When Federal Government Was Built to Protect the People, Research Time, 04/07/2017

Here's the thing that seriously bugs me when I read The Federalist Papers in the 21st century. Those who most loudly claim fealty to the founders of the United States are in fact the ones who betray most blatantly their vision for how the country’s government should work.

I’m talking about the founders’ philosophical vision for the country in the second constitution, the one they’re still running the US government on.

Happy July 4 to any readers in America. It'll always be a land of
possibility and hope.

Knowing what I’ve learned over the last few years about the libertarian right over the last few years, I think I can make a few general statements. At least I can make some general statements about the intensely anti-Obama, pro-Republican libertarian right.

One. They genuinely believe that the federal government has very few politically and ethically legitimate rights against them, that most laws, taxes, and domestic government departments are immoral because they impinge on individual people’s freedom.

Its most philosophically consistent form is the writing of Robert Nozick. Its most extreme political form is the anti-government militias of people like Amon Bundy, who carry out semi-competent occupations of federal nature reserve. Its most deranged extreme political form is the sovereign citizen movement.

Two. Most also fall in line with the ‘states’ rights’ message from right-wing organizations. This seems to be an incidental detail, but reading Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, you see how important it is.

Hamilton’s argument for having a strong federal government was to protect each individual American.* The main sources of tyranny was in the governments of individual states.

They all know the helicopters are looking at them. He's doing it to
flaunt his power. He knows that in today's America, he can do this,
be roasted in social media, and get away with it.

* Yes, he’s only talking about white people. Bracket this for now, just as we do with every other Western political theorist who was only ever talking about white people. Say citizen just as far as understanding the concept goes. Racial justice would bring Hamilton’s country in line with Hamilton’s ideas.

Governors would use their powers to seek corrupt privileges while denying their citizens even a functioning government. State legislatures would deny huge swaths of their citizens the ability to vote or even get basic services. Among other everyday injustices.

A strong federal government was required to defend the rights of citizens from these abuses, and maintain the political and social equality of all citizens across all the states.

Today, so many think of centralizing power in a large federal government as dangerous to individual liberty and freedom. And certainly quite a few federal powers can do a lot to take away people’s liberty and freedom.

But the most dangerous abusers of government power were the local governments, the petty tinpots.