First, the Framers viewed government as a necessary evil: required for a free people's collective security but, if insufficiently checked, guaranteed to devour liberty. The purpose of the Constitution was not to make the positive case for government but for freedom. Freedom cannot exist without order, and thus implies some measure of government. But it is a limited government, vested with only the powers expressly enumerated. As the Framers knew, a government that strays beyond those powers is necessarily treading on freedom's territory. It is certain to erode the very 'Blessings of Liberty' the Constitution was designed to secure. Relatedly, the Constitution does state the positive case for government in its opening lines. Government is required to safeguard the rule of law and the national security. These injunctions are vital: there is no liberty without them. Why, then, do Obama and other Leftists ignore them? Because they don't involve picking winners and losers; they eschew social engineering. These guarantees, instead, are for everyone, uniformly: Government must 'provide for the common defense' and 'promote the general welfare' (emphasis added). The Blessings of Liberty are to be secured 'to ourselves and to our posterity' -- not to yourself at the expense of my posterity.
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