James Madison and the Pelosi health care bill

By Patrick Jakeway

James Madison, in Federalist, number 57, has some words highly relevant to the Pelosi health care reform bill:

"If it be asked, what is to restrain the house of representatives from making legal discriminations in favour of themselves, and a particular class of society? I answer, the genius of the whole system; the nature of just and constitutional laws; and, above all, the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America; a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.

If this spirit ever be so far debased, as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature, as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate any thing but liberty."

Given the fact that the currently pending health care reform bill does not obligate the members of Congress to have their medical well-being covered by it, it is as if Madison himself is rising from the grave and is pointing his finger at us accusingly and asking us whether we will meekly and timidly allow the liberty which he, the Founding Fathers and all our other ancestors worked so hard to secure to be taken from us quietly and seamlessly in a simple vote on the floor of the House of Representatives?

Are the people of America still actuated by a vigilant spirit of freedom? Does it still beat in the hearts of its citizens? These are the questions which each citizen must pose him or herself and answer with the firmness of the American spirit of liberty. If we do not, then surely we are prepared to tolerate tyranny.