Tonight I was invited to a neighbors house for a special gathering. These neighbors are wonderful beautiful people, so nothing I'm going to write has much to do with them. The gathering was to listen to a guest speaker (with a rather "famous" mormon genealogy) who happens to be an attorney of constitutional law. He's highly republican to say the least.
He is what you call a strict constructionist in terms of the U.S. Constitution. He basically believes that FDR was the devil and our government has no legitimate authority to do most of what it does. His view--states were supposed to hold the power, and the federal government basically shouldn't do anything that isn't expressly stated in Article 1 section 8--which is pretty limited. The whole time I was there, my blood pressure was rising. I quickly realized that this extremist view, had it been followed would mean the following:
1. There would be no social security administration.
2. No medicare
3. No Medicaid
4. No NASA or space program
5. No Environmental Protection Agency
6. No Clean Water Act
7. No laws to prevent child labor.
8. No laws for a minimum wage.
9. No such thing as the Occupational Health & Safety administration (OSHA)
10. No National Parks, no national monuments.
11. No FDIC, or Securities and Exchange Commission.
12. And of course, all sorts of things Republicans love to hate, like welfare.
13. No direct election of our U.S. Senate.
So when asked how he would deal with eliminating Soc Security and Medicare--he still claimed they needed to be phased out. The guy is going to run for the U.S. Senate in 2 years I think. He was in essence trying to build support in Utah County, the holy grail of extreme conservatives.
We all know our federal government has flaws, many of its laws need a lot of refinement, and waste is all over the place. But how does he find a way to "hate" all the things I've mentioned above. My memory of history (which is pretty good) reminds me that FDR inherited 33% unemployment, rampant bank failures, and literally faced the possibility of economic collapse. What on earth was he supposed to do, just let endless numbers of people die from starvation?
Extreme Mormon Republicans love to ignore the fact that a pure, unregulated capitalist system is a cruel animal, which takes no prisoners. Read a history of the U.S. Stock market in the 1920's and you'll see what I'm talking about. Had we allowed the "old" system to continue, our government would not have survived. Communism or socialism would have taken over completely.
Our Constitution has survived due to its ability to be amended, and in essence, allow our government to change with the times. It is a beautiful document, but anyone who claims it was not flawed is a fool and hasn't read the original document, which perpetuated slavery, denied the vote to women, etc.,etc.
Wow--I got my dander up. As I walked out, a was chatting with a neighbor (retired school teacher) who was as horrified as me.
Forgive me the non-gay issue. Just had to unload my feelings.
It's not just extreme Mormon Republicans. Take a walk down any street in Middle Tennessee and you'll find extreme Baptist, Methodist and Church of Christ Republicans spewing the same venom. I just smile and walk on by.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of the Constitution is its ability to be amended as you stated. I do believe, however, that the federal government should have limited powers. There is a balance between what the states can reasonably do and what only the federal government can do. Many of the things you listed are necessary. All governments need to be held accountable to the people, and too many people are willing to cede power to the government at the expense of personal responsibility and personal freedom.
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed, all the "don't tread on me venom" is spewed as they cash their social security checks, go see their medicare provided doctor and have their kids' education subsidized through Stafford loans, Pell grants, etc. Hypocrisy, plain and simple. The funny thing is that LDS folk, with their penchant for get rich quick schemes, are pretty willing to take advantage of the bankruptcy system (an area where federal law is "field preemptive") when it suits them. Guess they'd really rather go to debtors prison (which actually was VERY common in the US through the 1800s) on principle.
ReplyDeleteLittle known fact: James Madison, one of our revered founding fathers, the fourth (?) president of the United States and one of the most powerful forces behind the adoption of the Constitution (co-author of the Federalist papers) wanted the federal government to have the power to alter state laws deemed to be unwise. Although he lost that battle, it shows that he understood that regional pressures within states could result in a failure to properly protect personal liberties.
Totally agree with you. It's a difficult issue for me to understand, however, what with the scriptures in D&C about the Constitution.
ReplyDeleteDifferent perspective, coming from Canada.
Natasha from BecomingSomething.com
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