Today is Constitution Day, the day in 1787 when 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia agreed to sign the Constitution that they had fought over in four months of debate, and with the element of compromise predominating!
Ever since, the Founding Fathers and what they did has been interpreted in many different ways, and it has become the passion of the Tea Party Republicans and conservatives to distort the meaning of the Constitution and the intentions of the Founding Fathers!
The Constitution has been viewed by these right wingers as promoting a limited national government, advocating states rights, and promoting combination of church and state.
They fail to understand that the Constitutional Convention was a reaction to the states rights, limited national government of the Articles of Confederation, which led to anarchy, chaos, and economic emergency, and proved the need for a strong central government.
They fail to understand that Section 8 of Article 1 on Congress allowed for the “elastic clause”, that Congress shall have the power to enact legislation to “make all laws which are necessary and proper” and to “provide for the common defense and the general welfare”. The Founding Fathers understood that no one could accurately predict the future, and the national government had to have authority to expand the meaning of the Constitution in order to survive and be viable in the long term future of the nation!
The Founding Fathers also clearly understood that while religious freedom should be protected, that there was a need to prevent a theocracy, a control of government by religious viewpoints, and they would be shocked at the attempts of religious fundamentalists to force their moral and spiritual views on American politics and society!
This is the truth and the reality of the Constitution and its meaning for America 224 years after the Founding Fathers, NOT conservatives but rather liberals of their time period, used their joint wisdom and intelligence to create the greatest constitutional document ever created by mankind to govern a free people!