Yet Another Accomplishment Of Ben Franklin--
Yet Another Accomplishment Of Ben Franklin--
This is the kind of stuff which when I stumble upon it, I am overjoyed. Literally ecstatic. Don't ask me why. Or actually, yes, please ask. I believe that this is one of the places where history lives, in the political fight for discoveries, inventions, and progress as a whole. This piece in particular is about money. But for Benjamin Franklin, money was a means, never an end.
The US Constitution is explicit that one of the leading responsibilities of our Federal government is to promote "the sciences and useful arts." It's not solely the responsibility of so-called "market forces." This is in Article 1 and section 8, which combines with section 10, the so-called "necessary and proper" clause, that confers vast "implied powers" to the Federal government to fulfill the Founders intent as expressed in the Preamble, to "promote the general welfare."
["Article I
Section 8
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"]
Somehow, we never, ever hear the fascist Supreme Court originalists and textualists cite the Preamble or Article 1 Sections 8 and 10. Why? Because they are Confederates who are out to annihilate them, that's why. It is much bigger than just copyright and intellectual property law. It is a statement of intent by the Framers (not all, but the ones who count) that science and the arts are a national priority to be advanced and supported by our government. It was a repudiation from the beginning of "laissez faire" and Adam Smith's pro empire, anti-government free-market insanity. Entrepreneurs were government supported and bound to observe standards in order to insure that their innovations served the public interest.
Our NASA space program came from this committment. Jonas Salk's research to cure Polio likewise, even though he never sought a patent. The Manhattan Project which surpassed the Nazis in the race to split the Atom came from this. Everything our government has done to place people first, from Social Security and Medicare, to the Tennessee Valley Authority, to the Interstate Highway program is the legacy of the Preamble and Article 1, Sections 8 and 10, building upon the commitments and vast accomplishments of Benjamin Franklin, America's great inventor, innovator, and actual "Founder." We would be nowhere scientifically or economically without these statements of intent in the Constitution, and the 70 years and more dedication of Franklin in advancing this concept. Unless you know Franklin, you don't understand what the American Revolution was, what the United States could have been, or could still become. This is an idea which "pop historians" like Howard Zinn never understood, because they went into all of it with an axe to grind.
Where do people think that section of the Constitution came from? Our actual "Founding Father," the anti-slavery republican revolutionary, Benjamin Franklin. More than anyone, he embodied what the American Revolution was supposed to be. This is just another small slice of his astounding history, which I intend to keep alive. Some people might want to argue that point. Bring it on.
