Gingrich's Outrageous Call to Deport All Practicing U.S. Muslims

[Annie]

Check out Islamic Party of Ontario, Canada. In a province of 13 million, 4.5% are Muslim.

From their site: We understand and believe that Islam is the native DEEN [“system of life”] of Ontario and Canada.

GK Chesterton writes: The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is no good to cry out after you are hurt; especially after you are mortally hurt. People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists. It is no answer to say, with a distant optimism, that the scheme is only in the air. A blow from a hatchet can only be parried while it is in the air.

 

[exnihilo]

While it is indisputable that the USA originally grew out of colonies established by the British Empire and populated with peoples of various European ethnicities, it does not follow that the Founding Fathers intended to create a country that mirrored European demographics, culture, religion, or government as they were at the time.

No, it doesn’t follow from the mere fact that the colonies came from Europe that it wanted to completely emulate Europe. But, from the writing and laws of the time it is easy to establish that the colonists did want to basically have Europe (Christendom) as a republic. The extent to which they wanted a state church varies by colony and time.

As an example of a case where there was broader rejection of patrimony we have the French Revolution. It is quite clear that Americans did not want that. The United States was formed just a year prior to the start of that revolution.

 

[HCTC]

In the consideration of what the founders envisioned there is inherent speculation. Which founder? At what point in time?

What I have concluded from my reading of the seminal documents that created and charted the nation together with editorials published prior to the ratification of the Articles of Confederation and the codifications that followed is this:

1. The founders were motivated to build a government based on the religious precept that God gave mankind freewill. They wanted a place where people would have the opportunity to act through their God given freewill rather than through necessity or fate. This is a powerful Christian principle, and it is the foundation of American government IMO.
2. The history of hundreds of years of religious-based wars in Europe and around the world had informed the founders that governments attached to a religious sect - even a Christian sect - did not result in a place that provided an opportunity for citizens to exercise their God given freewill.
3. The founders viewed what they were doing as an experiment. They hypothesized about the givens of human nature and how efficacious variables in governance would be in achieving their goal of a free and stable society.
4. Madison and Jefferson, at least, came to the conclusion that a government based on any religious dogma would constrain freewill - because inherent in government legitimacy is physical force. For example, Madison expressed the theoretical idea in Federalist 10 and Jefferson codified the principle in the VA Statute for Religious Freedom.

Excerpt from Federalist 10:
There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.

It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.

The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.

 

[exnihilo]

The federalist papers were the propaganda pieces for the federalists. The anti-federalist papers are important. And since they turned out to be correct, whereas the federalist papers were incorrect, more worthy of reading. But, both pertain to the confederate government. The US was a union of many sovereign states. It is important to survey them as well. And by their constitutions and laws much can be learned about what the people wanted.

 

[LastStand]

Incidentally, the Founding Fathers had a very different notion of what sort of diversity would be good for the country. Note the laws concerning immigration passed in 1790, 1795, 1798, and 1802.

 

[exnihilo]

The federalist papers were written in support of the current US constitution. The anti-federalist papers were written against it. They were both written at a time when the Articles of Confederation were in force.