The Greatest Benefit of Liberty
The greatest benefit of liberty is one that is almost completely lost to our minds. Liberty on the American plan does include the right to bear arms, the freedom to travel, freedom to own property and the prosperity that follows, the federal government is prohibited from limiting speech, or press, or having any authority over religion. All of those and more we know and appreciate, but none of them are the greatest benefit of liberty. That greatest benefit is the aroused and involved people our system of liberty produces, but the only way to see it is to realize the kind of system of government we started with.
The Founders were consciously attempting to replicate the small city-state republics of ancient Rome and Greece, and to incubate those small republics within a federated system of checks and balances. This system included federal, state, and local governments. They chose this architecture of government because a study of history reveals that small republics have always tended to produce moral and involved citizens; they generate a people with what has been termed “republican virtues.”
Everyone acknowledged that small republics produce strong citizens, but of course the historic problem with a nation of small and independent republics is that they tend to fight each other. Thus, they settled on those checks and balances.
The other problem with this plan, noted at the time is, as Montesquieu warned, those positive attributes of small republics will probably work only if the republics remains small. Some of the original states were thought to be too large, but they went ahead with the plan anyway, not seeing a superior alternative.
Therefore, the essence of the American Experiment was to bundle almost all the powers of government in those small local republics, and to ensure that they were small enough that an individual feels a real sense of empowerment; a real sense of having a voice in directing the affairs of the small republic. Then, with those powers at hand, the community and the individuals composing that community have to respond to and wrestle with all the challenges that nature throws at all societies.
These challenges range from encouraging a prosperous economy to dealing with homelessness, from family breakdown to disease and health care; From sewage disposal, roads and bridges, ensuring fresh water, reducing crime to preventing single parenthood. At the same time these local communities were in charge of the moral education of the young (up to an including prayer and Bible reading in schools), regulating corporations (at least through their state government) regulating and or prohibiting pornography, or drugs, or alcohol.
The idea is that by bundling all these powers and responsibilities at the local level, the locals can find their own solutions, can govern themselves. The central government was to prevent any foreign nation from invading these small republics, and to prevent them from invading each other. It is in this mode that the concept that liberty must go hand in hand with responsibility really gains traction. The locals can choose to go any number of ways, but stark raving reality will have a way of informing them when they make a bad choice.
Even more importantly, the individual citizen in the small republic begins to understand the challenges of government, and not be (as is the case today) an apathetic consumer of services always grousing about what “they” should do. Instead, the active citizen of a small republic asks “what are we going to do about this problem?” and gathers with fellow citizens to find solutions.
In that mode the normal person will begin to see why personal morality is so important. Seeing and having to respond, personally and financially, to the harms of licentious behavior, most will strive to become a more moral person. Once that effect takes hold in a large segment of the population, most of our current social problems will fade away. So, the big statement is:
Much as the Founders agreed that only a moral people can remain free, only a truly free and self-governing people will feel the reasons to be moral
That statement has profound implications for our present situation. Many are calling for a spiritual revival to set this nation aright, and of course they are partly correct. Such a revival must happen. Getting back the levers of political power by way of a huge spiritual revival will not, however, be enough. It would be like starting out on a car trip with a fully charged battery, but neglecting to include an alternator. Yes, it would start and go for a while, but would soon run out of juice. The alternator is needed to keep the battery charged. Local community moral self-government is needed to maintain that aroused citizenry seeking moral betterment.
The first time around, our gracious Creator gave us a jump start, with both revival and a new architecture of government happening at the same time. This time, we have to be smart enough to understand all the things we need to revive our nation and seek them.
So, what happened to that original plan? What went wrong?
In overly broad strokes it went like this.
In 1886, the Supreme Court was underhandedly used to declare that corporations are persons, and thus because of the 14th Amendment no longer subject to most state and local regulations. This usurped from local communities most of the powers of economic self-government.
The next big change (there were a number of smaller ones) was Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930's, using the New Deal emergency to usurp from local communities the powers and responsibilities of the social services governments provide. This was old age pensions, welfare, minute regulation of businesses etc., with the issues of medical care, education and more being, in short order, usurped using the same misguided socialistic thinking.
The third big change occurred in 1947 when the Supreme Court ruled that all the prohibitions put on the federal government by the 1st Amendment must, due to that same often misused 14th Amendment, be applied to the states and localities. This twisting of the 1st has been accepted by almost everyone, so we will look at it closely in a bit. First, it must be noted that the usurpation of the powers of moral self-government this change accomplished was followed by rulings about gay rights, same sex marriage and a lot of other moral issues not directly connected to the 1st Amendment.
It is easy enough to show how wrong this twisting of the 1st is, but since it seems that it was done using some very serious mind control or sorcery, we should deal with it like this.
Assume you had been told your whole life that 2+2=5. If someone told you the truth that 2+2=4, it would take some effort to break the spell you are under, but if explained well, you might see it.
The 1st Amendment says, “CONGRESS shall make no law. . . “and then goes on, in following clauses, to list the prohibited subjects. Now look at that sentence. Do you see anywhere that it states an individual right that must be defended against any government intrusion? Such a statement is not there.
Many will respond that the 14th Amendment contained the 1st when it stipulates that all “privileges and immunities” must go to individuals. The 1st, however, is not a statement of privilege or immunity and so the Court blundered in ruling that the 1st applies to the states.
There is no space to investigate this further. Get this book for a more in-depth examination
Re-Conceiving American Liberty,
How and Why to Put Our Country Back Together
available on Kindle and at Amazon.com
Finally, the three major usurpations, along with some peripherals, have totally changed our system of government. It happened right under our feet and no one seemed to notice. Nonetheless, it is only by returning to that original structure of local community moral self-government that we will revive this nation. What's more, it is also the most likely way to bring this nation back to faith in Jesus Christ. Email to get connected comradeamerica2@yahoo.com
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