How About That Constitution...

We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

In case you don’t recognize those words, they are the preamble to our Constitution. I wrote this from memory – so by all means check me and see if I missed a word or misplaced a comma…it will do you good.

The Constitution is the document our government should live and breathe. It defines their powers and who we are as a nation. How many of our Congress critters do you think have actually read the Constitution? How many have studied its origins or the people who wrote it?

When I look at their behavior, I can’t imagine many of them have bothered. At one point in my life I took an oath to defend those writings and what they stand for against ALL enemies foreign and domestic. I like to think I know what it is I am protecting…

Some say the out of control government we have today is given that right through the General Welfare clause of the Constitution. Well, anyone who has not read the Constitution or studied its history would say that. Just so you understand, let’s look at what the founding father had to say about “General Welfare.”

From Fedralist 41: Written by James Madison:

“Construe either of these articles [He is talking about the Articles of Confederation.] by the rules which would justify the construction put on the new Constitution, and they vest in the existing Congress a power to legislate in all cases whatsoever. But what would have been thought of that assembly, if, attaching themselves to these general expressions, and disregarding the specifications which ascertain and limit their import, they had exercised an unlimited power of providing for the common defense and general welfare?”

James Madison argued that a General clause is followed by specific restrictions upon the government and always was intended to be that way as seen in the original Articles of Confederation.

Our government has no constitutional authority to dictate our healthcare, education, or environmental conditions. That was always intended to be left to the States.

I recommend that everyone educate themselves on what our governments role should be and think hard about what you should do this coming November. Do your homework!
You can find the Fedralist papers in their entirety here:
http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/fedindex.htm




And the next time you are watching MSNBC ask yourself if you really want that to be the sole source upon which you make a decision that will shape our nation.

“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
James Madison, letter to W.T. Barry, August 4, 1822