“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”—John Adams
So, John Adams and our Founding Fathers believed government power must be limited because of the tendency, all through history, of governments to become increasingly tyrannical and take freedoms from the people. Our Founders wrote a Constitution specifically stating what the national government could, and could not, do (with checks and balances, frequent elections, separation of powers), thus expressly defining the freedoms of the people and the power government had over them.
Most of the power in the American political system was placed in the hands of the states (Bill of Rights, 10th Amendment). The wisdom here is evident in that state (and local) governments are closer to the people and thus more easily controllable. I don’t know Joe Biden, have never met him, and have absolutely no influence over him whatsoever. But the mayor of my town might be my next-door neighbor, and if I don’t like what he is doing, I can go and kick his backside. I have some influence there which I do not have on the national level. It is a brilliant system in protecting the rights of the people—limited power in the national government, nearly all of it in the more-controllable state and local governments.
But, because of man’s evil nature—some more than others—humans do need to be restrained. If unrestrained, the vilest among us will murder, rob, rape, etc. So, limitations must be placed on the behavior of humans.
Government does have a role to play in that; “if all men were angels, we wouldn’t need government,” James Madison said. But, alas, all men are not angels, and thus some restrictive force is necessary to prevent the most evil among us from infringing upon the lives and welfare of others. Most laws against murder, rape, etc. are local or state laws, but the national government is to play a part here—especially against foreign aggressors. The federal government, not the states, is, in our Constitution, given the right to “declare war” to protect us from foreign murderers, robbers, rapists, etc. Government’s purpose is to “secure” the rights of its citizens by protecting them from foreign and domestic evil. Government must have SOME power.
But, again, because of the tendency, in the past, of every government known to man to increase its power at the expense of the liberties of the people, our Founders wrote that Constitution telling government, and the people, exactly what their federal government could and could not do. Very limited powers. Read the Constitution and see.
But back to restraining men. Since government is limited in its power over its citizens, then, as Adams so correctly enunciated, religion becomes the major restraining force. Because the Constitution gives the federal government very, very limited power over its citizens, it was written “only for a moral and religious people” (who will restrain themselves—true self-government. That is a major purpose of morality and religion.) “It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Thus, the most freedom possible for the American people is produced. Protection from government tyranny by the Constitution. Voluntary freedom to live virtuous, ennobling, upstanding lives as directed by their “enlightened religion” (Jefferson) which was almost universally believed in by early Americans. It was the most magnificent system of government and societal ethos ever established by human beings. It is, frankly, remarkable.
Sadly, it has, in many ways, failed because of the very thing the Founders tried to protect against—the wickedness of man and the tendency of politicians to lust for power and control over others. Nations are built, not on the ideals, but on the nature of man, and Americans have proven to be no better than anyone else in history. A noble experiment in self-government that didn’t work as hoped.
The Left absolutely hates it, of course, for several reasons. No. 1, in the Founders' system, our rights come from God and the purpose of government is to protect those rights, not grant them. Leftists do not believe in God, so they believe all our rights come from government. Government gives rights, government takes them away. The Left hates religion because religions teach that humans must have a higher allegiance to God than to government. In the Left’s totalitarian system, citizens can have no greater loyalty than to government (run by Leftists, of course). The Founders’ system is utterly abhorrent to them.
Secondly, the Left hates the Constitution because it limits government’s power over the people. Leftists are totalitarians, that is, government is to have complete power. There is no God above, so obviously, the highest power comes from man—“man is the measure of all things” (Protagoras). A limited government is exactly opposite what Leftists want today. Freedom is chaos, self-control is just that, self-control, not government control. And government control of all aspects of society, including what you think, is what Leftism demands. They don’t care who goes to bed with whom, they don’t care how many children are mutilated and destroyed, they only care that THEY allow it and that YOU don’t oppose THEM. The worst possible crime one can commit is to say, “God condemns that behavior!” That sends a Leftist into paroxysms of mouth-foaming spasms. It is the worst sin imaginable. The Leftist, not God, determines what is right and wrong. And you had better believe it, or off to the gulag you go...if you survive the firing squad.
Limited government. A moral, religious people. FREEDOM! This was the system established by our Founding Fathers. It hasn’t been a total failure, but what exists today is certainly not what they intended. And the Left is deliberately trying to distort our history and the system our Founders established.
For one reason: they want power over you.
Check my substack mklewis929.substack.com. There’s lots of other good stuff on Leftism, the Founders, etc., along with Biblical studies, so sign up. Follow me on Twitter: @thailandmkl. Read my western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon.
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