"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume the powers of the earth, hte separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they have been endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."--Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence
I received an email from the ACLU recently, screaming about religion in America; and one of the main points of the email was that the God is not referenced in the Constitution. Strangely, they completely left out the fact that the Declaration of Independence, which predates the Constitution, and was signed off on by many of the same people, is literally based on the assumption that God exists.
Our Founding Fathers, for the most part, believed that a) God exists and b) He is active in the affairs of men. There is extensive documentation of this, not least in the Declaration, quoted above. There were some who held strange views, without a doubt; but for the most part, they were Christians, the nation that they founded was intended to be run on Christian principles, and I would like to see this country run the way they intended to be run.
This is, quite frankly, the difference between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives want to stick with the Founding Fathers' vision. Liberals don't care about what the Founding Fathers thought; they know what they want, and they will do whatever they have to do to accomplish their goal. If you disagree with me, take a close look at FDR and President Obama, and you will see that I am right.
So why am I a conservative? Why do I care what a bunch of long-dead old white men intended?
Well, to start with, they are the reason that I'm here. Without them I'd be British or French or Spanish or something like that. They created this country, and that gives them the right to set the rules.
Second, they had a pretty good idea of how things ought to be done. (SLAVERY!) Some of you cry (IS ENSLAVING HUMAN BEINGS HOW THINGS OUGHT TO BE DONE?!) I'll get to that in a moment. But if you look at their policies on taxation, foreign relations, the military, and just generally how America does business, up to around Teddy Roosevelt, most of our Presidents had a pretty good bead on things.
Now, let's address the slavery issue. Many people, when you praise the Founding Fathers, trot out the fact that they owned slaves. When this happens, most conservatives get tongue-tied. (Been there, done that). Some will point out that Washington set his slaves free, only to have their opponents point out that he was the only one. (And then the tongue-tying ensues).
As a whole, the Founding Fathers hated slavery. They didn't think that men had any right to enslave other men. Founding Fathers who spoke out against it include Benjamin Rush, John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Noah Webster, and Charles Carroll (http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=120)
So, if this is true, then why did they allow slavery? Ask yourself for a second: "What happened when we tried to abolish it?"
Think about that for a second. If we had tried to abolish slavery right from the very beginning of this country, would we have remained a unified nation? Of course not. There would have been a civil war right off the bat. South would have fought the North, and it wouldn't have mattered who won, because Britain, Spain, or Portugal would have come in and picked us off we were weak and vulnerable.
The Founding Fathers, as much as they hated it, allowed slavery to continue. However, they designed a society in which they knew that slavery could not survive. Think about it: In America, the status quo is constantly changing. If the status quo is constantly changing, is it not only logical then, that one group can only remain on the bottom for so long?
This is the answer to the standard slavery argument, which is the main argument that is raised against the Founding Fathers. Thus, this is why I support the Founding Fathers, and this, along with the reasons given in the last post, is why I am a Conservative.
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