What is the role of government

There are those that say the framework of the Constitution is not a living document, but I don't really agree.  I think the Constitution is far more flexible than some think.  It is obvious that the Supreme Court constantly changes the meaning of the document each time it writes an interpretation of what it says.  Since THEY have that power, self given, not given by the Constitution, than the document lives and changes with time.  Words hold no unchanging meaning, no matter how hard we pretend otherwise.  All you have to do is talk to the next generation of Americans to realize that words take on different meanings on a regular basis.

But the real test of what is the role of government comes down to the statement that all powers not given to the central government are held for the states and the people.  That does not say, nor can you truly interpret that it DOES say, that the states and the people can not give powers to the central government that they chose not to exercise.  And in this manner, the central government CAN and DOES take on powers that were once reserved for the states and people.

I think it would be a very difficult "sell" under any circumstances, however, to say that the Constitution can give the central government the right to jeopardize the lives of all Americans, alive or yet to be born, by adventurous wars overseas, or by actively instigating unrest in foreign countries.  It never gave the government the authority to wage war against Spain in the early 1900s, as an example, nor did it give the government the authority to wage wars on the European continent, in the middle east, in Asia, or in the Pacific.  Although the government may declare war, it can truly only be legitimate if the people have accepted it as the right thing to do at the time.  I don't even believe it should be declared by Congress without first giving the people the honest facts, and allowing them to demonstrate their desire.  Of course, that won't happen since Congress, as does the President, believes that they know better than the people and can better make decisions for the people.

Although I very much like the liberty and freedom that the Constitution gives us, I do recognize the fact that the government does have to take steps that we might not want.  However, those steps should never truly jeopardize the liberty and freedom we are given by God - by whatever name you chose to worship - and should impinge on those freedoms as little as possible.  I do not consider, as an example, Homeland Security, a farcical name at best, should exist as it is anything but a department whose intent is to secure the homeland, whatever that word signifies.  Its obvious intent from the beginning was to secure the central government from the people, and certainly, through the agency of some of its departments, it goes far in that direction - at a grievous cost to liberty and freedom.

Functionally, the concept of the Department of Education makes sense to me.  I truly believe that a nation comprised of multiple jurisdictions, such as the 50 states, needs a central government component to develop a guideline for the various states so that those educated in, say, Montana, are able to move to Georgia, as an  example, and have the necessary educational background to be successful there.  True, they might not have the same knowledge of state history, but they should expect to have an equivalent education in the normal curricula to be able to blend in.  I think that this might well be a "power" that the people and states might well give back to the central government for just that purpose.  However, there is no doubt that what we call the Department of Education has gone far beyond establishing a minimum curriculum to guarantee interchangeability, and has started dictating things that fall outside of what should reasonably be the extent of their power.

This topic will be continued at a later time and will cover more areas of control that the central government exercises that are probably outside of the Constitutional limits as well as those limits of what the people and states may have given back to it.