George Will provides this primer on the Constitution and Progressivism in his latest column. As such, it is a preview of my Shaftesbury Society Luncheon presentation on Monday, June 7th, but, of course, Will is much more eloquent.
Today, government finds the limitless power of dispensing not in
Madison’s Constitution of limited government but in Wilson’s theory
that the Constitution actually frees government from limitations. The
liberating — for government — idea is that the Constitution is a
“living,” evolving document. Wilson’s Constitution is an emancipation
proclamation for government, empowering it to regulate all human
activities in order to treat all human desires as needs and hence as
rights….
…Wilsonian government, meaning (in Wilson’s words) government with
“unstinted power,” is hostile to Madison’s Constitution, which, Madison
said, obliges government “to control itself.”
Thus our choice is between government restraint rooted in respect for
nature, or government free to follow History wherever government says
History marches.
