---------------------
A recurrent theme on this website is the paradigm of a Federal republic of limited powers, counter-balanced by a virtuous citizenry whose morality flows from reverence for and love of God.
The liberal-socialist paradigm, in contrast, is an all-powerful, atheistic central government controlled by intellectuals and bureaucrats and dedicated to satisfying the materialistic and hedonistic pleasures of Godless citizens en masse.
The one is individualistic, the other socialistic collectivism.
The following post from ProfessorBainbridge.com recaps the difference nicely.
****************
August 11, 2005
Federal Liberals
It is instructive that even a sensible liberal like Kevin Drum is prepared to dismiss federalism and, in particular, the principle that the central government’s authority is limited to its enumerated powers as mere “ivory tower ideology.”
I expect this sort of nonsense from people like Barbara Boxer, who recently echoed NARAL’s false claim that SCOTUS nominee John Roberts “sided with some of the nation’s most violent anti-choice extremists.” It is a sad commentary on how far modern liberalism has departed from the precepts on which this country was founded that even otherwise reasonable people like Drum embrace it.
In contrast, as Michael Greve explained:
To the founders, government was a monopoly problem. The way to deal with it is to limit the central sovereign’s authority to a sphere of enumerated powers and in the areas beyond Congress’s purview, to force the states to compete for their citizens’ business, labor, capital, and affection.
The point was made very clearly by James Madison in Federalist Paper Number 45:
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will for the most part be connected.
“The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties and properties of the people; and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.”
In sum, the founders-who were about as far from ivory tower ideologues as it is possible to get-never intended that every wrong should merit a federal remedy.
Visit MoveOff Network Members
Back to summary...
