the dollar away at unprecedented rates, contingency plans are urgent. “The need to establish a sound money unit was deemed so essential for assuring the success of the United States that Thomas Jefferson personally assumed the task of defining the dollar as a fixed standard of value,” the Virginia bill explains. “Our nation’s most fundamental principles — equal rights, rule of law, private property rights, individual liberty — still require a dependable dollar to be meaningfully preserved.”
Numerous other states have adopted or are considering similar legislation — especially as the shadowy Federal Reserve goes further off the rails, printing wild sums of currency and handing out trillions to its banker cronies and owners with virtually no oversight from Congress. If and when the fiat dollar finally collapses — and growing numbers of economists, even among the “mainstream,” fear that time may coming soon — state lawmakers want to be ready.
“Unprecedented monetary policy actions recently taken by the Federal Reserve through activist intervention in banking and credit markets, including massive purchases of federal debt, have raised concern over the risk of dollar debasement and prompted inquiries into whether a metallic basis for United States currency might engender a more stable money unit consistent with limited government,” explains the legislation. The bill also points to the U.S. Constitution, which says that “no state shall make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.”
Delegate Marshall, a leading liberty-minded lawmaker in Virginia with broad support from Tea Party groups and conservative activists, was glad his important legislation finally progressed. “I’m very encouraged that this bill did get through the House of Delegates,” he explained, adding that the legislation had never made it out of committee before. Whether it will be approved by the state Senate, however, could not be predicted at this point, Marshall added.
Still, analysts praised the measure and the foresight shown by Virginia lawmakers in approving the bill. “It’s starting to look like Virginia could yet emerge in a leading role among the states in respect of monetary reform,” noted an editorial in the New York Sun applauding the effort. “By our lights this is another area — like public service unions, spending and tax reduction, entitlement reform, eminent domain protection, and vouchsafing the right to keep and bear arms — where the states are leading the reform effort in the country. Call it the miracle of federalism.”
A third measure overwhelmingly approved in the Virginia House, and widely praised by activists from across the political spectrum, specifically deals with federalism. Citing the U.S. Constitution’s Tenth Amendment as a bulwark against federal overreach, the legislation reaffirms Virginia’s rights and the rights of citizens to be free from unconstitutional federal lawlessness and tyranny.
“The United States Constitution was written under a principle referred to as a ‘positive grant’ — that the federal government is authorized to exercise only those powers that are specifically given to it by the Constitution,” the resolution explains. “Virginia, as well as all other states, has seen a dramatic shift in power to the federal government that was never contemplated by the Founders and that has encroached upon the constitutional prerogatives of the states.”
The measure goes on to criticize the “continuing aggregation of power by the federal government at the expense of the prerogatives and sovereignty of the states,” which, of course, “is accompanied by huge federal spending programs that burden the taxpayers of the states.” The corresponding loss of rights and prosperity is “further exacerbated by federal government overtaxation, overregulation, and overspending.”
As such, if the state Senate agrees, “the General Assembly is compelled to speak forthrightly for restoring the Bill of Rights in the face of a continuing assault on the rights of the people and the states,” the measure explains. Upon approval by a majority of state senators, Virginia officials at the state and federal levels must “reaffirm Virginia’s rights and the rights of its citizens under the 10th amendment of the United States Constitution” at “every opportunity,” the resolution concludes.
The federal government, of course, is defying the Constitution more and more brazenly every single day. Most recently this was illustrated by the Obama administration’s assertion that it can murder Americans anywhere in the world via drone attacks using “secret” justifications. Then there is the ongoing push for further unconstitutional infringements on the right to keep and bear arms, with the president even claiming the authority to impose some of his agenda by “executive order.”
Meanwhile, the federal government, working with some state and local officials, continues to implement elements of UN Agenda 21 despite the deeply controversial agreement never having been ratified by the U.S. Senate, as required by the Constitution. At the same time, the out-of-control, privately owned Federal Reserve is creating trillions of dollars out of thin air and charging impossible-to-pay interest on it, putting America’s fiat currency on the verge of total implosion, according to many respected economists.
In the face of these increasingly serious issues, however, state lawmakers all across America are taking action. Over a dozen states, for example, are considering legislation to nullify unconstitutional gun control. Colorado and Washington State just nullified federal marijuana prohibition. And many others either have or are working on laws to protect state sovereignty from Washington, D.C., and even to promote sound money.
So, while the federal government and its privately owned central bank partner may be going off the rails, activists from across the political spectrum remain hopeful that their state and local officials will continue to take action to defend their rights. The Obama administration and its allies in the increasingly discredited establishment press may not like it, but the national trend toward restoring liberty and self-government at the state level using lawful means is accelerating quickly.
Photo of Virginia State Capitol, Richmond, Virginia
Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, politics, and more. He can be reached at [email protected].
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