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The Government Only Has the Powers We Gave It — And We Didn’t Give It TheseWritten by Mansplaining Mike The United States was not founded on the idea of an all-powerful government micromanaging your life. We built this country on the principle of enumerated powers — the idea that the federal government only has the specific powers listed in the Constitution. Everything else belongs to the states or the people. That’s not my opinion — that’s the 10th Amendment.Read Article I, Section 8 for yourself. Congress can declare war, coin money, establish post offices, regulate interstate commerce, and a handful of other things. But you know what’s missing? Any authority to:Ban you from owning a firearm.Tell you what plants you can grow, possess, or consume — whether that’s marijuana, kratom, coca leaves, or anything else that grows on God’s earth.Restrict your rights for your own “safety” as if you’re a child and they’re your parent.These powers were never given to the federal government. Which means they are illegitimate when claimed.How They Get Away With ItThe politicians and bureaucrats figured out a long time ago that the only way to grab powers they weren’t granted was to reinterpret the Constitution beyond recognition. They turned the Commerce Clause into a magic wand that supposedly gives them control over anything, anywhere, even if it never leaves your property.That’s how, in Gonzales v. Raich (2005), the Supreme Court let the feds ban a cancer patient from growing her own marijuana in California — even though California had legalized it. Their excuse? Her homegrown pot might affect the market. That’s not law. That’s tyranny in legal clothing.The Gun Grab Is the Same ScamWhen it comes to firearms, the Second Amendment is crystal clear: “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” That’s not a suggestion. That’s a constitutional wall the government cannot cross.Yet we’ve let them chip away at it with bans, permits, registries, and red flag laws — all without a single enumerated power authorizing it. The Second Amendment is a restriction on them, not on us.Se Jarrus v governor of Michigan et al (2025)We’re Running Out of Room to BreatheThe more powers we let them steal, the less space there is for individual freedom. Today it’s your guns and your garden. Tomorrow it’s your speech, your property, your movement, your bank account. Once the balance tips far enough, there’s no coming back — because a government that can take everything will never give anything back voluntarily.It’s Time to Put the Government Back in Its PlaceThe Constitution was meant to chain down the government, not the people. If Washington wants new powers, there’s a process for that — it’s called amending the Constitution. Until then, they are bound by the powers we actually gave them, not the ones they wish they had.If we don’t start pushing back now, it won’t just be about guns, marijuana, or kratom. It will be about whether you have any meaningful rights left at all. The Founders didn’t fight a revolution so we could trade one king for 535 mini-kings in Congress.The message is simple: We the People run this country — and it’s time the government was reminded of that.