Monday, November 8, 2004

Founding Quotes of Note XV

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite." --James Madison, Federalist No. 45

It's hard to be more clear and direct than that, eh? Am I crazy, or shouldn't our "leaders" be required to prove their familiarity with our founding documents? I propose this: anyone elected to Congress, the Presidency, or appointed to the Supreme Court should be obliged to demonstrate that they've read and understood the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and The Federalist Papers, among other documents. Ignorance of such weighty matters probably is not an impeachable offense (though I'm open to that possibility!); but wouldn't it be nice to see it trumpeted across the tv, internet, radio, and print media, whenever some elected demi-god can't describe what the First or Second Amendments say?

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