Founding Fathers - Interlude, A revelation.

I have spent the last couple of weeks studying the Founding Fathers. It has been an enlightening experience. I have settled in my own my mind at least that they believed in a secular government. Not because of a lack of belief in the divine but because they had witnessed firsthand the corrupting influence that religion and government had on one another. That neither religion nor government was pure when one was influenced by the other and that the only way to guarantee religious freedom for all was to strip the government of the power to favor or impede religious pursuit. This is the foundation and essence of the first amendment.

Having stated that; I felt compelled to write about a minor epiphany I had while researching. It occurred to me that the issue of separation of church and state was so important to Madison and his contemporaries because they had witnessed the inherent abuses of power in governments that were part theocracy. I am sure however that they could not foresee a time when private enterprise would be a danger to the public welfare. In their day business was undoubtedly viewed as an additional check on government and that business and government’s intrinsic natures (taxation, regulation, and lack thereof) would keep them at perpetual odds and thereby help prevent corruption in both.

Sadly, I do not think they recognized the possibility that someday industry would grow as influential as any religion. That a need would arise to separate business from government and for the same reasons they felt religion should be separate from government. I cannot help asking myself what would happen if our government was prohibited from interfering with, or supporting industry except to protect the rights of citizens. I personally believe that like religion we would find that both government and industry would be better off without each other. Surely government corruption would diminish without the never ceasing flow of corporate wealth, and surely the economy would be stronger were it's foundation supported by merit rather than political endorsement.

Both the politicians and companies that profit from this incestuous relationship want us to believe that America's problems are the result of entitlement programs, unjust wars, immigration law, health care reform, or any of the other talking points the politicians, pundits, and the media use to distract us. When the sad truth is; America's real problems stem from it's moral foundations crumbling under the weight of corporate wealth. That its integrity has been compromised by the cancerous growth known as big business. That protecting the rights of the people is far less important and far less profitable than protecting the concerns of business.