The Founding Fathers At The U.S. Constitutional Convention

SOMETIMES THEY ARE REAL REVISIONISTS!

Editorial Political Commentary
By John R. Liming
Editor – Owner – Author
The Liming Liberal Digest

When I read some of the stuff written by certain members of the more extreme Right Wing political-types in America, I am sometimes absolutely flabbergasted at what appears to be their ability to skew facts, invert truth or fabricate certain aspects of History to suit themselves.

Sometimes it is laughable and sometimes it is purely pathetic.

I was reading an article, just today, where the author claims, “Our Founding fathers set up a government that would never have had an Internal Revenue Service.”

Well, I guess if that is the case, then our Government would have probably never been in a position to provide any services to it’s citizens, right? It takes money to maintain an armed force. It takes money to sustain the very government, itself.

Every government that I have ever read about has had one form of taxation or another. 

 I suppose whoever wrote that article is under the assumption that, in the ideal Conservative World, every individual is to be trusted to contribute their fair share to the operation of the government on the honor system or something.

Likely story!

As greedy as some on the Right have shown themselves to be—wanting all the wealth for the wealthy and wanting to give little or nothing to everyone else—I can not understand how that “Taxation On The Honor System” would ever work, do you?

The writer goes on to say that in the government intended by our Founders, there would have never been a Department of Education.

Listening to some of these folks ramble on, one might get the impression that there NEVER has been a Department of Education anyway!

Yeah, folks!  The dirt farmer, Bible in hand, could have home schooled his kids and fully prepared them to compete in the modern world of high finance, science and technology. 

 Is this a correct assumption? Is that what some of the very Conservative types mean when they say they want to “Take America Back?” Are they saying they want to “Take America Back” to those early times and make use of those early kinds of resources?

(In the days before flush toilets?)

Personally, I do not feel the slightest bit qualified to teach a child everything he or she needs to know from Kindergarten through the advanced degree.

 But, in my opinion, that is how it would have been if it were not for the Department of Education.

Public Schools have long served a great need in America and they still do today. They provide a broad general educational foundation, prepare students for the challenges of higher education and see to it that everyone, regardless of financial standing can actually afford a decent education.

Some of our greatest statesmen, politicians, educators, doctors, lawyers and every other professional person have begun their careers with the benefits offered by the Public Education System in our country.

And, some of these very same people have been directly responsible in many ways and contributed significantly, often heroically, to making America the greatest country on the face of the earth.

This writer goes on to complain, “The Founding fathers deliberately chose to leave the power (Of government) in the hands of “We The People” and wanted families and communities to be free and autonomous.”

O.K., let us break that reasoning down a bit, shall we?

Imagine 50 some states, each with an independent government and each with it’s own set of laws and each requiring every visitor to have a visa or a special passport to cross the borders of that state.

Imagine each such independent state deciding whether or not to support some war when an invasion threat was imminent. Worse, imagine what might happen if some state got into a war with another one. (Something like that did happen once in around the year 1861, didn’t it?  You remember, that Fort Sumter thing!).

The writer goes on to say that the Founding Fathers wanted “Churches” to be free and autonomous also.

O.K., I can go with that! I like for churches to be free and autonomous too.  I just don’t like it when they get too involved in government, preaching politics from their pulpits when they should be concentrating on religion and the condition of souls.

In my opinion, any church that goes into the streets waving political signs or that sponsors voter registration drives or that more or less makes itself into  a virtual extension of some political faction ought to lose their tax-exempt status until they can prove their are out of the political business and back into the religion business again.

Whoever was writing this article was very clear about the fact that he favored a Justice System where there were no appeals courts. 

 This writers’ ideal Justice System would encourage jurors to “Overrule laws that didn’t follow the Ten Commandments  or The Bible.”

Imagine, if you will, an America where the entire Judicial System was so primitive that a person could still be stoned to death or crucified on false witness of two or three angry persons.

 Drawing and Quartering was popular back then also. (As was burning at the stake.)

Yeah, we really want to go back to those times, don’t we?

The writer concludes by reminding us that the Founding fathers never intended for America to become a global economy either.

I guess the individual desires to see a nation dependent entirely on an Agrarian culture where every citizen grows their own garden and cans and processes their own food, right? That would compete well in the modern world, wouldn’t it?

Honestly, friends—there are thousands of those on the religious Right in America who actually think with this kind of reasoning. They think this way and they cast their votes with these things in mind.

The problem is that one can show them charts, quote statistics and quote actual experts, but their minds are often so closed that nothing could ever hope to open them.

They will tell you, “I know what I know and I know that I know.” And that, my friends, is often their entire argument. 

 If it isn’t that, they might quote the absolute authority of some vague and ambiguous entity known as “They.” (“They say this or “They” say that…Gospel Truth …)

What are you going to do when they come for you?

If they ever do come for you, you had better not have a Liberal thought in your head and you had better darned well not be an intellectual or a scientist.

What do you think, friends?

Leave me a comment on the blog.