Shifting Baselines of History and Politics

If we are to take it back, it begins with education. We must rediscover what the Constitution truly says and what the founding generation meant by its words;

Douglas V. Gibbs ——Bio and Archives--April 1, 2026

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America has been drifting away from its founding constitutional principles, a decay made possible by the patient, incremental strategy of "shifting baselines." The enemies of limited government understand that the gradual erosion of liberty is far more effective than a sudden assault. What the Founding Fathers designed as a government of limited, enumerated powers has morphed into a sprawling administrative state with virtually unlimited authority, precisely because each generation accepts the overreach of the previous one as the new normal.

This concept of gradualism is a well-understood tool of those who seek to expand state power

This concept of gradualism is a well-understood tool of those who seek to expand state power. As A. Ralph Epperson noted in The Unseen Hand, the strategy is to "promise one thing and deliver another... socialism must be brought about step by step [in gradual doses] in a way which will not disrupt the fabric of custom, law and mutual confidence." It's the classic scenario of the frog in a pot of water, slowly brought to a boil. The initial warmth is comforting, the heat increases so gradually it's hardly noticed, and by the time the frog realizes the danger, it's too late.

The founding baseline was crystal clear: the federal government's authority was strictly limited to powers explicitly enumerated in the Constitution. The Tenth Amendment was the ultimate safeguard, reserving all other powers to the states and the people. The Necessary and Proper Clause was a narrow tool to execute those enumerated powers, not a blank check. The Commerce Clause was designed to limit federal control while also preventing states from imposing tariffs on one another, not to regulate every human activity that might indirectly affect commerce. The General Welfare Clause was a condition to be met (as both Thomas Jefferson and James........

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