Tenth Amendment Center: My Contentious Interview with a National Radio Host

From Tenth Amendment Center

...from Tenth Amendment Center

On Monday, I appeared on the Mike Siegel Show. It turned out to be one of the more frustrating and contentious interviews I’ve done in a while.

Siegel is totally on board with limiting the power of the federal government, and he understands that the Constitution delegated very few powers to the feds. But we are worlds apart on strategy. Seigel wanted to focus almost exclusively on the Supreme Court. No matter how hard I tried to steer the conversation away from the politically connected federal lawyers in D.C., Siegel kept pushing this idea that we’re just a few good SCOTUS opinions away from constitutionally limited government.

I really didn’t want to talk about the politically connected federal lawyers in D.C. Still, the conversation it kept coming back to federal courts. I talked about weed. I talked about the fact the Supreme Court is part of the federal government and expecting the federal government to limit itself is foolish. (Amazingly, Siegle disagreed, saying the federal courts were “independent.”) I talked about Madison’s blueprint. I even talked about nullification of the fugitive slave act. All to no avail. Siegel kept trying to get me to agree that the Court can save us.

I’ll never agree with that. The Supreme Court is a big part of the problem.

I have to admit, I got a little heated. My wife actually said she was about to come in and tell me to calm down. There is a lesson here – don’t do interviews at 11 p.m. right after playing hockey. The combination of being tired and amped up on post-game adrenaline does not make for a calm, reasoned interviewee.

But it was also a good reminder that a lot of people out in the mainstream just don’t get it. They have their eyes set firmly on the banks of the Potomac. I recovered a bit at the end and was able to explain the anti-commandeering doctrine in detail, and explained how refusal to cooperate with officers of the union can be applied to a wide range of issues. Despite the bombastic nature interview in the early going, hopefully, it opened some eyes. Heck – maybe the tension between the host and I was a good thing.

You can decide for yourself. You can download and listen to the interview HERE.

Mike Maharrey
October 13, 2017 at 11:11AM