Posted by
Sonny Farmer on Friday, March 12, 2010 5:51:30 PM
This is Bob Ellis's reply to a blogger on Dakota Voice. I think it's worth repeating and remembering. Thanks Bob.
I've
heard, "the world has changed" and variations of it argued
many, many times and, being as polite as I can, "it holds no water,
whatsoever!"
The scope, authority, and intent of the U.S.
Constitution is 100% applicable for a small rural group of 13 former
colonies, and is just as applicable in a 50-state technological
superpower...and it would be just as applicable and useful were we to
have 500 states spread over several planets in this solar system 1,000
years from now. The Constitution was inherently designed to deal only
with those things which (a) concern us as a whole nation (e.g. defense,
foreign trade, etc.) and (b) to referee internal things that involve
more than one state (e.g. interstate commerce, protection of those
God-given "inalienable rights" that all Americans are entitled to
enjoy).
The reason the U.S. Constitution is still fully
applicable (and will never inherently become obsolete) is because it
does not deal with material specifics such as travel, communications,
technological innovations, etc. The individual States are more than
capable (as well as retaining the rights under Amendment IX and X) of
handling any regulation these areas require, and pursuit of "best
practices" thinking will indirectly ensure don't change into wildly
different creatures over time.
Instead of dealing with tangible things, the Constitution deals with
principles, with ideals, with values, and course of human nature.
The U.S. Constitution was set up the way it was, and limits government
in the manner it does, is because the Founders understood the principles of good government, and they also understood the fallen, sin-predisposed nature of humanity.
The
principles of good government will never change. Limited government
will always work better to protect liberty, innovation and a healthy
society than a large, intrusive government. Government that ensures
justice and equality of opportunity will always foster a more healthy,
energetic society than one that perverts justice and attempts to
force certain attributes to be equal which can never be equal. And so on.
Human
nature will also never change. Humans will always have a tendency to
feather their own nests and over-use power. Humans will always have a
tendency to want to force others to do for and pay for things for them,
if they believe they can get away with it.
Our constitution was
designed to maximize principles of good government and negate the
fallen nature, which human beings tend to display in the absence of
restraints. These things will never, ever change, and therefore the
U.S. Constitution will
always be fully adequate to keep a
healthy nation thriving....provided we strive to be the kind of people,
John Adams said our Constitution was designed for:
We have
no government armed with power capable of contending with human
passions unbridled by morality and religion...Our constitution was made
only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the
government of any other.
And a people, who refuses to be
these things, can never have the kind of incredible civilization that
the U.S. has traditionally been; no constitution or form of government
can possibly be devised which will guarantee freedom and prosperity for
an irreligious and immoral people. Societal immorality always makes
freedom impossible because people cannot trust one another--or those
representing their government--to be fair and just with one another.
This is Bob Ellis's reply to a blogger on Dakota
Voice. I think it's worth repeating and remembering.
Thank you Bob. Bob Ellis is the owner/operator of DAKOTA VOICEcom. If you haven't been there and you're a serious minded person, you should.