Without doubt, the Framers were flawed men. Many were slave-owning aristocrats who feared the dangers of unrestrained democracy in which the downtrodden might demand a reversal of fortune for the rich. Some of Madison's "checks and balances" were designed to avoid extreme swings in popular passions.
There were other obvious tensions within the constitutional structure regarding exactly where the boundaries of authority were. That, too, was part of Madison's structure.
But the Framers clearly saw the Constitution as creating a powerful central government and a dynamic system that had the flexibility to address national problems, then and in the future. For instance, one of Madison's most cherished features was the Commerce Clause, which gave the federal government the power to regulate national commerce.
The whole point of including the Commerce Clause among the enumerated powers of Congress was to put the federal government to work improving the economic conditions of the nation. In their time, the Framers talked about construction of roads and canals, but they also wanted the federal government to protect the competitiveness of U.S. commerce versus the more developed economies of Europe.
But that role -- along with that history -- is on the line in Election 2012. The American people can side with the actual Framers in treating the Constitution as a tool for addressing national problems or they can join with the Tea Partiers who embrace a false narrative that equates "freedom" with hostility toward the federal government.
If that's the result, it could mean near total "freedom" for our fellow citizens, the corporations.
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