By Brian Roberts
Article 3 in Series, Restoring Freedom: An Entrepreneur’s Perspective
part 1, part 2
We must bring our revolutionary product of individual freedom to market, and soon; otherwise servitude, Washington D.C.’s product of choice will monopolize and we will see out market share for freedom disappear and our great experiment in self-government fail.
Crossing the Chasm, a book focused on bringing technology products to market, presents an analogy based on World War II Europe. After Hitler took control of Europe, the Allies were left without a front to counter Axis aggression. At the time many considered Europe lost. The Allies, faced with an impossible task, developed a strategy to liberate Europe. That’s what we need: a strategy to liberate freedom itself.
Here’s what the book says about crossing the chasm: “This is not the time to focus on being nice. As we have already said, the perils of the chasm make this a life-or-death situation for you. You must win entry into the mainstream no matter what resistance is posed. So, if we are going to be warlike, we might as well be so explicitly.”
So here’s our strategy, we cross the English Channel and re-take Normandy, therefore reclaiming state sovereignty; then we use this beach head as a front to re-take Europe, demanding individual freedom and smaller federal government. In order to cross the English channel we must first assemble the right invasion force, which is a strong mix of grassroots individuals, state level politicians and any national level politicians willing to give power back once they get to Washington. We will need to have the right message that is suitable for the early majority. Remember, the early majority will not be interested in the 10th amendment for historic or visionary reasons. They will want to know how a movement based on the 10th can help them improve their daily lives or their children’s future. This communication will be easier over time as more pain from socialism becomes apparent, but reversing the trend right now would be much easier. So we can’t wait, we need to move forward today.
In 2010 our goal is to take over state governments thus liberating our Normandy, state sovereignty; but in preparation we must put together the invasion force. That is our goal for the next 12 months. To achieve this goal, every bit of effort must be placed on the task at hand. As individuals, we must regain control of state governments at all costs. And then we must focus these state governments on the federal government as a legal counter to federal power. For if we do not reclaim this undeniably legal front, guaranteed by the 10th, then all is lost and we may find ourselves years from now resorting to a much less attractive option, guaranteed by the 2nd. No doubt this will happen if we continue our unfocused strategy of attacking whatever issue of the day the media or the politicians tell us to focus on.
As individuals, we must regain control of our state governments and use this to as our “beachhead” to defend our life, liberty and property.
So now that we know what needs to be done, let’s get to it. Just as the Allies faced a fortified beach head when the amphibious assault landed on the Normandy shores, we face 
massive barriers as we attempt to reassert the 10th amendment. In 1913, states were stripped of much power when the 16th and 17th amendment were ratified. Since then, states have been thrown to the wolves of the progressive movement and judicial rulings have supported abuse of the interstate commerce clause and the welfare clause. This federal abuse of the Constitution is clearly at odds with our Founder’s intentions. Our goal must be to destroy these fortifications as we move forward with our invasion force.
As visionaries supporting the 10th, many of us find the concepts behind it a strong enough argument to support the movement. The early majority, or the mainstream, does not share this enthusiasm but they can be reached. Consider the following tactics:
- Completely satisfy buying objectives of mainstream. We must clearly communicate the reasons for buying individual freedom in terms of the 10th amendment. Then we must accomplish all buying objectives for our supporters. In other words, by working at the state level, we are working within a system that we can put together the resources to make significant changes in the short term, and we must develop tangible results to further grow the movement.
- Establish word-of-mouth marketing. For this develop there must be a critical mass of informed individuals who meet from time to time and by exchanging views reinforce the value of the product being sold. We should challenge unconstitutional laws based on the Constitution an the 10th amendment to increase exposure. Additionally, educating existing grassroots movements is key to this tactic.
- Become the market leader. This is very important. The early majority buys products from the market leader. That is why most people feel like they only have a choice between the Republicans and the Democrats. State sovereignty needs to be positioned and then marketed as the market leader in solutions for regaining individual freedom. This can be accomplished by making the 10th amendment one of the top priorities of the Tea Party and 9/12 movements, recruiting vocal state legislators, supporting and putting in place dedicated governors and then working resolutions and bills at the state level that challenge unpopular federal laws. Until a stronger movement is developed, targeting changes at the federal level will be very difficult because there will be very little incentive for a national politician to give back power to the states. This will have to be demanded at a later time. However, we should champion national leaders that are dedicated to our cause.
Many may claim that their individual “most important” issue should be the rallying point for regaining our freedom. However, any other issue, regardless of its popularity, does not have the ability to provide a more local, legitimate base of political power. Consider this business analogy… when a startup company seeks investment they must convince the venture capitalists that they have a revolutionary product with a disruptive technology and a management team capable of bringing the product to market. They understand that the only way to create massive change and thus massive wealth is to provide undeniable value to customers and fundamentally improve the way the customer does business. Therefore, they usually seek to invest in companies that can provide a core, fundamental platform that has the potential to provide the foundation for many other complementary products. They typically do no invest in the add-on products.
Every social, political or economic freedom must be defended first by a political power base that is specifically accountable to individuals intent on defending those freedoms at all cost. You can think of state sovereignty as the core technology and anything else as an add-on product. Winning state sovereignty is the key.
Just like the plan to re-take Normandy provided the allies with a front to retake Europe, a plan built on the 10th provides a front to retake individual freedom. So are we ready to send in the amphibious assault… not so fast, we need to assemble the right forces, determine the right message for the early majority, and dedicate ourselves to the political fight of our lives. Then we might be ready.
Brian Roberts is the President and a founder of an innovative software company in Texas. He has joined the tenth amendment movement as the meetup organizer of Texas Tenth Amendment Center. Follow Brian on Twitter, bcroberts_99.
Additional Reading:
August 11th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Great post Brian – powerful stuff through all three parts!
August 12th, 2009 at 6:54 am
Brian,
This is exactly correct. I especially want to highlight the following passage from your article; “For if we do not reclaim this undeniably legal front, guaranteed by the 10th, then all is lost and we may find ourselves years from now resorting to a much less attractive option, guaranteed by the 2nd. No doubt this will happen if we continue our unfocused strategy of attacking whatever issue of the day the media or the politicians tell us to focus on.”
Let’s focus solely on the Constitution and not the noise. Thanks, Brian.
August 13th, 2009 at 4:57 am
I like this idea of making the tenth amendment a priority at tea parties, and recruiting vocal state legislators.
August 13th, 2009 at 10:01 am
So do I, JMB. I was saying the exact same thing in an interview yesterday. Think of all the could be accomplished if this tea party energy was focused on state action – maybe we’d see 15-20 health care nullification bills introduced already!
August 13th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I like the general direction you’re headed but I need more specifics before I can get super excited. Promoting the tenth amendment is a little too vague. What exactly would you do if you “liberated France?” Would you immediately invoke the tenth amendment and repeal everything that violates it or would there be a priority list?
Also, excuse my ignorance here but has anyone ever sued the government for infringing on the tenth amendment?
August 14th, 2009 at 2:33 am
I agree, we need to convene theses people to get the horses in order before the carriage.
We need to build a preverbal army and support base before we can effectively wage what will inevitably be a long term conflict, to regain and preserve our liberty.
Tell them the first step in this process starts from the ground up, Local, state and then finally federal. To purge this evil from government we must engaged in a kind of Island hoping campaign. Starting with the Governments we can most directly control and moving up.
The States however have to enter the field in a very public way. The people need to know that they are capable of and obligated to defend their rights.
We don’t need a majority here, just a tireless minority, one that is significant enough for the rest of the country to worry about what we might do to them. Such a worry will never be serous unless its got the might of a supporting State government backing it up. The people in power in Washington are leftist, and they fear and hate war, and the implement of war most. If we show them our teeth of the State, we will cause many of them to back down in fear breaking their political backs.
This wont necessarily work with conservatives, but the republican party is crippled with out our support, we must be dam sure the republican party knows that, then as long as they remain starch appointees of the democrats, centralist republicans wont be inclined to help the centralist democrats, forming a viable political base with which to stand up to the States.
This is how I would propose we wage this conflict with out achieving or maintaining a early majority.
We need to play our enemy’s against each other so that we may cripple them into being too weak to apposes us.
We cant uses a lot of federal political support, one thing we should remember is anyone we send to Washington will almost certainly be corrupted by the same power. We cant place our trust in them, we have to work from the ground up based upon common general sentiments and constitutional ideals. (That means we don’t need any 1 leader, but the States do need to learn how to coordinate their defensive and offensive action for maximum effect. That means we want lots of states nullifying the same federal law at the same time, so the federal government is in a real pickle to stop them. A rebellion of just half their base would prove too politically troublesome for them to put down, that’s why we NEED the states to coordinate there activity’s, and most of all willing to ignore the U.S. Supreme court as illegitimate.)
August 14th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Loving these articles. I think lots of Tea Party and 9/12 people could appreciate these articles too.
August 14th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Another nice article Mr. Roberts.
This isn’t a left/right issue or conservative/liberal issue. I see it as the far right and far left vs the power mongers. I can assure you that both parties have those that are interested in keeping the “conservative enemies” at bay while they other side wants to see the “liberal enemies” be defeated.
Don’t believe me? Look in the 90’s when the liberal states also passed non-meaningful “federal government get out of our state business” legislation in their respective state governments. (Google it)
Sound similar to what is happening now with the conservative states? What needs to happen is when the conservative shift happens again, they need to send the olive branch out to the liberals and tell them we’ll stay out of your business as long as we all agree the states will now hold the power. This is about de-centralizing. Liberals/conservatives who want to be left alone have mutual goals and should be friends. This will make us better neighbors and friends.
August 14th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Regarding the hopefully temporary loss of state sovereignty, the problem is the following, IMO. US citizens have not been teaching the Constitution and its history to their children for many generations. Consequently, voters have been electing lawmakers to the state legislatures and the federal senate who are as clueless about state sovereignty as the voters are. The following link is one perspective as to how state sovereignty-impaired citizens have shot themselves in the foot with big, corrupt federal government.
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=199792
August 16th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Brian, as a student of WW2 history I appreciate the Normandy analogy, but one must keep in mind that the invasion of France was based on a very comprehensive yet specific plan of action, not just theory.
I have become convinced, that with the blitzkrieg of radical Federal laws and mandates descending on the states, it is ineffective to fight them off one nullification at a time. We in the 10th Amendment movement must actually draft for our Legislators, a comprehensive bill that establishes state independence as per the 10th Amendment. This bill must appeal to the citizens as well as the Legislators with elements such as one flat state tax in lieu of Federal taxes, state property tax on Federal lands, complete state control over the education system, and National Guard etc. etc.
It will take a cooperative effort by all of us with various expertise, working together to put such a bill together, and of course it would need to be tailored for each individual state. All the radical leftist bills being introduced in congress are actual being written by individual radical groups and then presented to congressional staff for finalization. We need to do the same, and also keep up the teaparty type protests to put pressure on the state Legislators and Governors to accept our bill.
August 26th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Pete,
That’s an outstanding point. Fight fire with fire and further the progress of group efforts and collaboration.
Plans are in the works for a TAC social media site, with the intention of furthering exactly that kind of teamwork. I encourage everyone to look at TAC’s own version of a sovereignty resolution to use as a starting point. Together, we’ll get these critical bills passed in each state.