President Obama Falls for a Fallacy

In his second inaugural address, President Obama made a series of direct and indirect references to the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents to make his case for collective (read: state) action. In doing so, he fell into the fallacy of argument ad antiquitatem – an illegitimate appeal to ages past in order to justify present and future actions.

Most people, including most Americans, would be surprised to learn that the word “democracy” does not appear in the Declaration of Independence (1776) or the Constitution of the United States of America (1789). They would also be shocked to learn the reason for the absence of the word democracy in the founding documents of the U.S.A.  Contrary to what propaganda has led the public to believe, America’s Founding Fathers were skeptical and anxious about democracy.  They were aware of the evils that accompany a tyranny of the majority.  The Framers of the Constitution went to great lengths to ensure that the federal government was not based on the will of the majority and was not, therefore, democratic.

If the Framers of the Constitution did not embrace democracy, what did they adhere to?  To a man, the Framers agreed that the purpose of government was to secure citizens in John Locke’s trilogy of the rights to life, liberty and property.

The Constitution was designed to further the cause of liberty, not democracy.  To do that, the Constitution protected individuals’ rights from the government, as well as from their fellow citizens.  To that end, the Constitution laid down clear, unequivocal and enforceable rules to protect individuals’ rights. In consequence, the government’s scope and scale were strictly limited.  Economic liberty, which is a precondition for growth and prosperity, was enshrined in the Constitution.

The Bill of Rights establishes the rights of the people against infringements by the State.  The only thing that the citizens can demand from the State, under the Bill of Rights, is for a trial by a jury. The rest of the citizens’ rights are protections from the State.

While invoking America’s founding documents and predecessors to justify collective action might appear as cleverness on the part of the President, it is a brazenly overused rhetorical instrument: an argument ad antiquitatem.

Author Steve H. Hanke