Those who are seriously interested in this question should read The Federalist Papers, all of them, at http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa00.htm . Madison, Hamilton, and Jay do a good job of arguing for the position that the Articles of Confederation were inadequate for their main purpose of protecting against infringements of individual rights and liberties, and that the balance between delegated powers and reserved rights needed to be struck at a different point, with different structures and procedures to enable a vigorous, vigilant, and educated public to keep government under control, while using it for its legitimate purposes. They implicitly recognized that in real life we don't get a choice between what we might want and what we don't want, but among the alternatives that are actually available, and that the Constitution represented that best available alternative.
Some anarchists have argued, illogically and disindigenously, that limited government is impossible and that therefore the Constitution is intrinsically flawed. They try to put the blame on the Constitution instead of where it belongs, on the people whose duty is to enforce it (including themselves). That is an attempt to evade responsibility for one's own failures. Only fools proclaim that a Constitution or other law will magically "protect" our rights without us having to make a huge effort to do our parts. You can argue that human beings are so hopelessly corrupt that they won't make a Constitution work, but that ignores the historical facts that they often have made it work for lengthy periods of time over extended territories. There is nothing to prevent people today from doing what they successfully did in the 1787-1824 timeframe, especially after 1800. They just have to make up their minds to do it. Our job as libertarians is to lead them toward doing that. -- Jon ------------------------------------------------------------------- Constitution Society 2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322, Austin, TX 78757 512/299-5001 www.constitution.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------------------------------------------------
