Limited Government

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In the previous week I agreed with the philosophy of originalism and felt that the Founding Fathers had created a timeless framework for our government in the Constitution. They certainly did not expect the “modern government” we have now to get past their carefully worded Constitution. I do believe they thought they had protected us and were right in their mistrust of the government and the loss of individual freedom which comes with its growth. The Founders aim in the Constitution was to declare their reasons for independence and show the choice of government they chose over the large unresponsive English Government (Pilon, Page 259). Pilon further explains the only reason to have government is to keep the rights it is bound to protect. Our right to individual “pursuit of happiness” is perhaps our own idea of utopia. Kristol (Page 299) suggests this crisis of modernity “will require new ideas – or new versions of old ideas”, We are guaranteed this right of individual pursuit in the Declaration of Independence - as long as our pursuit does not harm or obstruct another’s pursuit. David Boaz (American Vision and Values, Page 86) expressed clearly, “the Americans sought to devise a constitution that would limit the government…..to make it clear that the Constitution was not a general grant of power to the government…”. I believe Ronald Reagan spoke for us all in his Message to Washington, February 20, 2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAwAY0LH9hg&feature=related) “Our Constitution is a document in which we the people tell the government what it is allowed to do. We the people are free.” Government seemed to maintain a path consistent with the Constitution until the period 1890s to 1920s – known as the Progressive Era. This era happened to be about the same time as Roosevelt’s New Deal, but it is not directly related. The creation of a “fourth branch” of government seemed to appear with the Administrative Branch. The bureaucracy did not really create another branch of government, but did implement agencies which were to oversee legislation and “empowered it with broad governing authority” (Pestritto, Page 203). Machiavelli (The Prince, Page 229) speaks at length using the term “Prince” to explain how to acquire and maintain political power, “Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them.

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