Do you Know?

Simple question, what role should the federal government play in America. Ask 100 people, you will get 100 different answers with at least half of them not having a clue what they are talking about. The US Constitution is not taught in public schools except perhaps in a 30 second passing followed normally with general discussions of what is wrong with America so it should come as no surprise that the majority of Americans to do understand this document, its intent, nor the brave men who wrote it, and brave they were.

To find the answer concerning the Federal Government’s role, we must go to the this same US Constitution that is so poorly understood It is the ultimate law of this land and from which every other law, regulation should be derived I say should be, but not all are, nor are all constitutional. To become law a bill must simply pass the congress and the white house and remain unchallenged, so constitutionality is no title to bestow on any law simply because it becomes law.

The US Constitution clearly lays out the role of the federal government and while this role is important, it is clearly minimal and was intended that way for a purpose. The founding fathers were horrified at the thought of an all reaching and controlling body such as we have today. They had lived under the iron hand of England, many of them had witnessed the halls of power in France, Germany and other countries, but it was mostly from England that framed their thoughts and writings.

If you believe that the Federal government has the power to regulate how much salt you ingest in your diet, what your children will learn in school, what type of fuel you may burn in your furnace or fireplace, what products you may and may not purchase you are clearly one of the 100 who does not have a clue concerning the role of the Federal government. Do you want to be told at what temperature to cook your eggs, what radio or TV station to listen to or newspaper to read, or if you believe the federal government creates jobs, knows best should redistribute the earnings of some to others than you clearly have never read the US Constitution

To begin to explore what the federal government role is and how we came to the place we are today, you must begin with a basic understanding of the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and to some extent a series of writings called the Federalist papers and other conversations recorded of the founding fathers. These documents will clearly show what they had in mind and rest assured it was not the federal government that determined if you can own a gun or place a Christmas tree on the front steps of town hall nor how many miles per gallon your car should get.

An understanding of these documents is your first step to taking back control of the country from those that have corrupted the meaning or have totally ignored these documents. Our founding fathers did not have in mind a government infused with religion, not a system based on anarchy or isolation from the world, nor of one ruled by career politicians.

In very few instances did they fail, however three come to mind immediately. One being a lost of common sense among the general population, the second being a populace of ignorance and the last being a large segment of the populace with a distaste for a strong work ethic. Our founding fathers were men who worked on farms, ran small businesses, soldiers, learned men for the most part, family men to whom these things were inconceivable, so in that regard they failed.

While most would agree that a representative democracy is the greatest system yet devised, it can also become ugly at times and it should be. Many do not understand bickering partisan politics, yet they have been there from the beginning. Many wish the world to go away and leave America as a nation isolated from the rest, but it has never been so. A lot wish to believe in a living constitution concept, but that too is a fallacy. So it is with these issues in mind that I wish to begin at the beginning and lay out what the role of the federal government is and is not.

The Declaration of Independence is where is begins for it was this document that said to the world we are America, we are free and we throw off the yoke of tyranny. In reeducating yourself, you must read or reread this important and critical document for it is much more than a piece of paper telling old King George to shove it. So read it, entirely. Do not read the cliff notes abridged version or the Wikipedia take on it, read the document, you may be surprised at what it says. In gives insight into what these men were thinking concerning a central government, its role and would affect them later as the US Constitution was written. For the US Constitution was not written by tired old rich white men, it was written by strong men who believed in individual freedom and liberty.

In a series of articles a discussion and explanation of the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and other founding documents will seek to explain why much that you believe you know about these documents is wrong, why it is a total lie that it is a living breathing document and why much of what passes today for law is in fact unconstitutional for the Federal Government has vastly overstepped the bounds laid out within the Constitution aided by self promoting politicians, various advocacy groups and even foreign nationals.