The Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution were a wise group. I doubt if that many smart people were ever in the same room before or since. (Please please don’t tell me that they were rich, owned slaves, were old white guys, and messed up a number of things. I really do know all of that.)
Why I think they were so smart is because they understood the dangers of concentrated power and did their best to counteract it. The federal system and the system of checks and balances were instituted to first control the governed, as Madison pointed out, but also to control the government itself.
They knew the people who ran the government had to be hemmed in. George Mason of Virginia wrote, “Those who have power in their hands will not give it up while they can retain it.”
Two houses of Congress, a Supreme Court, an electoral college, fixed terms, an impeachment process, a federal system, a Bill of Rights opening with freedom of speech and press and assembly and religion–all designed to rein in power.
What they did not anticipate was a spineless Congress, a populace that gets much of its news from Fox and Russian trolls, and a President interested only in his own power to the point where he will do his best to overturn election results. The Founding Fathers knew people were not angels, but no one in 1787 could have predicted just how evil people could be.
Or how gullible and ignorant half of the electorate can be.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope it's somewhat less than half.
ReplyDelete