GETTING POLITICAL

The fear-based claim that “if the federal government can do this, they can also deny other rights” extends back to the beginning of the United States. The first use of the argument came against the proposal to establish a federal bank – in the very first congress. The insidious basis of the argument then should expose the roots of its use in the current debate over federal involvement in health care. Should we not be more concerned about the rights and needs of people than states?

“Tell me if Congress can establish banks, make roads and canals, whether they cannot free all the Slaves in the United States.” Nathaniel Macon, a Virginia Republican leader, during the debate over establishment of the federal bank during the administration of George Washington.

“(James) Madison led the floor fight in the House to block any extension of federal authority over slavery, arguing that the Constitution specifically forbade any congressional limitation on the slave trade for twenty years, and implicitly relegated any and all legislation regarding slavery itself to the state governments.” And where did this policy take us?

Quotes in American Creation. Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic, Joseph J. Ellis, New York: Knopf, 2007, p. 175-176. Ellis shows how the choice of political power and expediency over compassion and full extension of rights to all, to slaves and native Americans, led to desperate tragedies in the United States.

I also recommend Founding Brothers by Ellis, the author's telling of the story of the founding of the United States in terms of “what it looked and felt like for the eight most prominent political leaders in the early republic”: Abigail and John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington. You may be surprised at how familiar the battles look.