We the People

"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The Preamble to the Constitution says it all. The rest of the document just fills in the details and/or corrects oversights and errors. What is the importance in terms of our modern day society? Well it would seem that politicians conveniently ignore or interpret the document to suit their own political point of view. Take the phrase "... promote the general welfare ..." What did the framers mean by this? It is hard to tell, but I would say that the government should not show favorites.

 The phrase "promote the general welfare" means that where possible all segments of society should benefit equally. Is that the case today? I think not. If McCain is elected, one segment of society will benefit disproportionately; on the other hand Obama's supporters will benefit if he wins. Our political parties play this as a zero-sum game; thus if someone wins, someone else has to lose. While this approach may be valid in business, it is not the business of government to enrich one group at the expense of another. The monarchies in the 17th, 18th 19th centuries took this approach and guess what happened to them?

What is really ironic, is the fact that if we fail to promote the general welfare, then none of the other aims expressed in the preamble will come to fruition. Is it too much to hope that McCain and Obama will put the country as a whole first? We shall see!