(The Subsidiarity Times) Last month, talk show host Jason Lewis gave a very interesting perspective on America’s structure of government during his radio show when he revealed to his listeners that the Founding Fathers of the United States adopted the Principle of Subsidiarity in founding this nation.
“What the framers saw was the idea of being governed by a far-away monarchy as untenable. They did not like being told what to do especially by one family, one person, one throne; but not only that because it was across the pond (Atlantic Ocean). ‘What are they telling us?’ So they adopted the Principles of Subsidiarity that said: ‘Look, local government is best’. And (also) as Madison said and Hamilton as well, the best way to govern a country this large, America was going to be a larger proposition then Great Britain, would be the principles of republicanism, where you divide the majority into a bunch of different jurisdictions and then you let those local jurisdictions decide. Rather then have the national government decide for all of the jurisdictions.”
Mr. Lewis is correct in his analysis. The Founding Fathers believed that they should govern themselves in their own jurisdictions. That was the primary reason they opposed the Stamp Act and the other taxes and regulations that Great Britain attempted to impose on the American colonies in the years leading up to the American Revolution. Plus, building off that experience of a national government trying to dictate their laws, taxes and regulations, it was one of the primary reasons that the Framers clearly stated in the United States Constitution that all powers not clearly granted to the Federal Government in the Constitution were to be reserved expressly for the states.
© 2012 The Subsidiarity Times. Audio courtesy of The Jason Lewis Show; re-published with permission. All rights reserved. This material may not be re-published, re-broadcast, re-written, re-transcribed or re-distributed without written permission from author.
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