Perhaps the Chief is dating himself here…if so, oh well. For those who don’t remember (for any number of possible reasons) Walt Disney ran a series on their show that dramatized “Davy Crockett – King of the Wild Frontier”

It should be noted, that they took some historical liberties with the topic (hey, it was a mass TV thing aimed at kids!), but as this article illustrates, often the events of the past are directly relevant to the issues of the latter days.

In this case Congressman David (preferred by him instead of “Davy”) Crockett was called to account by a concerned constituent, and wasnot only willing to listen, but was willing to both admit his error and change his position as the result.  Not bad…especially when compared to the current crop of Congresscritters.

Charity and the good ol’ Constitution

“Where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away the public money in charity?”

It might be a question out of today’s headlines, but it isn’t.

No doubt, it could rightly be asked in the health-care debate, but it goes well beyond that. In every disaster, in every disturbance, the federal government today is ready with a checkbook at hand to help those in need. Hurricane Katrina? California fires? Montana snowstorms? They’ve all been declared disasters in order to justify federal spending to help out the victims and to speed recovery. The average number of disaster declarations reached as high as 130 during the George W. Bush administration, an increase of almost 50 percent over the Clinton era.

Of course, no one could be against helping the innocent victims of natural or manmade disasters, could they? Well, no. Not anyone in their right mind, at least. Charity is one of the highest impulses of mankind, and our desire to help and protect each other is a noble heritage that we all cherish.

But that does not answer the original question:

“Where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away the public money in charity?”

That question was asked not of President Obama nor of Sen. Max Baucus or Rep. Nancy Pelosi, but of the less well-known Tennessee congressman, David Crockett.

It was a question that Rep. Crockett was not well-prepared to answer, but his constituent wanted to know why he had voted to spend federal funds for the relief of families that had been left homeless as the result of a ravaging fire in Georgetown. Crockett had actually seen the fire and gone to help rescue women and children and to fight the flames, so he was more than happy a bill came before Congress to aid those victims further. As he himself said, “We put aside all other business, and rushed it through as soon as it could be done.”

Again, sort of reminiscent of the “rush” to pass health-care ‘reform” in the current Congress,

At this point you really need to read the account in the piece of the conversation between Cong. Crockett and constituent Horatio Bunce.

The Chief heartily endorses the conclusion:

In this day and age, the only congressman I know of who follows Crockett’s example as a born-again constitutionalist is Ron Paul, who never votes for a bill without first confirming in his own mind that Congress is authorized by the Constitution to pass such a law. Most of the rest of them just ask themselves how popular the bill will be, and whether it will help or hurt their efforts to be re-elected.

Yes, the Constitution is a relatively old document, but it is not moldy, and if we think of it as quaint and irrelevant, we do so at the ultimate cost of our liberty. That would be unconscionable.

Let’s hope that this story of Rep. David Crockett and a plain old U.S. citizen who held him accountable helps to remind each and every one of us that America’s exceptional quality is partly based on the fact that we are ruled from the bottom up. It is “we the people,” not “we the governed.”

It is important also to remember that solutions to most American problems are to be found in American lore and history — if one could but be bothered to look. Although times change, human nature doesn’t, nor does the nature of our republic, as long as it stands fast and hews to the line of the Constitution.

Here’s hoping we can get a few more Crocketts for Washington.