The Pain of Following the Constitution

This thread [Ed - taken from an email discussion] originally started as criticizing the federal government, and now it's on how heartless and cruel constitutionalists are? I think we're getting off topic, but I'll fish this hole a while longer. It seems to me by choice of your argument, you're playing the classic democratic/liberal sympathy card (observation, not an insult). For as long as I can remember, the conventional wisdom has been democrats are for the "little people", the party of the working class, union men, and republicans are the party of racists, rich people and big corporations who've already gotten their slice of the American dream and want to prevent you from getting yours. Being the type of person that doesn't go for stereotypes and labels, I chose to ignore that argument, because, like most stereotypes it is wrong.

There is nothing in a constitutionalist argument for a smaller, more accountable, less intrusive government that advocates harming anyone or anything, other than politicians and the parasitic lobbyists who feed on them. On the contrary, its exactly because of my compassion for my fellow Americans that I have taken the political stands that I have. Our constitutional based government was founded on one main principle: America's greatest threat is not an outside force, but from forces within. By distributing the power of the government via elections, by definition power resides in the hands of the majority. (Remember that next time you hear Chuck Schummer complain about the government being hijacked by a fanatical, right-wing minority.) The question then becomes how to protect the minority from tyranny of the majority? This leads to a second problem, how to make sure that once in power, a majority does not change the rules to give them unlimited power? The answer lies in our system of check and balances, which prevents any single branch of the government from obtaining too much power, and the constitution which prevents the majority from riding rough shod over the minority.

What I see when I look at Washington DC is a bunch of politicians who completely ignore the very document that is supposed to protect us from them, the constitution. I don't see the argument as to "well, it's the right thing to do." I see the argument as "you can't do that!"
By allowing politicians to ignore the very restraints designed to restrain them, we are putting everyone in this country at risk. If the government is free to confiscate your personal property (your hard earned money) and redistribute it because "it's for the children," what's to stop them from taking more of your property to redistribute it to Pfizer Corporation? (Oops, that's right, they already do that!) We have a great set of rules already. My argument isn't meant to throw poor people out in the streets, to have old people eating dog food (I recommend Eukenuba, very nutritious). My argument is every time the government proposes to "give" me some benefit, in actuality, they are taking something away from me, namely my constitutionally guaranteed freedoms (thank you sir, may I have another).

And the most insidious aspect of this giant scam going on is the damage it does to the American psyche. They are, and have been for decades, trying to twist the paradigm that the government derives its power from the consent of the governed, to government being the supreme power in America and we are only "entitled" to rights they see fit to "grant" us. That's completely ass-backwards. Am I capable of seeing to my own retirement? Of course not, the government will "provide" for me. Am I capable of taking care of my own health care issues? Not if Washington DC. has anything to say about it. What this type of mind-set does, it makes us, free Americans, think we can not survive without the feds. It makes us dependent upon them. We, free people, begin to think that we can not handle life, and won't the government please just take care of us? Please make all the bad situations go away. Please scare away the monsters under our beds. When we've reached that state, then we are no longer free. And we will be completely dependent on the government, for everything.