In
his brilliant classic, A
Disquisition on Government,
John C. Calhoun warned that a written constitution would never be
sufficient to restrain the governmental leviathan. The net tax
consumers (those who received more in government benefits than they
paid in taxes), especially government employees, would relentlessly
argue away the effectiveness of constitutional restrictions on
government, he predicted. The net tax payers would inevitably
be overwhelmed and defeated. There was never a truer political
prediction.
In
his new book, 9
Presidents Who Screwed Up America – And Four Who Tried to Save Her,
Brion McClanahan presents a masterful and superbly-scholarly
discussion of how nine presidents, beginning with George Washington
himself, effectively destroyed constitutional government. On
the brighter side, he also explains how four presidents –
Jefferson, Tyler, Cleveland, and Coolidge – did their best to
preserve the Jeffersonian vision of limited constitutional
government....... even George Washington acted in ways that were
destructive of constitutional government. McClanahan describes
how slick political manipulators like Alexander Hamilton were able to
talk Washington into things that were either of dubious
constitutionality or plainly unconstitutional......To
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