Ask Dinesh

The founders didn't begin with a theory of government. They began with a theory of human nature, and the case for limits followed from it. Madison put it most sharply in Federalist 51: if men were angels, no government would be necessary; because they aren't, you build a structure that sets ambition against ambition rather than trusting anyone to be virtuous.

That is why the design does three things at once: it enumerates the federal government's powers, divides them across branches that jealously guard their own turf, and reserves the rest to the states and the people. The point was never distrust of America. It was humility about what any central authority can do well, and an insistence that the things that matter most, family, faith, and community, be left to the level of life where they actually work.