Myths of Constitutional Government

by Paul 8:00 AM 0 COMMENTS

I made this short and sweet with the objective of helping expose some misconceptions that are too common and work against us as we fight for the cause of liberty. Please share these with others as we work to dispel such dangerous myths.

• Three Equal Branches- The founders never wanted the Three branches to be equal. The judicial branch was intended to be less equal.

David Barton...

• Democracy- The United States was not founded as a Democracy

Americas True Form of Government.....

• Consent of the Governed

Many people falsely believe that representatives are wrong they are not listening to the consent of the people or a majority. This is not a wise position and goes against the cause of liberty. The consent of a majority is nothing more than Democracy or mob rule. What most people overlook is the words before “consent of the governed” If they read the whole meaning and sentence in the Declaration of Independence they will see these words.....

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

So as we can easily see there is a qualifier on what the government can do with the peoples consent. That qualifier is that they can only exercise “just powers”. A just power is one which does not violate individual rights. After all that is the main purpose and function of legitimate government “to secure these rights”.

This leads to the next Constitutional Myth that leads people to falsely believe that government has a blank check to do anything that can be deemed for the good of the people or the majority.

• The General Welfare Clause

Far to many people believe that general welfare as used in the U.S. Constitution is a blank check for government and allows government to do anything that congress or the people believe is good for the people. This is also something that should be more obviously a farce because that would also support the ideas of a Democracy and would lead one to question why we even have a Constitution if we can trust politicians and bureaucrats to determine what is good for the people.

When James Madison used the words “general welfare” there were some concerns it would lead to people assuming that government could loosely use the term to grant itself powers. After some debate the founders agreed that it was nothing more than an introductory statement to the specified powers that followed in Article1 Section8.

Bastiat understood the true meaning of welfare when he stated...

If you wish to prosper, let your customer prosper. When people have learned this lesson, everyone will seek his individual welfare in the general welfare. Then jealousies between man and man, city and city, province and province, nation and nation, will no longer trouble the world.
-Bastiat

Read more about the General Welfare clause here.....

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/ron-paul-on-the-general-welfare-clause/

http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2009/11/19/rob-natelson-a-lesson-on-the-general-welfare-clause/