U.S. Constitution: Education, Crisis, and a Biblical Foundation

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Government is the greatest threat to liberty, and therefore, the greatest threat to our Natural Rights, and ability to properly educate the next generation.  As a result of human nature, the founders realized that without making sure that the people remained educated about the system they had established, a downward spiral into despotism and tyranny was inevitable.

Thomas Jefferson originated the concept of public education, through State governance.  An uneducated society allows tyranny to rise up because of the failure of the people to remain vigilant in protecting their freedoms.  When the public is uninformed, and does not engage itself with the government, the government becomes unwilling to live up to its promises, or follow the rule of law which should be used as the standard.

People often search for purpose through government, believing the false promises by their powerful leaders.  Then, the government creates emergencies, to better enable the rulers to do things they could not normally do when society is peaceful, and there are no domestic disturbances.

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” ― Rahm Emanuel to the Wall Street Journal, November 2008, when referring to the opportunities emergencies pose for the expansion of the scope of government.

As a result of the emergencies, the citizens become eager for stability.  They are willing to accept something different than what they had in order to achieve peace and safety.  Even statism begins to look attractive, because all the people know is that they yearn for a change from what the citizenry had been experiencing under the prior government in crisis.

The Founding Fathers recognized the dangers of creating a central government.  Their research of the Anglo Saxons, Ancient Israel, Greece, Rome, and Slovenia revealed to them the dangerous reality that a central government in the United States created the potential of tyranny in the new country.  However, without a strong government, the union of States would be unable to defend themselves against invasion, nor ensure domestic tranquility.

The Founding Fathers of the United States recognized that government is necessary, but that too much government is dangerous, so the federal system created during the Constitutional Convention placed an emphasis on local control over local issues, while allowing the Federal Government to handle the external issues necessary for protecting, preserving, and promoting the union of Sovereign States.

The new government needed to recognize State Sovereignty.  The powers of the State governments would exceed the powers of the federal government, except when regarding the authorities granted to the federal government.  The new United States Government had to be strong enough to protect, preserve and promote the union, while limited enough not to intrude upon the rights of the individual States.  Alexander Hamilton called for a strong national government, but many of his colleagues saw nationalism as dangerous, and prone to tyranny.

America needed a lion, powerful enough to defend the union against foreign enemies, but restrained enough that it left State Sovereignty alone.  The problem with lions, however, is that they eat you.  So the question was, how could the founders create a strong enough central government for the external issues, but limit it in such a way that it not only did not interfere with internal issues, but when needed, would act as a mediator between the States when necessary?

Education, with its shift away from local control, and into control by the federal government, has suffered.  Civics and the U.S. Constitution are not taught in the public school system in a manner as intended by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution.  As a result, we are seeing a deterioration of our free society.

To reclaim the republic, we must understand the foundation, the principles that go along with the foundation in the pages of the U.S. Constitution, and then we must act to correct what is wrong.

The foundation is:

A Godly Society.

An Informed Public.

Localism.

A Free Market.

Our constitutional system stands on those four legs.  While each of these four things are important on their own, each needs the other.  A public not informed about the other three is unable to maintain a free society.  If we are not a Godly society, we are not capable of running the other three in an orderly and fair manner.  If localism is not in place, and a strong central system is in control internally instead, the public's voice will be drowned out, and it won't matter how Godly they are, or how well they are at performing in a free market, the central system will gain control and quell the other three.  If we don't have a free market, our system cannot become prosperous.  Without abundance, the public is powerless, localism is fighting for its own financial survival, and the forces against God use their riches to rid the system of any moral standards in order to further control the public by declaring that government is their god.  Natural Rights come from being a Godly Society.  The Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the concept of the rule of law all are founded in each of the legs.  Freedom and an orderly society are the result of a moral and godly society populated by an informed public who values localism and operates in a free market.

The attacks against these four legs that form the foundation of a free society are constant, and defined.  In today's society we see the attacks clearly for what they are.

A Godly Society: Eliminated prayer from schools, working to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, Political Correctness imposed prohibitions against things like saying Merry Christmas, or "God Bless You," the gay agenda, abortion, transgenderism and the bathroom controversy, etc.

An Informed Public: Common Core.  The liberal left takeover of education, the entertainment industry, and the mainstream media.  History is being revised, and there are numerous myths in place regarding the U.S. Constitution that just are not true.

Localism: State Sovereignty and municipal local control is under attack, and has been for along time.  The 17th Amendment was one of the attacks against the sovereignty of the States.  Federal intrusion on issues like land use through the sustainable development agenda.  We can even go so far as federal intrusion regarding marriage, bathrooms, and the other social issues.  Constitutionally, those are State issues, not something the federal government can dictate to the States regarding.

A Free Market: Economic manipulation by the federal government and global actors is in full swing.  The federal reserve is a culprit, as is other manipulative strategies based on failed Keynesian economic theories.  When a populace is too broke to care about anything other than trying to feed themselves, they are not too good at being politically involved, or fighting back against tyranny.

If our system resides on a firm foundation of Godliness, education (informed), localism, and a vibrant free market not hampered by interference by the federal government, liberty will continue to reign, and we will continue to be the land of the free.  Destroy any of those pillars holding up the system, and we collapse.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary