Vilify our Founders? To what purpose?

Most of us watched aghast as hoodlums ripped down Confederate flags and statues. Democrats seamlessly progressed beyond heroes on horseback to our revolutionary Founders and Constitutional Framers. After a couple years, the absence of a statue will hardly be noticed, so these acts had little consequence. Wanton destruction may have seemed mindless, but there’s a bigger goal in mind.  Their end game is the obliteration of our Constitution.

Democrats have always hated the Constitution. Our system of government hinders ruling in a manner they deem appropriate. They’ve whittled at the edges for over two hundred years, but the Framers were so clever that even a stripped-down version remains a forceful restraint against them exercising their full ambitions. To a committed progressive, the Constitution must be brushed aside so real progress can be made.

Here’s their problem.  The Constitution has become so entrenched in our American culture that it’s more than words on parchment. The Constitution is as American as baseball and apple pie. To rid the nation of something that ingrained, the first task is to discredit the authors.

The Founders feared centralized power so they designed an instrument to thwart the ambitions of despots and crackpots. For perspective, let’s look at the intent of the Framers and some of the erosion of their vision.

Most Americans are familiar with the term checks and balances.  It is often spoken as if it were a single word, but in the eighteenth century, the phrase represented distinctly different concepts.  John Adams may have been the first to put the words together in his 1787 publication, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States, but balances and checks is the phrase used in The Federalist, and that is the sequence James Madison would have thought appropriate.  First balance powers between the branches of government, then place checks on those powers so they may not be abused.

The Framers first line of defense was enumerated powers, later reaffirmed by the states and Congress with the 10th amendment.  Unfortunately, few in Washington consider the enumerated powers a present-day constraint.  Many find it amusing that someone might claim there are limits on national power.

Another bulwark erected by the Framers against concentrated power was a limited national taxing authority. Squeeze the purse, throttle the power. However, progressives under Woodrow Wilson passed the 16th Amendment, which allows the government to “collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived.” That pretty much took care of any money restraint.

The delegates to the Constitutional Convention intended the states to provide a potent check on the national government.  They included five provisions for this purpose: enumerated national powers, equal state representation in the Senate, senators elected by state legislatures, limited national taxing authority, and the Electoral College.  The 17^th Amendment, also passed under Wilson, provided for the popular election of senators, so three of the five provisions have been negated while the other two are under assault.

Despite these and other erosions the Constitution remains a potent restraining order against overly ambitious politicians. Healthy tension exists between the three branches and most of their respective powers remain intact. Something must be done. The rebellion has already progressed from flags and statues to condemnation of the Founders and Framers. In recent years, learned articles have periodically appeared that impugn our Constitution as too restrictive, woefully out of date, and written by white males who owned slaves. (The first is a feature, not a flaw; the second untrue; and the third partially true but irrelevant.) In the coming months, expect to see many more think-pieces along these lines.  On cue, criticism will expand to the popular culture. The topic will crest when late-night talk show hosts tell disparaging jokes about the Framers and our Constitution.

We cannot allow this to happen.  Fifty-five highly educated and talented men debated daily for four months to define a government that would work for the people while shielding them from the power crazed. Their work was ratified by the people who argued at home, at church, in taverns, and in print until every facet had been examined and reexamined. New states, wars, depressions, state succession, GDP growth, longevity, twenty-seven amendments, and the constant striving to live up to our founding principles proves that the Framers’ foresight remains invaluable.

Human frailties are no reason to throw away the Framers’ brilliance. 

Rapacious politicians are reason enough to heed their counsel.