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Not trusting the government was a founding principle.

• cyphax 13y ago
  But does that mean the government by definition doesn't trust the people that put them into power in the first place?
  • dfc 13y ago
    Have you read the constitution? Is the electoral college a sign of great trust? Sir, your people is a great beast. -- a.h.
• anigbrowl 13y ago
  And yet this program was reported set up under that champion of limited government, Ronald Reagan.
• _delirium 13y ago
  There were some mixed opinions on it, though; the U.S. founders also didn't necessarily oppose measures to put down civil unrest. For example, they explicitly wrote into the Constitution a provision that the federal government may suspend habeas corpus "when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it". Of course, not everyone agreed: Jefferson opposed that clause in the Constitution. But Samuel Adams would've gone further and prescribed the death penalty for anyone rebelling against the United States, drawing a distinction between rebellion against monarchical governments, which he felt was justified, and rebellion against republics, which he felt was not.