[MD] The MoQ and Politics?

[admin]

Hello all,

It appears to me that what's wrong with American politics is something
the founding fathers did not foresee, and I would suggest that the MoQ
does have something to say about it.  I am no historical scholar.
Perhaps you are; and, if so, I invite correction.  Feel free to set me
straight because I would really like to be wrong.

At the time of the writing of the Constitution there were powerful
forces at work in the world.  These forces had been prevalent for
centuries in some form or another; even millenia, and the founders
took great pains to ensure that the Constitution and subsequent Bill
of Rights took them into account.  They clearly saw with hindsight the
threats inherent in a state religion, and power by entitlement.
Nowhere in the founding principles is there leeway for establishment
of a mandatory religion or rule by lineage.  These two things they
were able to clearly see as threats to Democracy and they made sure
there would be no way to reinstate them - even by popular vote.  I
would suggest that the founders had great foresight in their
understanding of the need for personal liberty, freedom, and equitable
justice.  These are true Intellectual level values that are understood
to be more valuable even than the society in which they exist -  and
even without benefit of the MoQ they were able to see the dangers
inherent in the Social level values of authority and celebrity.  But
they left room for another kind of rot.

You can argue whether this was by design or ignorance, and I think
there's evidence either way.  Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the
United States" pretty clearly makes the case that our founders were
not liberal hippy flower-children interested in peace, love, and
social harmony.  He shows that though they understood the necessity
for freedom, at least some of them did not believe us collectively
wise enough to know what is in our own best interest.  For good or
ill, whether intended or simply not foreseen at the time, there is one
area the Constitution and Bill of Rights does not address.  One area
of law we were left to grapple with on our own.  That area is commerce
and capitalism.

At the time of our founding, there were no big oil companies and no
Goldman-Sachs, no Wal-Mart and no Chinese industrial engine.  In the
founders favor, I would say there was simply no way to predict just
how successful Democracy would be; and as I see it, without Democracy,
none of these would exist today in anything approaching the form we
see.

Hoping for plain text transmission,
Mary