In an interview that aired on the debut of Mark Levin’s Fox News Channel show “Life, Liberty & Levin,” George Mason University economics professor Walter Williams responded to a question about the expanding power of the federal government, which in turn was leading to the erosion of the freedoms of private citizens.

Levin asked what would happen to the country as this process continues, to which Williams described a betrayal of the nation’s founding fathers.

“Well, people will say, ‘Well, what can we do?’ And I ask, ‘Are the American people, as human beings, are we any different from the Spanish, the Portuguese, the French, the British, great empires of the past who went down the tubes for doing roughly what we’re doing, bread and services?’” he replied. “And I say, ‘Well, maybe we’re not that different, and maybe we’re going to share the same future as those other great empires of the past.’ Keep in mind, we have betrayed the founding fathers of our country.”

“I mean, if you look at Federalist Paper 45, when James Madison is writing Federalist Paper 45, he was trying to convince the citizens of New York to ratify the Constitution, and they were afraid to ratify the Constitution,” Williams continued. “And he said, the powers that we delegated to the federal government are few and well-defined, and restricted mostly to external affairs. The powers left with the people in the state are indefinite and numerous. If you turn that upside down, we have what we have now: The powers of the federal government are indefinite and numerous.”

(h/t CNS News)

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