In light of a comment by Michelle Bachmann and the response thereto by pundit Chris Matthews, former Presidential candidate Alan Keyes notes . . . . . . the socialist-leaning left’s longstanding inclination to diminish the standing and putative authority of America’s founding generation. These people never miss an opportunity to point out that some of the founders were slaveholders. Some of the founders drank too much. Some of the founders were sexual libertines and adulterers. Not only were they no better than we are, their racism and bigotry make us their superiors. We are, therefore, no longer bound to think their views about politics or government have any special status or deserve any special consideration. Though couched in terms of personal disparagement, this denigration of the founders isn’t at all about personal feelings or sensitivities. Sure, many on the socialist left still feel obliged to pay lip service to the U.S. Constitution. Like Obama, they even occasionally mouth the language of rights, as if to echo the famous affirmations of the American Declaration of Independence. But the idea of government limited by the moral requirements of unalienable right contradicts the efficient pursuit of socialist goals. Structural constraints like federalism

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