Why should Americans always defer to the Founding Fathers?

[Ajidica]

Or Nietzsche. Despite mangling his actual intent, he still has awsome quotes.
"God is dead."

 

[DinoDoc]

The Supremes decide what Congress can and cannot do. Not some pretense of knowing the minds of people 200 years dead.

Remember what I said earlier about fiat?

 

[Cutlass]

Remember what I said earlier about fiat?

What about it? It wasn't relevant to anything in the discussion.

 

[Whiskey_Lord]

"There never did, there never will, and there never can, exist a Parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the "end of time," or of commanding for ever how the world shall be governed, or who shall govern it; and therefore all such clauses, acts or declarations by which the makers of them attempt to do what they have neither the right nor the power to do, nor the power to execute, are in themselves null and void.

Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies."
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

Sigged (partially). Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

[DinoDoc]

What about it? It wasn't relevant to anything in the discussion.

You apparently thought otherwise.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Thank you for asking this, RRW, as it's something that's baffled me for a long time. I don't recall very many instances of people protesting something, saying, "But that's not what the Fathers of Confederation wanted!"

Because the US is a very unique country.

The Founders led a violent revolution to set up our country and paid a lot of lives for it. They then gave us some practical advise on how to run the government that's worked since.

Not saying they were perfect by any means. But they are the best guide there is to running a country. That said, only the Constitution (And how they MEANT for it to be interpreted) is really all we consider of what they said to be "The Law."

 

[Traitorfish]

Because the US is a very unique country.

The Star-Folk led a violent revolution to set up our country and paid a lot of lives for it. They then gave us some practical advise on how to run the government that's worked since.

See, now it sounds like a creepy cult.

 

[Luckymoose]

To the OP: Same reason people reference the Bible.

 

[Tee Kay]

But they are the best guide there is to running a country.

So the best guide to running the world's largest economy in 2010 is a group of slave-owning militia leaders who governed what we would call a rogue state in 1774.

 

[SerriaFox]

So the best guide to running the world's largest economy in 2010 is a group of slave-owning militia leaders who governed what we would call a rogue state in 1774.

A lot of revolution talk condemned slave holding. The fact that they owed slave makes them no more a hypocrite than green party members who own SUVs
As Lincoln said the right was declared so that other could enforce it. paraphrase because I'm too lazy too look up the real quote.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

"There never did, there never will, and there never can, exist a Parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the "end of time," or of commanding for ever how the world shall be governed, or who shall govern it; and therefore all such clauses, acts or declarations by which the makers of them attempt to do what they have neither the right nor the power to do, nor the power to execute, are in themselves null and void.

Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies."
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

It is an insolent and ridiculous tyranny for you to let Thomas Paine shape your ideas of governance from beyond the grave.

 

[Arakhor]

But they are the best guide there is to running a country.

The only way that makes any sense these days is by appending "USA #1", which is patently ridiculous.

 

[Dachs]

It is an insolent and ridiculous tyranny for you to let Thomas Paine shape your ideas of governance from beyond the grave.

It's rather like mentioning Voltaire's "A witty saying proves nothing", isn't it?

 

[SuperJay]

Because some citizens of the US like to believe that it is a very unique country.

Fixed.

 

[BuckyRea]

How can one be "very" unique?

 

[Dachs]

With gusto and vigor!

 

[Arakhor]

How can one be "very" unique?

I was wondering that, but I decided to actually address a logical error, not a grammatical one.

 

[GoodGame]

I'm not aware of any other country that seems to defer back to it's founders as much as the US. I have never heard and Irish person saying "That's not what Dev or the Big Fellah intended" when discussing a contemporary issue, not have I heard any Chinese person claiming they cannot do something political in 2010 because Chin Shi Huangdi* wouldn't have approved.

So, why should what the Founding Fathers intended be of any relevance to today's political and social issues? I don't know anything near enough about them to judge them, so it's not that I'm saying they are bad templates for a nation, I'm saying why should their opinions count nowadays anyway?



*just leave it, Dachs.

Personally I think the cult of the philosophy of the founders is dead. Which viable politician (i.e. not some blowhard that doesn't run for office) actually says we need to live by the philosophy of Jefferson, etc...?

 

[JollyRoger]

Because the US is a very unique country.

The Founders led a violent revolution to set up our country and paid a lot of lives for it. They then gave us some practical advise on how to run the government that's worked since.

Actually they screwed up the first attempt and had to make a 2nd attempt to centralize power. Then it was off to seize the lighthouses and dole out health care to mariners.

 

[BuckyRea]

So the best guide to running the world's largest economy in 2010 is a group of slave-owning militia leaders who governed what we would call a rogue state in 1774.

Well played. But if you study what they wrote, and not what one wishes they wrote, they're a great source of wisdom. It was the Enlightenment, after all. And these guys were plenty bright (not a pun). So one defers to their "teachings" on constitutional government the way a Christian theologian refers to Jesus & Paul, the way a classical historian refers to Thucydides, the way a literary critic refers to Northrup Frye.

They're not the be all & end all. If someone comes along and out-canoodles them the science of constitutional governance, they'd drop down a notch in stature much the same way therapeutic psychologists no longer defer to Freud as a source of wisdom.

There are areas in which many of the Founders pretended to expertise, once upon a time, but which no one thinks them worth consulting about now. We don't reference Alexander Hamilton on the wisdom of the common man in the street. We don't quote Madison on high finance or the efficacy of embargoes as a tool of diplomacy.

But in the areas where they were smart and still have lessons to offer, what would be the point of not standing on the shoulders of giants?