Quote Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy View Post
We. . . almost always still had a standing army. The Regular Army wasn't large, only about 5,000 men in 1793, but it was a permanent force, a standing army.
Would you agree, though, the spirit of what Loki is saying holds true? I think those guys would have been universally opposed to the military the US maintains today, along with the US projection of power all over the world. But the other side of that coin is that the world is a very different place today, and the history that has passed between the time of the founders and today probably makes what they originally intended largely irrelevant. It's the same situation with the 2nd Amendment -- it was clearly intended as a check on the potential of the Federal Government turning tyrannical - preventing the passage of Federal laws that would disarm the various State Militias, making them vulnerable to a Federal army turned against them. Today it's largely irrelevant, and the way it's upheld is more than a little crazy. (And in the Slaver South, a lot of good it did them anyway... ) And while we're at it, it seems the founders wouldn't approve of the religion litmus test that federal candidates have to pass for election these days, Trump notwithstanding. Same goes with god on the money and in the pledge. Hell, they probably wouldn't like the pledge at all. So much is different today, the whole "what the Founders indented" discussion is kinda nonsensical in a lot more ways, maybe, than it makes sense.