But Paul's blaming "progressive" reforms of the last century for the nation's current economic mess lacks any logic, more a rhetorical trick than a rational argument, a sophistry that holds that because one thing happened and then some bad things happened, the first thing must have caused the other things.
The reality is much different. Without Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Era and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, the direction of America's capitalist system was toward disaster, not prosperity. Plus, the only meaningful "liberty" was that of a small number of oligarchs looting the nation's wealth. (It would make more sense to blame the current debt problem on the overreach of U.S. imperialism, the rush to "free trade" and the unwise relaxing of economic regulations.)
Besides his reactionary fondness for the Gilded Age, Paul also embraces an anti-historical attitude toward the Founding Era. He claimed that the Constitution failed not only because of the 20th Century's shift toward "pure democracy" but because of a loss of moral virtue among the populace.
"Our Constitution, which was intended to limit government power and abuse, has failed," Paul said. "The Founders warned that a free society depends on a virtuous and moral people. The current crisis reflects that their concerns were justified."
However, there's no compelling evidence that people were more moral in 1787 or in 1912 than they are today. Indeed, one could argue that many slave-owning Founders were far less moral than Americans are now, a time when tolerance of racial, gender and other differences is much greater.
And as for the late 19th and early 20 th centuries, the pious morality of the Robber Barons included the cruel exploitation of their workers, the flaunting of obscene wealth amid widespread poverty, and the routine bribery of politicians. How that measures up to moral superiority is a mystery.
In his speech, Paul declared that "a society that boos or ridicules the Golden Rule is not a moral society," but many of the Founders and the Robber Barons did not follow the Golden Rule either. They inflicted on others great pain and suffering that they would not want for themselves.
Misreading the Constitution
Paul's historical incoherence extends to what the Framers were doing with the Constitution. He argues that they were seeking "to limit government" in 1787 when they drafted the Constitution. But that was not their primary intent. The Framers were creating a strong and vibrant central government to replace the weak and ineffective one that existed under the Articles of Confederation.
Of course, by definition, all constitutions set limits on the power of governments. That's what constitutions do and the U.S. Constitution is no exception. However, if the Framers wanted a weak central government and strong states' rights, they would not have scrapped the Articles of Confederation, which governed the United States from 1777 to 1787. The Articles made the states "independent" and "sovereign" and left the federal government as a supplicant.
The key point, which Paul and other right-wingers seek to obscure about the Constitution, is that it granted broad powers to the central government along with the mandate to address the nation's "general Welfare."
The key Framers of the Constitution, particularly George Washington and James Madison, were pragmatists who understood that a strong and effective central government was necessary to protect the independence of a large and sprawling nation. For that reason, they recognized that the Articles had been a failure, preventing the 13 states from functioning as a cohesive nation. Indeed, the Articles didn't even recognize the United States as a government, but rather as a "league of friendship."
General Washington, in particular, hated the Articles because they had left his Continental Army begging individual states for supplies during the Revolutionary War. And after the hard-won independence, Washington saw European powers exploiting the divisions among the states and regions to whittle away that independence.
The whole American enterprise was threatened by the principle of states' rights because national coordination was made almost impossible. It was that recognition which led Madison, with Washington's firm support, to seek first to amend the Articles and ultimately to throw them out.
When Madison was trying to get Virginia's endorsement of an amendment to give the federal government power to regulate commerce, Washington wrote:
"...the proposition in my opinion is so self evident that I confess I am at a loss to discover wherein lies the weight of the objection to the measure."We are either a united people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all matters of a general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending it to be." [For more on this background, see Robert Parry's America's Stolen Narrative.]
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