The Progressive movement pioneered by the late, great Teddy Roosevelt... otherwise known as the Bull Moose Party, started the gradual decline in belief of small gov't. Moreover, the Progressives started the decline of the Constitutional belief system we used to place above everything else. The reason? Power... the Constitution places legal limits on the power of the few, over the many. Naturally, some people don't like that... some people think they know better than others, and therefore should be allowed to force ideas upon people.
It started long before TR arrived on the scene.
This is the result of the adoption of the federalist interpretation of the Constitution going all the way back to George Washington. Constructionism sys the majority of rights are enumerated to the States and the People, and demands a small, tightly limited government. Federalism says the States and the People must concede more of their enumerated rights to the congress any time congress feels it is necessary under the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution; it demands large government. N&P supersedes the explicit protections of the Bill of Rights. I've posted this before, and I'm going to continue posting it until people finally come to realize what is going on and how long it has been going on:
The problem is that those who were sworn to uphold the Constitution - going all the way back to George Washington - hijacked it.
From the very beginning of our government a war was fought.
On one side stood Jefferson, Madison, and the Anti-Federalists. They believed (indeed, Jefferson and Madison, the two main authors of the Constitution, explicitly worded the Constitution with these goals in mind) in a small, general purpose government with a set of very clearly defined authorities. Having just won a war against a large, centralized government, they were rightfully concerned about the possibility of seeing a similarly all-powerful, centralized government being established in the US - so much so, that when Jefferson and Madison drafted the Bill of Rights (which passed both the US AND State legislatures with a supermajority), they included these words in the Tenth Amendment:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
On the other side stood Washington and the Federalists. They believed strongly in a centralized, all-powerful government (John Adams actually believed the US needed its own king). Washington's own beliefs regarding the correct interpretation of the Constitution were stated in the circular letter he sent to the governors of the states on the eve of his retirement from public office:
"...to take up the great question which has been frequently agitated (this is a direct shot at Jefferson and Madison - added) ⎯ whether it be expedient and requisite for the States to delegate a larger proportion of Power to Congress or not ⎯ yet it will be a part of my duty and that of every true Patriot to assert without reserve and to insist upon the following positions:
That unless the States will suffer [permit] Congress to exercise those prerogatives [that] they are undoubtedly invested with by the Constitution, everything must very rapidly tend to Anarchy and confusion;
That it is indispensable to the happiness of the individual States that there should be lodged somewhere a Supreme Power [executive] to regulate and govern the general concerns of the Confederated Republic, without which the Union cannot be of long duration.
That there must be a faithful and pointed compliance on the part of every State with the late [recent] proposals and demands of Congress, or the most fatal consequences will ensue;
That whatever measures have a tendency to dissolve the Union, or contribute to violate or lessen the Sovereign Authority, ought to be considered as hostile to the Liberty and Independence of America, and the Authors of them treated accordingly..."
Washington stood for a centralized, all-powerful government, which, according to his letter, required that the People and the States "...forget their local prejudices and policies, to make those mutual concessions which are requisite to the general prosperity, and in some instances to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the Community." Where the Bill of Rights reserved the majority of powers to the People and the States, Washington called on both entities to concede more of those powers and authorities to the federal government whenever the legislature called upon them to do so. To resist such a request or to take steps to limit (or diminish) the supreme authority of the federal government was a crime that "...will merit the bitterest execration [hatred and contempt] and the severest punishment which can be inflicted by his injured Country." In other words, the Tenth Amendment was to be ignored in favor of the Necessary and Proper clause of the Constitution. It was Washington who declared that revolution as a means of changing a tyrannical government was no longer an option since the founding of our republic:
"If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed."
The meaning was clear: revolting against a monarchy, as HE had done, was a good thing, but the AMENDMENT was the only proper way to effect change in a republic. By taking revolution off the table as a legitimate means of changing a government that had become so corrupt that it could not be changed by means of legislation or amendments, he also nullified the Second Amendment - which was intended by Jefferson and Madison to be a safeguard against a corrupt and tyrannical government. Sam Adams was even more blunt in his opinion of revolting against a republic:
"In monarchies the crime of treason and rebellion may admit of being pardoned or lightly punished, but the man who dares rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death."
Again, it was justified when THEY finally resorted to revolution; for anyone else, revolution constitutes treason. The federalist understanding of the Constitution nullifies the Second Amendment, and with it, the right to bear arms for anything but hunting.
And since Washington was the first President of the US, who also appointed the first Supreme Court justices, the Federalist interpretation of the Constitution is the one that became the norm for the government. It is the understanding under which our legislature and the President operate to this day, and it is this hijacked interpretation of the Constitution that permits the federal government to confiscate more of the rights that were Constitutionally enumerated to the PEOPLE whenever the urge hits, all in the name of the "Necessary and Proper" clause and national security.
No, the problem we face today is the direct result of the federalist interpretation of the Constitution that was institutionalized by none other than George Washington himself. That our nation's capitol is named for Washington is appropriate; his interpretation of the Constitution set the stage for what is happening today. The resulting mess is his to own forever.
