Fred Thompson on Federalism

Very good points.


"The Framers drew their design for our Constitution from a basic understanding of human nature. From the wisdom of the ages and from fresh experience, they understood the better angels of our nature, and the less admirable qualities of human beings entrusted with power.

The Framers believed in free markets, rights of property and the rule of law, and they set these principles firmly in the Constitution. Above all, the Framers enshrined in our founding documents, and left to our care, the principle that rights come from our Creator and not from our government.

We developed institutions that allowed these principles to take root and flourish: a government of limited powers derived from, and assigned to, first the people, then the states, and finally the national government. A government strong enough to protect us and do its job competently, but modest and humane enough to let the people govern themselves.

Centralized government is not the solution to all of our problems and – with too much power – such centralization has a way of compounding our problems. This was among the great insights of 1787, and it is just as vital in 2007.

The federalist construct of strong states and limited federal government put in place by our Founders was intended to give states the freedom to experiment and innovate. It envisions states as laboratories in competition with each other to develop ideas and programs to benefit their people, to see what works and what does not.

This ingenious means of governing a large and diverse nation prevailed for more than a century. But today our Constitution and the limited, federalist government it established, are considered by many to be quaint or out of touch with the world we live in, to be swept aside by political expediency."

- rest of the article at www.fred08.com/Principles/PrinciplesSummary.aspx

 

After all of the heat on this board during the past week I am simply trying to stay out of controversy for a while. Since a lot of folks on this board like Thompson I am attempting to simply find some common ground with them where I can.

 

I wish that Thompson would put more items on his website under the Principles tab.

Of course, I would have a hard time voting for Thompson in November 2008 because I see his foreign policy as not being different from that of George W. Bush. Now if Thompson would split significantly from Bush on that subject he would catch my interest. I voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 and I really don't want to go down the same road again with his interventionist foreign policy.