A lot of people say that we started losing the original intent of the Constitution when the Civil War happened. There was no process for a State to leave the union. Some of the things that Lincoln did, led to other restrictions on liberty by other presidents. It got worse on Wilson and then FDR amplified it. Johnson basically put it over and sent the country onto the death spiral of socialism and dictatorship.
If the government has to make someone do something for you, it isn't a right. Unfortunately, for people to understand this, it would take a major change and realization that government is not the answer. That is only going to happen after some large incident.
@deanlogic, you are absolutely correct and yours is a good recognition of history. In fact, we could probably go back to Adam's Alien and Sedition Acts as being the first attempts to undercut the Constitution. My father once told me that the only measure of a President to determine whether he was "Good" or "Bad" was if he followed his Oath of Office. Clearly, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, and Wilson did NOT. They set the precedents for all of those who followed and now we are in the state we are in - regardless of the party!
Yeah... not a big fan of Teddy's progressivism. Sure, he created the national park system, but I think private owners would have handled it just as well.
It would be nice to get a President and Congress that would actually roll back stuff.
Our slide towards serfdom really kicked into high gear with Wilson and Teddy. There is no question in my mind that individuals are better stewards of their own, private property that governments are. I remember reading a comedy (at least to me) called "The Jungle" by Upton SInclair and found it hard to believe that all those smart people in government would pass legislation based upon the socialist fantasies and lies found in his fictional novel. I think I'll give some though to the role of government in a free society for my next post. As far as I'm concerned, the government shouldn't even be involved in parks at all! But, that's just me!:)
Well, then I will follow and look forward to your next post.
The Constitution outlines what little land the Federal government should own. There should be a mass auction with proceeds to directly pay off the debt.