We need a history lesson

It's interesting to note that the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth (actually they first landed at what is now Provincetown, MA, on the very tip of Cape Cod) experimented with Socialism/Commune-ism when they first arrived here in 1620.  It was a dismal failure and did not last very long.  It seems that many arguments arose over those who were sharing equally in the benefits of the community but not giving their fair share in supporting it.  Wow!  Now that I've said it, I am surprised at how accurate that comment fits the way things are today.  Maybe we are already communists and don't even know it!

Another good example of commune-ism as a failed form of government is Russia, or, as it was formerly known, the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."  This union was the result of the Russian revolution of 1917 and the ensuing civil war of 1918 that overthrew Czar Nicholas II and saw the murder of the entire Romanov family including Nicholas' daughter, the infamous Anastasia and Nicholas' son Alexis who was reputedly cured of his hemophilia by the "Mad Monk," Rasputin.  The new Soviet Union was established and ruled with a firm hand by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin under the principles laid out by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto.  It might have been a different story if the Benevolent Lenin had lived, but he only lasted 6 years before he died and Joseph Stalin came to power and all hell broke loose.  Anyway, this experiment with Socialism/Communism only lasted from 1917 to 1991; 74 years!  That is a blip in time for the lifespan of a government!  Complete and utter failure!

Is this the direction we want our country to go?  I think the lessons of history are a clear signpost that we should not only avoid this path, but we should make every effort to rid ourselves of some of the social programs that have already been levied upon us.  Some folks take our Constitution lightly but anyone who has read history knows how hard the founding fathers worked to avoid the trappings of all the previous world governments.  John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and many of the others were all students of history with their own extensive libraries at their disposal.  Ben Franklin established the first public library, Thomas Jefferson's library was so extensive that it was a key cause to his eventual financial downfall and he had to sell it to the U.S. government (it became the seed of the Library of Congress) to pay off his debts!  John Adams was probably the most well read of them all, and his experience during the Revolution as a diplomat to most of the governments of Europe gave him first hand knowledge that few of his peers possessed except, maybe, his son John Quincy Adams.

Suffice it to say that our constitution was not produced haphazardly.  Much thought was put into it by many intelligent and well read persons who had studied, in depth, all the previous forms of government the world had known up to that time and we should not veer far from it's basic principles.  These same men warned us of this when they drafted the Declaration of Independence wherein they said, "Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes."

Maybe change isn't always a good thing?