On September 17, 1787 The Constitution of The United States of America was signed into existence. Since that time things have changed a little. There are many who consider the Constitution to be the Supreme Law of the land and favor a strict interpretation of the document. Sometimes you will hear these people referred to as strict constructionists. On the other extreme there are people who consider the constitution to be nearly irrelevant and refer to it as a “living document”. Sometimes you will hear these people referred to as Harvard Law Professors. (sorry, I couldn’t resist)
But, please allow me to present a personal perspective.
Throughout the recorded history of the human race, there has been a recurrent theme of people rising to power and using that power to go out and conquer and enslave other people. In ancient times you think of the Greeks, the Spartans, the Egyptians, the Romans and the Ottoman’s . In more recent times you might point to Imperial Japan, and The Third Reich.
If you expand the analysis to include commercial and political coercion in addition to brute military force, you can point to the British Empire and the colonization of the Americas.
But, in spite of the less admiral events in the founding of America, the Founding Fathers managed to do something quite unique in the history of man.
The Founding Fathers, as well as all of the Patriots of the day, left us a rich legacy of documentation telling us the answer to the crucial question of WHY they believed as they did and what their objectives were in establishing our current government.
This body of works is not one-sided. It includes documentation created by those who supported the formation of a Federalist government as well as those who opposed it.
While we understand that the founding of our current government was unique in its identification, support and protection of natural human rights, we must understand an additional fundamental truth. The Founding Fathers understood the fragility of the government they created and its reliance upon the basic goodness of those to whom its preservation would be entrusted. They sought to provide the American people, the people who would be the governed, with the understanding and the tools to protect their freedom. But, in doing so, they also exposed the weaknesses of the government to those who would exploit those weaknesses to seek power for their own gain.
And so, what we see in America today is the same history that has played out throughout the history of mankind. Those who seek power remain active and work to increase their power over others. The history of the Constitution over the past two centuries shows a slow but steady progress of undermining the strength of the Constitution and an erosion of the protections that were created to protect individual freedom.
The defense of our freedom requires that we educate, or perhaps re-educate ourselves, about our basic human nature and the rules that govern our own behavior. We must understand the fundamental truths that the Founding Fathers provided for us. Then we must work to pass this knowledge and understanding to our children and grandchildren. We cannot rely upon our government to do this. It simply is not in their best interest to do so.
"Me? An Economic Expert"