| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by Zoso
Good point on Afghanistan. I had not considered that fact.
And I would agree that state's right and fear of national government is indeed stronger in the South, potentially, but couldn't one successfully argue that the Founding Fathers felt this way, too, having fought for liberation from a strong central government? So, in a sense, I suppose I feel like those fears are indeed well placed. Again, I'm open to any interpretation and insight here. |
Some of the Founding Fathers were surely skeptical of big government - Thomas Jefferson probably the most famous among them. However, definitely not all of them. Alexander Hamilton famously argued for Presidents to be elected for life, with Congress responsible only for approving the President's budgets. He wanted to unify all states into one federal unitary structure under the complete control of the President.
Most Founding Fathers were only suspicious of a centralized government to the extent that regional differences made state's right a huge issue. Fast forward to today though, and you see that state's rights aren't really held in high esteem by the conservatives at all. They wanted the federal government to interfere in the Florida Supreme Court case surrounding Terri Schaivo. They support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. They support a federal ban on abortion, and they oppose the ability of states to legislate gun control laws on their own terms. They want to increase the stature of the national military - a stark departure from the Founding Fathers who argued that state militias should keep the army in check.
The Founding Fathers weren't worried about a state looking out for the welfare of its citizens - they were were worried about a federal government that erased the differences between states (namely slavery, but I digress). |
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