Obama, McCain call on founders – selectively

David Boaz of The Cato Institute takes President Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain to task for their July 4 radio addresses in which they had the audacity to identify government actions that they believed would have appalled our nation’s Founding Fathers.

President Obama, Boaz writes, invoked “the indomitable spirit of the first American citizens who made [independence] day possible” in arguing for a federal takeover of education, energy and health care.

Boaz points out that the president might have a wee bit of trouble explaining how his policies reflect the spirit of the men who left us such words as these:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must be happy.

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

Meanwhile, Boaz writes, McCain called for the American government to more vigorously support the protesters in Iran. What, he asks, would the Founders say to him?

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible….Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.

[America] has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. …Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

Boaz concludes by stating that perhaps “each week there should be three national radio broadcasts: one from the incumbent president, one from the other big-government party and one reflecting the views of the Founders.”

No doubt, the first two would be much more closely aligned with one another than the latter.

(Hat tip: Cafe Hayek)