By Douglas V. Gibbs
Are we losing America? Are we fighters for freedom as we claim? The United States sends troops around the world to fight for freedom, to keep the torch of liberty burning bright in lands where political ideologies like communism and Islamism, under the iron fists of various madmen, work to take away the people's freedoms. Yet, right here in America, a regime has set itself up in Washington DC, and the question is, are we willing to fight
here? Is our exceptionalism worth fighting for? Are we willing to make this nation, as founded, the center of our efforts?
During this election season we have an opportunity to slowly begin turning around this mess we find ourselves in. The democrats, led by Barack Obama, have put unprecedented limits on our Constitutional rights, from working to take away our choice in medical care, to working through environmentalism to take away our choices regarding energy and use of private property, and through Obamacare again to erase freedom of religion by mandating that religious institutions offer various forms of contraception and abortion, whether they like it, or not.
The federal government has never before made such a major push because the people behind big government philosophy knew it is unconstitutional, and they could never get it past the people too quickly. Now, they think they can squeeze this stuff by us, that there is enough people using government entitlements, and desiring the health care entitlement, that they can make the final push for socialism and stay in power depending upon the overwhelming number of votes they have bought with these programs.
Statism is growing, and has been, worldwide, but for a ruling elite to rise up in America and take away the people's voice bit by bit, it is disconcerting. To the average American, it may seem like I am over doing it, here. But when one understands the text of the United States Constitution, it becomes clear. The Constitution was written to create a central system, but to limit it to only protecting, preserving and promoting the union, and nothing more.
Before the American Constitution, written constitutions were not the norm. People relied on common law, which could be manipulated by the rulers through adjusting popular opinion. Also, since common law was known by all of the people, they were indifferent to the necessity of writing them down. They were simply a matter of custom, changing if necessary, when the winds of government mandated so.
In Britain, after the Norman Conquest, the rights of the people disappeared in a flood of blood, and without the people's rights being written down, gaining them back was laborious. The people's rights were regained, eventually, but it took centuries. Some of them were gradually written down, and then in 1215, the people forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, quite literally by the point of the sword.
During the time period that followed, the "Model Parliament" was formed, enabling the people to have representation in the government. The Petition of Rights followed in 1628, and the English Bill of Rights was signed in 1689.
Without a written constitution, however, the British had to depend on these fragmentary statutes to manage their political affairs. The Founding Fathers, studying history, determined that the structure of government must be codified in a more permanent written form.
The Americans wrote down their constitutions from the very beginning, starting in 1620 with the Mayflower Compact. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut followed in 1639, making no reference to Britain as the source of authority. The compact was about "We, the people." They understood that legislatures are better regulated when their actions are regulated by many, rather than a single person, and when those regulations are written down.
During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the debates were brutal, and necessary. The founders desired that there be no ruling elite, but that the government of the United States be one created through the wisdom and experiences of the many delegates.
It is difficult to function in such a manner. Governments led by oligarchies, or a single authoritarian head, are efficient. The concept of conventions, and Congresses, as the Founding Fathers decided would be how America functioned, is a difficult way to operate a government. It is difficult to get anything done, because of the nature of debate. It is difficult to pass laws, and to change our system, by design. Only authoritarians like Barack Obama would see debate in Congress as a sign that Congress is broken.
Because the United States Constitution was written by many through the laborious technique of debate, our system is stronger than any individual could have written it to be. The Constitution has stood the test of time, proving that it is stronger than relying on tradition, customs, and scattered statutes. It is only now that the rising flood of authoritarian big government in our system has made such a lethal challenge to the Constitution, and the authority of the States and We the People.
To the average European, this struggle in America may seem to be confusing. They have never tasted liberty like us, yet our leaders are striving to make us more like them. We are nothing like Europe on purpose. The founders saw the shortcomings of European systems of governance, and knew that the experiment in America had to be something exceptional, belonging to the people, not the powerful few.
Globalization is an age old concept, as well, and the international leftists are waging this war in America, along with the democrats, for the purpose of governing the world through international rules and institutions. As long as America remains strong, free, and Godly, the people of the world will look to America as the shining beacon on the hill, and globalization will never materialize. The War for America, then, is larger than many think. The War for America is a war for the world.
Unification at an international level is the dream of dictators, a communist conception of governance. They offer globalism as an object of our desire, to deceive us, to make us want what will destroy the sovereignty of America, and the system that has brought liberty to millions.
A part of what has made America exceptional has been our Godly nature. We have placed "In God We Trust" on our currency, we are "One nation under God" in our pledge, and early on Alexis de Tocqueville observed that in America the politicians prayed and the pastors preached politics. Therefore, in order to move us into a direction of liberalism, authoritarianism, and ultimately globalism, God must be absent from our society. The way to destroy and demoralize America is to take away God - which brings us back to Obamacare's push to dictate to religious institutions that they must offer contraceptives, either directly, or through their insurance programs.
The liberal left calls it social justice, and as a Christian, I believe we should feed the poor, clothe the homeless, and care for the elderly. . . but not through government. When government takes on the role of "taking care" of everyone, rather than the populace being self-reliant, the fist of authoritarianism sticks its nose through the tent flap.
Religious freedom is the bedrock of Americanism, but current government agendas suggest otherwise. The liberal democrats have demonstrated hostility against the free exercise of religion in the public square, revealing that it is their desire to cage religion inside the four walls of the church - unless of course it furthers the leftist agenda, such as in the case of Reverend Wright.
Separation of Church and State is a concept not in the U.S. Constitution, and the Establishment Clause, and the Free Exercise Clause, in the First Amendment were specifically written to protect the people from government hijacking religion. The Church of England, the inspiration for the Establishment Clause, was the State Church because the ruling authority deemed it so, so that they could use the church as an arm to control the people. Islam does the same. The political agendas are carried out as religious dictates, and the people, because of the religious mask of the political ideology of Islam, carry out the madness without question.
Those who oppose the leftist agenda support the strength of the church, community, and the common good, but believe that strong communities and the common good are not achieved by government dictate, but by the members of society voluntarily participating in civic events, and by individuals succeeding and influencing the community through their success, i.e. creating jobs, giving to charities, participating in community events. It is natural for people to desire a strong community.
Our humanity, however, must be the choice of the individual, and the decision to unify as a community must be the choice of the member units. If we lose that, and our choices become mandates dictated down from the bureaucracies in Washington, we lose our liberty, our humanity, and America as founded.
Republican Paul Ryan recently said, "If we keep growing government in debt, we will crowd out the civil society - those charities, those churches, those institutions in our local communities that do the most to actually have a human touch to help people in need. That's what we want to empower. That's what we want to improve on."
It is not just for us that we fight this war for America, however, but for our posterity, too.
Ronald Reagan once so wisely said, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
Or in John Wayne's words to the little boy, Ham-Chunk, at the end of the 1968 movie,
The Green Berets, "You are what this is all about."
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