Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Principles of Government Corrupted

Taking grandpa’s advice in regards to the principles of government, I began to research it further along the lines of what he said. I began by looking up the Articles of Confederation. As I was reading it, I realized what grandpa was trying to teach me that there was more in regards to the founding principles of government as our founding fathers saw it. With the reading of it, I began to write down the ideas I saw in it.

The first thing I noticed was the fact that government was still to play the same role as they always had. That is, the role of ruling over the people and that its role was never to be the servant of the people as some would like to claim. It is by fulfilling this singular role that governments serve the people best.

The next thing I noticed was the fact that they remained true to the concept of no taxation without representation. Only the states were represented in this new form of government. The states were to provide for the financial needs of this body of government not the people themselves.

In reading this document it became clear to me that it was the states not the people who created this federal government. It was the states that our founding fathers were representing not the people as some would have us believe. It also led me to the understanding, which grandpa confirmed, that the word people as used in our present Constitution had a double meaning.

We must remember one thing as grandpa was implying. Government is not an intangible entity of societies. Government is a very living entity. Government only has power and it can only be seen as a ruler of the people in terms of the people who are in the office of power. People rule over people and it is people who are ruled. It is only in this understanding that we can understand the need of government to be an entity of checks and balances. People are the ones that are corrupted by power not government per se.

People now days see government as the servant of the people. We can see this in the promises of politicians who seek to be elected to office. We can see it in the programs that those elected politicians have created. We can see it in the length of time that some politicians serve in office because of those promises.

One last thing I have learned from reading the Articles of Confederation. It was the fact that our founding fathers understood very well the corruptive nature of the power of government and its ability to abuse that power to rule over the people. We can see that they attempted to check that power by giving the people a means to control government.

What they could not have foresaw was the fact that the people would seize upon this newly acquired power and create an ideology that declares that all power is in the hands of the people. In other words, the people have been corrupted by the little power they were given. In some, that corruption is absolute.

The Articles of Confederation was this nation’s first Constitution and the Constitution we possess now was intended to create a more perfect union. It was intended to guarantee that the federal government was the subordinate government to the state governments. Constitutionally it still is but as we can see, in reality, it has become the dominant power.

The states and people have become dependent upon the federal government. This could only have resulted from a corrupt understanding and interpretation of our Constitution. This could only have happened by the possession of an ideology that was not consistent with the ideas behind the creation of the form of government that we were given.

Grandpa says that, in time, it will be the downfall of this nation also. Our first Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, is a document that very few people think of when thinking of this nation’s beginning. Yet, it reveals more of the thinking of what this country was meant to be than any other document. It was flawed yes, but the principles remained in the new Constitution. But those principles have been corrupted. Some politicians seek to corrupt them even more as seen by the promises they are making.

A tear fell down my cheek as I reread the beauty that was contained in the minds of those that founded this nation, a beauty lost by the greed of men.

21 comments:

tweetey30 said...

Griper your grandfather was a very smart man from what I am reading.. There are so many flaws with the government and power they try to hold its not funny. But then again some of the people holding higher positions are just fine but some of them are ridiculous..

Anonymous said...

Very insightful and enlightening-- and, imo, 100% true. Excellent post.

The Griper said...

always wondered what we'd be like today if this country remained true to its founding principles

Lista said...

You are making it sound as if you think that the power has shifted from the government to the people. I'm having a little trouble following that, except that sometimes it does appears that the power has shifted from the educated, leader types, to the weak and uneducated that want the government to take care of them. The Majority is not always made up of the most intelligent and informed among us. Perhaps that is part of what is implied by this post.

The Griper said...

the power, lista, has shifted from the states to the central government. the federal government was to have a very limited role in the governing of this nation.

think along these lines, lista, upon gaining independence from England each colony became an independent sovereign state of self-rule with all the powers and authority of any nation in the world.

in recognition of how weak they were as independent states and knowing that England could very easily take them back one state at a time they knew their strength lied in numbers so they decided to unite for the common welfare. thus they made a pact with each other to form a central government for just this purpose. this pact was our first constitution.

the primary role of this federalized government was to be the representative of the states in foreign affairs. and they set up this government in such a way that each state would maintain their independent sovereignty and self-rule.

they accomplished this by stipulating that any agreements that the federal government entered in to with a foreign nation had to be done only upon its passage by the Senate. (the body representing the states) if you notice the house of representatives (the body representing the people) have no say in this.

all other government business, with a few exceptions was to be left strictly up to the states in the governing of the people.

the intent of this was that the states maintained their independence and sovereignty by having control over the federal government and still maintaining sole power and authority over the people of their state without federal government interference.

powerwise it was suppose to be a very weak federal government and very strong state governments. the 10th amendment was to assure this.

but as seen now that power and authority has shifted from the states to the federal government.

Lista said...

I wonder if this shift is at least in part because when the people, or least some of them, probably meaning the Minority, are dissatisfied with the way their state is run, they have no place left to go, except over the heads of their leaders, to an authority that is above them and that would be the Federal Government.

Interestingly, if the state puts a certain issue to the people to be voted on, only 51% of the people are required in order to decide the issue. In the state right next door, the extra 1% could fall on the other side of the same issue, bringing about a different result in their state. In both states 49% of the population is not happy and likely wishes that they lived in the other state that voted the way they did.

I guess we could all just move around and segregate from each other according to our believes. Life is more interesting, though, when people with differing opinions can be found all in one place.

The Griper said...

how could they go to the federal government when the Constitution declared that the federal government had no power and authority on the issue?

Lista said...

Easy, because they don't understand that and after just a little bit of pressure from the people, the Government didn't either.

The Griper said...

that is why we have a Supreme Court, to prevent that and see we abide by the Constitution, isn't it?

Lista said...

Ah! But the Supreme Court doesn't believe in the Constitution any more. Does it?

The Griper said...

then we have the principles of the Constitution corrupted, no?

Lista said...

Ok. You win. I'm having trouble getting my work done, so I'm going to sign out now.

Lista Out

Lista said...

Nice Johnny Mathis video, Griper. I enjoyed that. Thanks.

Mike's America said...

I think we have walked too far away from the concept of state's rights and given far too much power to the federal government.

Why should the federal government be given the ultimate say in every issue?

The Griper said...

not only that Mike, it has given the likes of hillary the means to impose socialism upon us too. without a strong central government socialism can't work.

The Griper said...

thank you lista.

BB-Idaho said...

"without a strong central government socialism can't work."
..individual states are beating Hillary to the punch:
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/universalhealth2007.htm
..perhaps one aspect of what it would be like if we had the Articles of Confederation and no
constitution. One suspects each
state would have markedly different policies & there would be no US world power..perhaps the northern states absorbed by Canada, the southern by Mexico..
people moving in droves to the richer states..some states full of illegal immigrants (well, perhaps that's already the case)..some states hoarding their natural oil and gas..IMO, it would not be the paradise wished for...

The Griper said...

bb,
"..individual states are beating Hillary to the punch:"
that would be fine. at least those who do not wish to live under socialism could move out to another state as they do now, can't they? michigan right now is suffering from a emigration problem.

and our history is filled with emigration from one part of country to another.

with hillary we couldn't away from it unless we emigrate out of the country.

"perhaps one aspect of what it would be like if we had the Articles of Confederation and no
constitution"

the articles of confederation was our first constitution. the only reason we have the present constitution is because the first one did not allow for amendents.

did you know that before the present Constitution could go into effect it required two sets of votes, one had to be unanimous while the other only required a 3/4 states to pass.

as for your ideas that we would be seperated, part to mexico and the other to canada i don't even know where that idea came from.

another trivia fact for you. canada was already invited and accepted to become a state if it so chose to.

people have always went to the rich states. what were the gold rushes? you can see this with the census that redistribute the districts for representatives. some lose seats others gain them.

i wasn't arguing from a point of paradise wished for. i was arguing from a constitutional point of view only.

and remember this. if we weren't the world power we are we may not be in Iraq now.

dcat said...

at least those who do not wish to live under socialism could move out to another state as they do now, can't they? michigan right now is suffering from a emigration problem.

Socialism does not WORK! There is no room for it in any of our fine states!!!

Maybe the socialist can f-ing move to the ME or Europe! That would be great! Thanks!

The Griper said...

dcat,
"Maybe the socialist can f-ing move to the ME or Europe!"

that was the beauty behind the founding of this nation. each state could do as it wishes. and if one state decided to go socialistic and failed, the failure would be the state's failure alone.

yes, it would hurt the rest of the states but it wouldn't result in mass failure. but if it is imposed nationally the whole nation would fail.

dcat said...

Not in my state I know why not Texas! They had the first honor killing already!!!

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