The vision of our founders that was captured in the document we call the constitution is nothing short of a miracle. As we look at the political environment today, it is clear how truly brilliant our founders actually were. The Constitution was created to limit the government from controlling the lives of the governed. For the first time in history the people were put in charge of the government instead of government bureaucrats controlling the people.
You would never know we had a Constitution if you were dropped in this country from another planet. If you were a Founder who had risen from the grave this country’s operations would be an obvious indication the country had somehow been take over by a coup d etat. The obvious questions our Founders would have:
Who allowed the Federal Government to break the law of the constitution? This would have to be answered with We the People. We the people have ignored our duty to hold our politicians accountable to the law of the land. We are also responsible for electing politicians that have failed to abide by the Constitution.
What would compel the people to give up local control for a central bureaucracy?The Founders always suspected the local and state governments would be reluctant to give power to a central government. It was such a contention at our founding that the Bill of Rights had to be added and one of the most contentious amendments was the Tenth. Without the Tenth Amendment the Constitution would not have been passed. As they argued, there were only a few responsibilities the Federal Government would be better at which were very few. The most agreed upon functions were the defense of the country and foreign diplomacy. Now the Federal Government is involved in how much water we flush down the toilets and the light bulbs we can buy. Think about that.
How did the Supreme Court become a legislative body? The Founders argued that the Supreme Court was simply a judge not a creator of legislation. They believed if the Supreme Court ruled a law to be unconstitutional the Congress would go back and re-write the legislation to comply with the constitutional guidelines. The idea that 9 individuals can dictate laws is exactly that, a dictatorship.
The Founders argued that human nature was known well enough to put safeguards in place to harness the evil instincts and incentivize the good instincts. They also understood natural law that is the foundation of freedom from the enslavement from groups, especially government groups. The Constitution is simply a piece of paper without politicians willing to fight and die for it. Our Founders were willing to die for it. The politicians today don’t even read it.
And that is the fault of We the People…
- Taking Credit for America’s Engine? - July 27, 2012
- The Supreme Court is Invalidating the Founder’s Intent - April 5, 2012
- The Constitution and the Founders - December 28, 2011