A lot of people with a very shallow or non-existent education in Civics think the federal government should be in a lot of businesses that it shouldn’t be in.

Consider for a moment. The Departments of Education, Energy, Housing and Human Services, Defense and most others didn’t exist before the 20th century. Precisely because the original federal government was never supposed to be involved in these things.

Don’t believe me? Read the Constitution. The federal government was supposed to be involved in settling arguments between the states, defending all the states, and devising trade agreements between the states and other countries. Think I’m kidding? Again, read the Constitution.

The original Constitution was endlessly debated by the Colonies. They didn’t like what the king of England was doing, but they weren’t keen on what a central government might be like. Each was more or less like its own country, with its own customs, laws and ways of life. The Founders wanted to stitch them all together in some way, so that we had some way to settle arguments between them and represent them all as a group. So they had to come up with a form of government which was minimal enough to avoid interfering with the internal business of the Colonies. In fact, the Constitution is written in such a way as to prohibit the federal government from interfering in what was considered colony business, like education or land use. Things like this were considered the internal business of the Colonies. The department of Education, in particular, violates the Constitution as written.

Part of the problem here is that people haven’t and don’t read the Constitution. This mirrors the situation with the Bible for centuries. The Church discouraged and actively prevented the rank and file from actually reading the Bible. This allowed the Church to dictate to its congregations what it said, regardless of what it really said. Somebody suggests that we need to help poor people with their housing woes, and the federal government is elected to deliver that help. Politicians, wishing to acquire votes and remain in office, seize upon this and put laws in place to provide for it, despite the fact that the Constitution expressly forbids it. It could be asked, if it was prohibited by the Constitution, why wouldn’t somebody object? Well, who, with a standing to argue the issue in court, would object? Legislators would see the issue as a way of garnering votes for decades. So why argue in court against it? Screw the Constitution!

When you argue in favor of the federal government getting into the environmental protection business, realize you’re arguing against the Constitution. Likewise with almost every department of the federal government.