Why are we not following the advice of our founding fathers?

Question

Over and over the founding fathers advised us to stay out of the afairs of other countries and yet from the turn of the 20th century to today the United States has involved its self in dozens of petty disputes from the Philippines to Iraq. Why?

Answer 1

I have been advocating this for quite some time now.

If another nation wants our help, they can sign a contract stating the terms of the help and then pay us first.

Answer 2

We are not following the advice of 200 years ago because we can't and still survive. 225 years ago it took any communication from 3 to 8 weeks to cross an ocean. Now it is instantaneous.

As long as we conduct business with these countries on an instantaneous basis, we naturally will try to influence in our best interest. Call it hegemony, call it international business relations, call it self-interest. The result is the same. We are not the only country forced to act this way. We do have the most economic influence however.

For every bad international decision done in the name of U.S. interests, there are 100 good ones you don't hear about mainly because the BungleBush was not involved.

Impeach the BungleBush.

Answer 3

America is controlled by big businesses that control the media. The founders never foresaw mass media being able to persuade the masses that fantasy is fact and that fact is fiction. Heck, television can convince people that the laws of physics don't work. Some Americans still believe that JFK was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald. Anyway, these big business investors know that there's big money in weapons, oil and loans. So, first they put their own men in gov't (both the Republican and Democratic parties are controlled) by financing their campaigns, and smearing any who oppose them. Then they sponsor media campaigns to villify third world countries in order to get public support for military action. They get rich on our taxes, and increase the size of gov't (their biggest client and partner) at the same time. If we used our awesome power to help the world instead of killing it, our wealthy elite "masters" wouldn't make as many gains, which is their sole obsession. The founders never meant for the gov't to be this big and powerful. It has become a machine for increasing the wealth of a select few individuals. This isn't the America they thought they had designed.

Answer 4

They sort of are destroyed by their own success. They built such a powerful country that, in the end, subverted their own values.

To be generous, it is not that all uncommon.

I have always thought that the American Revolution was a mistake. Canada, Australia, New Zeland, etc... are relatively peaceful countries that harm few people. They outlawed slavery earlier, have parliamentary systems that reflect the opinions of real minorities in government, and have more equitable distributions of wealth and income, have more equitable systems of health, education and welfare.

Answer 5

each between the founders could be astonished to benefit that the form has lasted this long and served us so nicely in the form of replaced worldwide. i think of their propose, whilst they have been given over the astonishment, could be to tweak it alongside as mandatory and keep it going because of the fact they could desire to have discovered some undying recommendations, yet to no longer take it too actually, because of the fact it substitute into written throughout the time of a very diverse time.

Answer 6

That wisdom applied to those times. In those days America was a fragile, fledgling nation. We were not the powerhouse we are today. We became more involved with other countries on account of the world becoming more connected, and this has lead to more conflicts.

How would our founding fathers change their opinions if they had the internet and atom bombs to deal with?

Answer 7

This Administration would wiretap them, put them on the terrorist list, and label them as Anti American for being against the War in Iraq.

Answer 8

Involvement in other parts of the world would seem to be the least of our concerns today.

Answer 9

Well lets see, the founding fathers lived in a era over 200 years ago. Things change.

Answer 10

This was good advice 200 years ago when most of the colonial European powers had the capability, if not the will, to kick our butt!
today, think of what the world would be like if we didn't use our God-given power to help things out a bit.
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