I could not find any support for this statement of yours: "the tea party is a highly educated group according to the NY times poll" [italics mine] I did find however a statement that indicates the NYT poll of the tea party found members were, on average, wealthier and more educated than the general public. I think you will find that's true of most politically active groups. Of course if data is averaged, and wealth data from a member such as a Koch brother, for example, is included, you will get a wealth measure that is useless in characterizing the general membership. (For that reason, the median should always be reported, as well as the average.) The Tea Party's general profile appears to be that of a combination of blue collar and lower paid white collar workers. Are you a member of the tea party? If so, you are apparently atypical. I am in full agreement with you regarding the Constitution's unambiguous indication of what the Founders intended as "Federalism". They are not, however, here to object when we ignore their intentions. Nevertheless, it would seem, that in the main, the Court has been consistent in recognizing powers intended to be reserved to the States according to the amended Constitution, with perhaps some notable exceptions. The Constitution isn't always obeyed. Sometimes it is simply ignored, and there is no challenge. Repeated violations are so common nowadays that, if challenged, the Court would almost certainly fall back on stare decisis. Stare decisis would then effectively amount to amendment of the Constitution without amending it!
no I am not a member of the tea party but when I lived in Carlsbad some of my neighbors were. They were educated and top 1% earners. the koch brothers are not going to throw off the stats... that is too Harry Reid ish... even for you. To care enough about the constitution that you were a tea party member pretty much assured you were far more educated than the mass of democrat voters. And note.. the New York Times was not the only group to have that finding about the Tea Party. here are stats from a Yale professor surprised by his findings that the tea party was more scientifically literate. A graph is provided with some statistical measures you might find soothing. http://www.ijreview.com/2013/10/874...tea-party-supporters-scientifically-literate/ I’ve got to confess, though, I found this result surprising. As I pushed the button to run the analysis on my computer, I fully expected I’d be shown a modest negative correlation between identifying with the Tea Party and science comprehension. But then again, I don’t know a single person who identifies with the Tea Party. All my impressions come from watching cable tv — & I don’t watch Fox News very often — and reading the “paper” (New York Times daily, plus a variety of politics-focused internet sites like Huffington Post & Politico). I’m a little embarrassed, but mainly I’m just glad that I no longer hold this particular mistaken view.