StaggShire

Please discuss, in 600-800 words, the fundamental questions that the Founding Fathers wrestled with before they wrote up the Constitution.
This is the blog topic for this week.
The Founding Fathers had to research all previous governments, ask why they failed, and ask why and in what manner they succeeded. The Founding Fathers had to research all previous governments, ask why they failed, and ask why and in what manner they succeeded. They asked the question, “What does an ideal government do? What are the characteristics of an ideal government?” Well, an ideal government is fair, it protects its people, and it keeps public order. It is a government that has the best interests of the people at heart. The ideal government is wise, reasonable, efficient, compassionate, moderate, and helpful. When he asked us in class about to think about these questions moderate was not one of the adjectives I came up with, but hearing it made total sense. After all, within the Gospel, such as through the Word of Wisdom, we are taught moderation in all things. It only makes sense that the ideal government would be so as well. That word gives me another standard by which to base my judgement of our government today and whereby to construct my political leanings. Although I should remember that moderate in the way of the world and moderate in the way of God are not the same thing most of the time.
They also asked the question, “What about real world experience with governments?” What they were met with there was not so hearts-and-flowersy. Most, if not all of the world’s governments, have become tyrannical, invasive, and aggressive. There has been genocide and ethnic cleansing. Obviously, the ideal government does not match reality. So the founding fathers had to look at existent and previous government. There they found the circle of the human predicament. At the top of the circle is tyranny, then comes revolution, then anarchy at the bottom, and from anarchy comes competing groups, which goes into tyranny again. In studying these governments, they found that even in tyranny some people do benefit, which goes to show that any form of government is better than anarchy. I personally found this to be a very interesting concept. So, of course, the Founding Fathers concluded that they must have a government either way, but, much like the true church, the best earthly government was not nor had even been created on the earth at that time. So the founding fathers had to grapple with these three concepts: Government, Freedom, and Human Nature. The Founding Fathers took into account the humanity of our race, and with that to rein them in, set out to establish the ideal government for this earth. (One girl in the class brought up an interesting theory in her Just and Holy Principles paper: that the United States government as laid out by the Founding Fathers is in preparation for the government of Jesus Christ.) This government would be one that expands freedom, takes into account human nature, doesn’t give government absolute power. As one European author put it: “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” They realized that in order to keep the government officials from having too much power, there had to be the concept of the rule of law, which means that the people are ruled by a law, rather than by a personality. I also thought that concept, although very simple, was very sweet. It’s concepts like that, simple but sweet, that help me to recognize how truly enlightened these men, of different opinions and different backgrounds, were.