Q: What are the eight scariest words in the English language?

A: We’re from the government…we’re here to help.

When the Founding Fathers first got together to form a more perfect Union, their first try, the Articles of Confederation, was a dismal failure. After having gone through years of oppression and taxation without representation courtesy of King George III, newly-minted Americans were loathe to repeat the same mistakes. Unfortunately, the first try didn’t exactly hit one out of the park. Call it a bunt, or better yet, a foul tip. The government was too weak, and frankly, completely unworkable. The Founders realized this, scrapped it and tried again. What they ended up with was nothing short of pure gold. The U.S. Constitution is the Gold Standard by which all other governments are judged. But in the years since, Congress after Congress, and more Presidents than I’d care to admit, have drifted away from that cherished concept of “original intent” and warped our Constitution – and our Federal government – into something the Founders would recognize only as the very thing they were fighting against.

I’ve just finished reading The Five Thousand Year Leap, and if you haven’t read it already, buy a copy and read it. If you have read it, go back and read it again. I plan to. It details not only what the Founders meant by every section in the document, but explains why they made the choices they did, and why it’s so vitally important to keep the Federal government from usurping any more power than is explicitly granted them within the Constitution. Continue reading When Governments Attack. →