On a More Serious Note

This election got me very interested in government. Not that I wasn't interested before, I just needed a refresher on the roots and foundation of our country. So I reread the Constitution and some thoughts of the founding fathers. I must say that instead of giving me hope, it was a little disheartening to see our country going in a direction that was warned against by those who founded it.

First, the thought that struck me first in reading the Constitution that had never stood out before was that it seems to be written as more of a protection for the people than a direction for a country. I was very taken by the lack of what the government can do and the excess of what it may not do. It seems that the founders of our country were determined to provide a protection for the people from the government. It seems today that our government (and a lot of the people for that matter) feels it is its responsibility to provide for and take care of the people. That does not appear to be the original intent. The intent was a country that was free from the interference of government in their day to day existence.

The second, most disconcerting, point that struck me was in the description of our nation by the founding fathers. Maybe it's just me, but do some of these quotes send cold chills up and down your spine?

John Adams: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

James Madison: "To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical idea."

Benjamin Franklin: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

George Washington:

1- "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens....And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education...reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

2- "Towards the preservation of your government...it is requisite...that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown."

In this day and age, the mention of God in government is nearly forbidden, but in the days of our founding, those who directed and established this country mentioned the Divine guidance that they received throughout the Revolution and the drafting of the Constitution. I could not find one piece of work from those original "politicians" (I hate that word. It doesn't seem to describe the great men of that time.) that denied the power of God in the establishment of our country.

Hopefully, we can return to the greatness of our nation, but I'm afraid that the path has already gone a different direction. We are becoming less religious, less virtuous, and less moral each day. I can only hope that our nation as a whole can learn from the greatness of the past and regain that decency that seems to be lost.