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A Very American Distrust
BORDERFIRE REPORT ^ | 9-7-09 | Alan Caruba

Posted on 09/07/2009 3:03:45 PM PDT by smoothsailing

A Very American Distrust

September 7, 2009

By Alan Caruba

Barack Obama has crashed headlong into a wall of distrust. If he had any understanding of American history obecohe would know why, but his sole interest is himself and he proved that by writing not one, but two memoirs.

The men who waged the American Revolution and then met in secret to write the U.S. Constitution all shared a distrust of government. They understood government was necessary, but they wanted to keep a federal government small and ensure that most powers resided in the individual states and in “the people.”

For most of American history, the federal government was small. Its main function was to maintain armies and navies to protect its sovereignty and its commercial interests. Early presidents encouraged the exploration of the continent and its populating by the many discontents who arrived seeking a better life than the Old World could or would provide.

America promised the intoxicating opportunity to be free to make a life for oneself that had few restraints so long as one did not break the law, honored one’s contracts, and took part in the process of debating issues and electing representatives. This necessity to rise above family bonds and other allegiances to participate in the affairs of one’s community, one’s state, and one’s nation has been the glue that has kept generations of old and new Americans connected.

George Washington and other former revolutionaries were most fearful of what he called “factions” and what we now call political parties, but it didn’t take long for such parties to emerge because it is the nature of men to come together around commonly held beliefs.

The wonder is that, despite serious differences on how the nation should be run, the parties traded power back and forth, new presidents were elected without rebellions (other than the Civil War!), and the conduct of the people’s business progressed smoothly. Some policies worked. Others did not. Pragmatism was and is the order of the day.

What people understood in the early years of the republic was that government was not intended, nor expected to take care of them from cradle to grave. The Constitution is an enumeration of the many things government is not supposed to do. The process by which legislation gets passed is deliberately slow so people have the time to be heard.

President Obama has come smack up against a very American tradition and attitude. It is the distrust of a central government or, for that matter, any government. Obama arrived in the highest office in the land understandably convinced that his gift of oratory would provide a smooth road toward his goals. His party had solid control of the Congress…or so they thought.

To the degree that his campaign was a remarkably successful charade intended to hide his lack of any real experience to be President and to hide his true intentions, one can understand why Obama now feels buffeted by the system that has served Americans well since 1776.

Americans do not want to turn an excellent health system over to the government and especially to a government that was not been able to function well in the wake of a monster hurricane; a government whose existing Medicare and Medicaid programs are not only insolvent, but have $36 trillion in unfunded liabilities; a U.S. Postal Service that lost $7 billion last year; and Amtrak that has never shown a profit since it was created in 1970.

All the smoke and mirrors of the campaign have been replaced by the reality that the President and the Congress work for US. We decide the kind of programs We want and We discard those that don’t work. We may be equal before the law, but that’s where it ends. Those that work hard expect to enjoy the benefits of that work and resent those who live parasitically off of them.

The days of infinite borrowing and spending are over. Both political parties share blame, but the party whose principles have always been about fiscal prudence will benefit most in the coming elections.

The national spending spree is over. Everybody knows this except Obama and the Democrats in Congress.

Alan Caruba writes a popular daily blog "Warning Signs". We invite you to visit his popular website

Alan Caruba Archives


 

 


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho44; third100days; trust
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1 posted on 09/07/2009 3:03:45 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: smoothsailing

excellent excellent article.
One point is astonishingly clear ; obama does not know or care to know American History.
he demonstrates such ignorance and disdain it is sickening.
Why MSM gives him a pass on his weekly absence of fact and truth is also sickening


2 posted on 09/07/2009 3:09:46 PM PDT by RWGinger
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To: smoothsailing
Obama has come smack up against a very American tradition and attitude. It is the distrust of a central government or, for that matter, any government.

Well stated.

3 posted on 09/07/2009 3:11:42 PM PDT by Senator Goldwater
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To: RWGinger
One point is astonishingly clear ; obama does not know or care to know American History.

No doubt about it. Obama sees American history and anyone's knowledge of it as a direct threat to his agenda.

4 posted on 09/07/2009 3:15:16 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: smoothsailing

The Grand Designers of this nation (the Founding Fathers) had a profound understanding of human nature and designed in a superb system of checks and balances. That system of checks and balances along with our deep distrust of government at all levels will make it very difficult for Zero to prevail.

That being said, our survival as a constitutional republic depends upon our vigilance, particularly now. Zero and his cohorts have filled our executive branch with enemies of freedom. Enemies of freedom like Van Jones and Mark Lloyd who seek to subvert our beloved Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights, and transform America into a Marxist “Dictatorship of the proletariat” are to be hunted down and expelled from our government!

Even if health care “reform” is defeated, there is much to be done. The “cap and tax” bill is the next fight, but in the meantime we need to see to it that these radical Communists are removed. Van Jones is only the first.


5 posted on 09/07/2009 3:25:27 PM PDT by VRWCRick
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To: smoothsailing
Alan Caruba writes a popular daily blog "Warning Signs". We invite you to visit his popular website

So, it's popular, then.

6 posted on 09/07/2009 3:29:48 PM PDT by filbert (More filbert at http://www.medary.com)
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To: Senator Goldwater

But how many Americans are left??? no pun


7 posted on 09/07/2009 3:31:48 PM PDT by Milita volunteer
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To: smoothsailing

The numbers of those that do know the history are mostly more than he and his minions are/were aware of. Right about now, and for the foreseeable future, they’re in For some painful lessons.


8 posted on 09/07/2009 3:36:15 PM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: smoothsailing
Very good!

The following is reprinted, with permission, reinforcing the Founders' ideas of their own thoughts of protecting "We, the People" from coercive government power by separating, checking and balancing, and strictly limiting those powers.

Separation of Powers - the genius of America's Constitution

America's Founders had just declared themselves free of a tyrannical government. They were determined that such tyranny would never be repeated in this land. Their new charter of government - the Constitution - carefully defined the powers delegated to government. The Founders were determined to bind down the administrators of the federal government with Constitutional chains so that abuse of power in any of its branches would be prevented. The revolutionary idea of separation of powers, although unpopular at first, became a means by which this was to be accomplished.

John Adams, in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, stated: "I call you to witness that I was the first member of Congress who ventured to come out in public, as I did in January 1776, in my 'Thoughts on Government,' ...in favor of a government with three branches, and an independent judiciary..." By the time the Constitution was adopted, the idea was supported by all of the members of the Convention. James Madison, the father of the Constitution, devoted five Federalist Papers (47-51) to an explanation of how the Executive, Legislative, and judicial branches were to be wholly independent of each other, yet bound together through an intricate system of checks and balances. Madison believed that keeping the three branches separated was fundamental to the preservation of liberty. He wrote:

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

George Washington, in his Farewell Address, reminded Americans of the need to preserve the Founders' system. He spoke of the "love of power and proneness to abuse it which predominates in the human heart" and warned of the "necessity of reciprocal checks of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories and constituting each the guardian ... against invasions by the others." Of such checks and balances through the separation of powers be concluded, "To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them."


Footnote: Our Ageless Constitution, W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III:  ISBN 0-937047-01-5 See

9 posted on 09/07/2009 3:36:35 PM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: smoothsailing

I hope a man..at any age..can still be taught a lesson.

There are too many Americans of every nationality
who love this country of freedom.

And to feel otherwise, will always be looked upon with distrust! Plain & Simple


10 posted on 09/07/2009 3:45:48 PM PDT by savage woman
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To: smoothsailing; mylife; NYTexan; Envisioning

Yeah, the bastard hates Comunnity Organizers....


11 posted on 09/07/2009 3:49:57 PM PDT by waterhill (Zero, you suck..)
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To: smoothsailing; mylife; NYTexan; Envisioning

Yeah, the bastard hates Community Organizers....


12 posted on 09/07/2009 3:52:47 PM PDT by waterhill (Zero, you suck..)
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To: waterhill
What people understood in the early years of the republic was that government was not intended, nor expected to take care of them from cradle to grave. The Constitution is an enumeration of the many things government is not supposed to do(Obama calls these negative rights). The process by which legislation gets passed is deliberately slow(We call this Check's and Balance's) so people have the time to be heard.
13 posted on 09/07/2009 3:57:02 PM PDT by mylife (The roar of the masses could be farts)
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To: loveliberty2

Thank you for posting “Separation of Powers - the genius of America’s Constitution”.

It is both a timeless and timely message; and most worthy of a thread of it’s own.


14 posted on 09/07/2009 4:04:43 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: RWGinger
One point is astonishingly clear ; obama does not know or care to know American History.

He appears to have the same attitude that a large number of "progressives" have, which is that American history is about and written by rich, old white guys and Obama's racist views preclude him from valuing that history.

15 posted on 09/07/2009 4:20:57 PM PDT by highlander_UW (To anger a conservative tell him a lie. To anger a liberal tell him the truth.)
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To: VRWCRick

A huge percentage of today’s American has no “deep distrust” of government - except when it is in the hands of Republicans. Those same characters do not know or care that we live in a “constitutional republic”; they think it is a democracy. And they want their “free” health care!

This is what we are up against. And these people are now running the country. All that has happened is that Obama’s agenda has been slowed down - a little. That’s it.

We have much, much work to do to actually stop that agenda, let alone reverse it.


16 posted on 09/07/2009 4:22:15 PM PDT by karnage (worn arguments and old attitudes)
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To: smoothsailing

bookmark


17 posted on 09/07/2009 4:23:18 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: smoothsailing

Ping


18 posted on 09/07/2009 4:44:09 PM PDT by HighlyOpinionated (You Did Not Vet . . . You Will Regret . . . . We Vote You Out . . . Without a Doubt . . .)
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To: smoothsailing
Thank you! Hope you will refer to the link provided to "Our Ageless Constitution." This 292-page volume was out of print since the Bicentennial Year (1987) until recently. It contains many more essays similar to this one, an entire section in which outstanding constitutional scholars trace what has happened to the Founders' principles over the 200 years, a collection of "Notable Quotations," historical documents, etc. It has only recently become available again in a second printing (see previous post for web link).
19 posted on 09/07/2009 4:47:37 PM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: filbert

Does it have to be popular to be right?


20 posted on 09/07/2009 5:02:32 PM PDT by AFreeBird
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