What Madison Missed

Our Founders could not have possibly imagined how distorted the progressive movement could have taken this country over the past 100 years. They definitely had the understanding of tyranny, the temptation and ultimate failing of democracy, and the evils of forced compliance. But, I am not sure, in their wildest imaginations, they would have thought our country could have faded so far away from the Constitution without the constitution being fundamentally changed. If they could have imagined such tyranny by our own government, they would have enacted more safe guards to help cripple the federal government in the case it did start to exhort too much authority.

So what did Madison and the others miss?

They attempted to control the 'power' of the federal government, but they never attempted to control the 'size'. By allowing the size to grow, progressives found their loop hole to circumvent the Constitution. Despite the Constitution stating that all powers not granted in the Constitution were reserved to the people and states, the left has used their ability to bloat government and gray that statement.

The second miss was understanding the corruption of power on the individual basis. By not setting term limits, or tying officials compensation to the electorate, they allowed for a political 'elite'. A bourgeois class of elected officials not protecting the Constitution or serving with honor, but rather serving those that keep them in power or an ideological bent not represented in our Constitution.

The third miss, is the the undo influence of money on government. Yes, they knew wealthy people could influence politicians, but they did understand how the very purchase of elected officials would or could become an industry. I am talking of course of lobbyists. The idea of organized influence continues to make me shutter. Government should not be in the business of business, but simply protecting free trade among states, promote transparency and protect the individual from fraud. No more.

So do I have some sort of insight that Founders did not? Do I have the fortune of history they did not know? Perhaps...perhaps not. Benjamin Franklin was right when he told the crowd outside the constitutional convention, "A republic, if you can keep it." The American constitutional republic was the real utopia, and we have been fortunate enough to have a glimpse of it for so long.