2007-05-04 05:52:24 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
We have not maintained what the founders intended.
The American Republic as founded was a realization of the principles of the Enlightenment. Voltaire, Locke, Hume and others like them could have made a home in America as well as did Franklin, Paine and Jefferson. They all shared an Enlightenment vision of human worth and human ability to save oneself.
The American personality anticipated by the founders was self-reliant, armed, and ready to say "no" to authority.
Today, instead, we see cultivation of dependence on the government, emphasis on sending the professional military overseas instead of advocating the armed citizenry at home, and a "National Day of Prayer" when you can grovel to an authority in the sky to rescue us instead of accepting that no deity will save us; we must save ourselves.
The founders expected to see Americans taking care of themselves, and when things needed changing, to work. They would be dismayed to see today's fundies promoting the slogan "Let go and let God," sloughing off responsibility to a deity instead of getting their hands dirty fixing things by human effort in self-responsibility.
The worst manifestation of the welfare mentality is to assume that a great welfare department in the sky will take care of you, so you don't need to be responsible for yourself. That attitude would be shocking to the founders of this Republic. Yes, the US has veered away from the principles on which the republic was founded.
2007-05-04 06:24:36 · answer #1 · answered by fra59e 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't think we have veered away from it. But I do think that in a society with so many people we can not be forced to see things in the same way. Everyone has different ideas and such and this makes the USA what is is today. If we were communistic we would be forced to believe in a certain way of thinking. The freedom of the US is now in the spirit of the principles on which the nation was built, but not by the letter of how it was built.
2007-05-04 05:59:27 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I do not believe so, we are still one nation that has a government established to protect our civil liberties. And for the most part our government does a good job protecting those liberties. And we are still a nation that is very welcoming to immigrants who seek a better life and America still does provide the opportunity to make things better for you and your family. You can try and take as many cheap shots as you want on and about our government but in the end the fact that you are freely able to take those cheap shots proves the point that the US has not veered away from the principles laid out in the U.S. Constitution.
2007-05-04 06:03:29 · answer #3 · answered by jake p 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
YES. The American Revolution started as a tax revolt and was won by virtue of an armed citizenry. The nation was founded upon the principles of individual liberties, including and especially economic liberties. That means no $8 fee to drive into Manhattan not to maintain existing roads but to build new subways (which should be paid for through subway fares - well, initially through bonds serviced with subway fares) and just to discourage driving! The Founding Fathers viewed taxes as a necessary evil to pay for government's essential functions only, not as a way to effect social engineering, and they believed that when those functions provided clear benefit to a specific few, those few should pay the cost (e.g., state schools).
2007-05-04 06:29:23 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I assume you mean the Constitution, which, itself, veered away from the principles for which the Revolutionary War was fought (as put forth by the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, at any rate).
Yes, and it's been doing so for some time. I think the Presidencies of Andrew Jackson, Abrahan Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and, of course, the post-MLK-assasination 'civil rights' movement of the last century, can be pointed to as critical periods durring which our nation 'changed direction' in ways that took (and are still taking us) away from those principles.
2007-05-04 06:04:24 · answer #5 · answered by B.Kevorkian 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
In some ways. In other ways, those principles are being tested and succeeding. I firmly believe that George Bush is the Chief Executive that the founders feared, but the checks and balances they put in place have stalled him. The Supreme Court that he appointed keeps overturning his decisions, one by one, and the people elected an opposition congress to thwart his power-plays. The system is slower than we'd like, but it works.
2007-05-04 05:59:48 · answer #6 · answered by Beardog 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Yes, but not to worry. The big corporations are in the process of building a new America where most of us will owe our soul to the company store.
2007-05-04 06:10:19 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
And what were those principles? No taxation without representation?
Therefore, yes, we have veered away. I mean, just look at the immigration debate. Many illegals are paying taxes yet don't have voting rights. It's shameful, really.
2007-05-04 05:58:00 · answer #8 · answered by coqueto 3 · 2⤊ 5⤋
Yes it has veered off. Read Ann Coulters book Godless. That explains it!!!!
2007-05-04 06:05:41 · answer #9 · answered by Den 1 · 0⤊ 3⤋
No, we're still arguing the fine points of democratic government just as they did before us...less bloodshed and more trolls, though.
2007-05-04 05:56:14 · answer #10 · answered by oohhbother 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋