Like Beck and many Tea Party supporters, Skousen believed that leftists
have sought to manipulate what Americans believe about history, undermining
belief in the Founders and the Constitution in order to make it possible to trick the
nation into accepting Communism, which right-thinking Americans would
otherwise recognize as a foreign doctrine.58 According to Skousen, the false
history foisted upon Americans succeeded in creating a “generation of lost
Americans” and a nation of “un-Americans,” who had lost touch with their
national identity.59
Skousen sought to reintroduce America to the true Founders, presenting
them as a unified group of chosen disciples to whom God revealed a divine
formula for government.60 He scoffed at conventional versions of American
history that depict the Founders as relatively nonreligious deists, declaring that the
Founders “continually petitioned God in fervent prayers, both public and private,
and looked upon his divine intervention in their daily lives as a singular
blessing.”61 Skousen likewise rejected the conventional understanding that the
framers of the Constitution were principally influenced by European philosophers
of the Enlightenment era, including Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau.62 Far from
following what Skousen refers to as the “fads of European philosophy,” the
Founders took their inspiration from the Bible and the ancient Anglo-Saxons.63 In
fact, the Founders rejected all “European” theories and “made European theories
unconstitutional.”64
The central thrust of Skousen’s books is that the Constitution establishes
eternal national principles that can protect the nation against the spread of world
Communism. The first and most important of these “ancient principles” is the
establishment of “natural law” as the only reliable basis for government.65 For
Skousen, natural law means “God’s laws” and encompasses the necessity for
“limited government,” the right to bear arms, protections for the family and the
institution of marriage, the sanctity of private property, and the avoidance of
debt.66 Such natural law principles, Skousen claimed, are instituted eternally and
are not subject to change by mortal legislators.67 Legislation contrary to God’s
laws is a “scourge to humanity” and is therefore unconstitutional.68
In words that sound much like Santelli, Skousen declared that natural law
prohibits government efforts to provide welfare benefits or redistribute wealth.69
Skousen cites a debunked story (also frequently told by Representative Ron Paul)
that when Davy Crockett served in Congress he voted against a bill to provide
financial support to a Navy widow because Crockett believed that the government
has no authority to take money from some taxpayers and give it to others—no
matter how worthy the cause or how needy the recipients.70 As Skousen tells it,
Congress cannot provide support for military widows or any others citizens who
might need it because natural law establishes the inviolability of property rights.71
To tax some to give to others is tantamount to stealing.72 Indeed, by protecting
property, the Founders sought to refute “European philosophers” who believed
“that the role of government was to take from the ‘haves’ and give to the ‘have
nots.’”73 As Skousen explains, the Founders disagreed and did “everything
possible to make these collectivist policies ‘unconstitutional.’”74
Pages 839 and 840. Opens as a PDF
http://arizonalawreview.org/pdf/53-3/53arizlrev827.pdf
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