Ron DeSantis - Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama

Dreams From Our Founding Fathers

First Principles

in the Age of Obama

Ron DeSantis

2011 by Ron DeSantis

This ebook corresponds with the hardcover version with

ISBN 978-1-934666-80-7.

All Rights Reserved

Cover Design by Mary Fisher Design

Published and distributed by:

High-Pitched Hum Publishing

321 15th Street North

Jacksonville Beach, Florida 32250

Contact High-Pitched Hum Publishing at www.highpitchedhum.net

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

To Casey

Contents

Preface

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

This is the oath of office taken by commissioned officers in the United States Armed Forces, an oath I had taken for the first time in 2004 when I received and accepted commission for active duty service in the United States Navy, and that I again took in early 2010 as I prepared to leave active duty service and assume duties as an officer in the Navy Reserve. When I took the oath in 2004, I was less concerned with the meaning of the oath itself than with the reality that I was leaving behind civilian life, that our nation was more heavily engaged in shooting wars overseas that at any point since Vietnam, and that I wanted to do what I could to support the effort.

By the time I took the oath for my reserve commission in 2010, I became intrigued with the primacy that the oath places on the Constitution. The oath does not pledge its taker to the defense of the land owned and governed by the United States or to the population of American citizens, but, instead, to a particular form of government. Part of this fascination, no doubt, was due to the fact that I was taking the oath against the backdrop of a political environment in which the power of the federal government was being expanded beyond traditional limits. From assuming control of automobile companies to transmogrifying the nations health care system, President Barack Obama and his congressional allies seemed to be effectuating a self-described transformation of the American republic, even in the face of what was, at times, overwhelming public disapproval.

That these changes were being brought about by a political class that exhibited what I saw as an almost casual disregard for the Constitution further highlighted, in my mind, the centrality of the Constitution to the oath of office, especially since the Constitution has the same primacy in the oath taken by members of Congress. When the debate over the health care overhaul reached a feverish pitch, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked by a reporter to identify the constitutional basis that authorized Congress to force citizens to purchase private health insurance, which is something without parallel in American history. Pelosi bristled with contempt at the mere notion that the Constitution might constrain her political ambitions. Are you serious? Are you serious? she asked before shaking her head in disgust. She did not answer the question.

Pelosis incredulity about a question regarding basic constitutional power appears to be symptomatic of a larger malady of ignorance afflicting a sizable chunk of elected officials. In late 2008, the results of a civics test administered by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) to members of the American public made minor headlines because the results suggested that a significant number of Americans lack a working knowledge of the Constitution, American history, and economics. The kicker, though, was that elected officials comprised the one identifiable group that scored substantially lower than the public as a whole. It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISIs civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned, said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI. How can political leaders make informed decisions if they dont understand the American experience? Indeed.

I soon started to question whether the nations political leaders even take seriously their duty to support and defend the Constitution. An inclination to spend other peoples money, a lust to control the lives of their fellow citizens and a desire to perpetuate oneself in office are all characteristic of some of the most powerful political figures in the country, and it is easy to see how such figures could let these ignoble desires supplant a rigorous constitutional fidelity. With trillions of dollars of taxpayer money at the disposal of the political class, it seems like they consider the Constitution to be a quaint afterthought, a sometimes annoying impediment to their desire to redistribute the money of their fellow citizens and to engage in social engineering.

What is more, President Obama came to office after having pledged to enact far-reaching changes in the foundations of American society. He styled himself a progressive, which summoned the ghosts of those early-20th century reformers who criticized the Founding Fathers and expressed contempt for the Constitution. Just as those progressives sought to reorient Americans bedrock principles away from individual liberty and limited government and towards progressive central planning and a large administrative state, Obama seemed to be trying to reformulate our core operating principles in a way that furthered this progressive vision. Moving America towards a European-style bureaucratic Leviathan undercuts the ethos of constitutionalism that the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us. By my lights, it will be sad indeed if the nation departs from the foundational principles that the Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to establish.

Part One
Obama and the Return to First Principles

Fundamental Transformation

W hen viewers tuned into CNBC on February 19, 2009, little did they know they were about to witness the beginning of one of the largest grassroots political movements in American history. The stations morning business show, Squawk Box , featured a discussion of a new home foreclosure policy proposed by the new presidential administration of Barack Obama, who, buttressed by a fawning press, was enjoying a smooth honeymoon period and high public approval ratings. Reporting from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Rick Santelli was not buying the hype about Obama. Though few had publicly rebuked the popular new president, Santelli ripped Obama and his bailout policies for promoting bad behavior. According to Santelli, the federal government was rewarding financial irresponsibility with generous assistancea perversion of incentives and a punishment, in effect, of those who did not need a bailout due to making sound decisions. Receiving encouragement from a crowd of people on the trading floor, Santelli bellowed, President Obama, are you listening?

Santelli argued that Obamas big spending policies, such as the $814,000,000,000 economic stimulus bill enacted earlier that month, were doomed to failure because you cant buy your way into prosperity. Referencing the Keynesian economic theory that each dollar spent by the government expands the economy by more than a dollar, he said that if the multiplier that all of these Washington economists are selling us is over onethen we never have to worry about the economy again. The government should spend a trillion dollars an hour because well get $1.5 trillion back! Things seemed to be getting so out of hand that Santelli was thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, Im gonna start organizing. Santelli cited the need to foster a return to first principles, because if you read our founding fathers, people like Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson.What were doing in this country now is making them roll over in their graves.