"The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present."
G. K. Chesterton
If you have followed any of my blog you’ve gotten a sense that I appreciate the history of our founding fathers’ struggle to establish a government for the people divisive of any other that limited personal liberty. G.K. Chesterton’s quote above could easily explain why Obama and his die hard followers greatly miss this key point about our established government. Read these quotes of Obama from a 2001 radio show interview at Chicago's public station WBEZ-FM.
"The Warren court", he said, failed to "break free from the essential constraints" in the U.S. Constitution and launch a major redistribution of wealth. Now, just remember that the Warren court was probably the most liberal in US history but he fails to educate his listeners on that point. He went on to say. “But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it's been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can't do to you. Says what the federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf” (emphasis added).
Anyone who questions our system of government, the “republic experiment” that our founders shaped and finalize during a period over a dozen years before it was ratified as we have it today, believes it still has major flaws to change just scares the crap out of me. I hope most Americans who have over two hundred years of proof of it’s success feel the same way. The checks and balances instituted keep us protected from such ill placed, arrogant philosophies the progressive Democrats have demonstrated. Those “negative liberties” Obama mentions are the most positive hope we have of keeping the government working for the people as WE direct. No one in government should dictate what we want or need but only the people as we allow them.
The balance of powers we enjoy (or endure sometimes) is not perfect and can make progress seem slow but that is exactly the way the founder designed it. First it was the Articles of Confederation, never ratified but worked within, that held us together through the Revolutionary War. Then when distractions were lesser, the Continental Congress conventions took place to modify the Articles to work better for the nation and today we have the US Constitution with the Bill of Rights. This history is really fascinating and if you want to read it for yourself I would suggest
A Patriots History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Patrick Allen.
I can not express enough the truth G. K. Chesterton put to us when he said, “The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present." Our leaders during these times exemplify this everyday and if you, the regular guy of “We the People” realize this, it’s time to be informed and involved to make sure the founding fathers sacrifices were not in vain. We the People are responsible for that and dare not leave it to our government, which will only further the institution if left to do so.
