Byron York writes in the DC Examiner this week that the founding fathers, based their writings in the Federalist Papers, would want Barack Obama’s agenda to fail — and that they would push the Senate to block said agenda in order to counteract the hot-headed whims of the people.

Here’s York:

In the Federalist Papers, written 221 years ago, Madison addressed the need for a Senate to accompany the more populist House of Representatives. An upper body, he wrote, “may be sometimes necessary as a defense to the people against their own temporary errors and delusions.”

For the times when a political leader would attempt to capitalize on those errors and delusions, the Founders prescribed the Senate, with its members elected to terms three times the length of those in the House, originally chosen not by the people but by the state legislatures. From Federalist 63:

“There are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind?”

York is right — a more thoughtful body must block Obama’s attempts to “not let a crisis go to waste.”

Now is the time for the salutary interference of temperate and respectable citizens, otherwise known as the 41 Republicans in the United States Senate. It is their job to help the president in areas where there is widespread agreement that he should be helped, and hold the line on everything else.

Of course the economy is in crisis. But if Obama had his way, everything would be treated as if it were a crisis. Health care is a crisis. The environment is a crisis. Education is a crisis. In truth, those other areas are not crises, and the Senate’s job is to delay action on them until Obama’s power to stir popular passions fades. Then, whatever legislation is truly needed on health care, etc., can be undertaken in a more reasoned and measured way.

I would take it a step further and suggest the founders would be railing against the vast expansion of government action, spending, influence and control of our lives that Obama seeks.

Also in the Examiner, it’s a good thing the Republicans failed to put limits on the filibuster during their stint as the majority party — in fact, it would be great to see them use it more (didn’t we used to call that the “nuclear option?”). Instead of just saying “no,” GOP members should act on “no.”