Unlocking The Authority From Within: Open_Notes 5

1990s distrust, fear of government - anti-government streak, ie., Republican "contract with America", rise of militia groups -- inefficient "Continental Congress" 1-year terms, no judiciary ... we the people of the United States ... to form a more *perfect* union (not perfection, but one that has all its parts; efficiency but far from equal; legislature supreme -- the militia movement is not the minutemen (most underarmed, ready to desert) that has been romanticized - "... the right of men to bear arms" a military term (all the apparatus of war); the right of private ownership is a relatively modern interpretation - the Constitution is somewhat like the Bible; every new generation reinterprets to its own ends -- the ideal of a "citizen politician" was tried early on and left out of the constitution - in the Continental Congress there were one-year terms with a rotation of terms, with a limit - Madison argued for stability, institutional memory vs. term limits - there is a change of quantity in today's government, all around us; a regulatory role needed in a global world; it is more apparent today - a movement to disarm government even from its proper roles either by force or withdrawal - constitutional language misleading, loose, assumed, ie., the CIA is an unconstitutional body due to its secret funding (the constitution provides for the open reporting of all government funding). -- [NPR, Gary Wells author, "A Necessary Evil, A History of American Distrust of Government", Dec.99]

Unlocking The Authority From Within: Open_Notes 5