I believe this shows that all of the Republican candidates are ignorant of the founders, save Ron Paul. The CNBC debate last Tuesday showed all the candidates are pretty much clueless to what these old-timers said:
James Madison:
“. . . The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature . . . the executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.” (1793.)
“The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care vested the question of war to the Legislature.” (Letter to Jefferson, c. 1798.)
Thomas Jefferson:
“We have already given in example one effectual check to the dog of war by transferring the power of letting him loose from the Executive to the Legislative body. . . .” (Letter to Madison, 1789.)
“Considering that Congress alone is constitutionally invested with the power of changing our condition from peace to war, I have thought it my duty to await their authority for using force in any degree which could be avoided.” (Message to Congress, 1805.)
George Washington:
“The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.” (1793.)
James Wilson:
“This system will not hurry us into war; it is calculated to guard against it. It will not be in the power of a single man, or a single body of men, to involve us in such distress; for the important power of declaring war is vested in the legislature at large. . . .” (To the Pennsylvania ratifying convention, 1787.)
Filed under: Iran, Philosophy, Politics, Ron Paul | Tagged: democrat, fathers, founding, george, Iran, Iraq, james, jefferson, madison, president, Quotes, republican, thomas, war, washington, wilson
[...] The Founding Fathers prove Republican candidates are idiotshttp://politicalinquirer.com/2007…r-and-the-constitutional-grounds-for-it/ [...]
Those guys were visionaries in many ways. Too bad they missed one aspect – how willing a Congress that had become beholden to the Military-Industrial Complex would be to shirk that responsibility. They can be excused, I guess, as the MIC didn’t exist when they wrote the Mother Document of what was once our Republic.
I suspect the current crop of pretenders to the Throne aren’t as ignorant of the Constitution as they seem. They are just playing cynically on the ignorance of the electorate.
Why couldn’t we have a competent government as opposed to destroy the world? That’s my job, anyway.
I guess that proves Democrats are even more of idiots than Republicans, then… Seeming that Bush did go to Congress for a war vote that passed… so did Lyndon Johnson in Vietnam, FDR in WW2, Woodrow Wilson in WW1… the list goes on.
Building on to this article as I listen to Obama and Clinton debate I have heard both of them referring to our founding fathers for support of there campaigns. My problem with this is I don’t understand why they think that what they are trying to do to this government is anything like what the founding fathers intended. This country was founded on freedom. I just don’t see the democrats upholding those ideals in the coming election.
I think we are missing one important point. The Congress passed laws each time (Vietnam and Iraq) to allow the President to commit troops to action without a declaration of war. It was a defacto declaration of war without actually going through the motions.
I think our founding fathers had common sense… Which has now become the imaginable 6th sense to our recent oh so fab politicians these days..
… this is a bit off sub but in a non-biased evaluation of the democratic and republican party, by kicking it old school, whats the difference between the two? Like, way before all this ridiculous liberal crap came into play.. Really.. What started them back in Madison’s day?
…. Are Libertarians the new-old school political parties? It seems to me that Liberties are quite the fetch in common sense..
“The Congress passed laws each time (Vietnam and Iraq) to allow the President to commit troops to action without a declaration of war.”
And in such a way that they could shirk their own responsibility for it.
I remember several of the candidates saying “I wouldn’t have voted for the law to give Bush the power if I thought he would actually use the power.” Like that gets them off the hook.
They intended for him to make empty threats, but they gave him a loaded gun.