We the People of the United States … and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…
Looking back as little as three years ago, who would have thought that we could be on the verge of putting our posterity on the road to involuntary indentured servitude rather than making the traditional handoff of the secured blessings of liberty? Our landing in this stew seemed as if it were caused by sudden and unforeseen events but that’s not the case and we should have seen it coming.
For the most part each generation of U.S. citizens has endeavored to hand over to following generations, to their posterity, an intact system of governance that protects and nurtures the blessings of liberty. We sometimes express this as a desire that our children and grandchildren have greater opportunities to pursue their individual happiness or dreams than we ourselves have enjoyed. Having “greater opportunities” means not only property or inheritance. It means enjoying the safety and security of a free society. That requires a form of governance that has as its primary responsibility safeguarding the citizens and their property. That form of governance must “secure” and “protect” the inalienable right to liberty that each of us is endowed with by our Creator when we arrive here in the first place.
We individuals start out endowed by our creator with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our form of governance as established by our Founders was done so with the understanding that the people could “replace it” or “alter it” as needed. In forming the government the first citizens understood that they needed to cede a limited amount of their inalienable rights to the government for the purpose of protecting those “ceded” rights as well as that much larger share of “retained” individual rights. Protection was needed from infringement by one citizen upon another, from external sources, and finally from government itself. Government could not create rights. Government had no rights other than those ceded to it by the people.
Ceded rights and retained rights
A ceded right can be in the form of the right to pursue one’s happiness by moving about as one chooses. In exchange for the ability to move about freely “within” or “to and from” most places of our choosing, as well as the right to stand in one place and feel reasonably secure, we grant to government a small slice of our right to move about. With that small slice of ceded rights we allow government to pass laws restricting certain movements. So for example if one citizen chooses to move about in a truck they must do so on their own property, such as a driveway, or on government designated places of movement such as highways or off road areas. In that way other citizens can feel reasonably certain that they will not be run over by another citizen exercising rights to move about in a truck while they are exercising their retained rights to move about in their home, some other building, or their back yard.
By the same token, when a citizen gives up a dollar in taxes to government they are ceding the right to save that dollar or to spend it on something of their own choosing. With that ceded individual right to determine what to do with that dollar we allow government to spend that dollar on some public good or service. For example government may use that dollar for a highway on which our fellow citizens can exercise their right to drive trucks or for a police force to deter those citizens from driving their trucks into some other citizen’s back yard. Sounds like a fair exchange.
These are very simple examples of how we the people are supposed to make rational decisions about which rights and how much of those rights we cede to government; and what government is to do with those ceded rights. So what does this have to do with waking up one day to find our children in a truck barreling down a one way road to involuntary indentured servitude? Simply this; while we have been busy pursuing happiness over the past 50 years or so we have allowed government to lay claim to rights beyond what we would have ceded if we had really been paying attention and looking out for our posterity. While we were asleep at the switch we also allowed government to borrow money, in addition to the ever increasing amounts of tax dollars (our rights) we have ceded, to spend on goods and services associated with various other individual rights that government has glommed onto.
Our Founders’ Compass
How might someone miss the intent of the Founders with respect to the choice and placement of the words “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” in the document that was to be the foundation of our government? Being totally clueless when it comes to who the Founding Fathers were and how they not only deliberated the words that went into the U.S. Constitution but the exact placement of those words in the document is one way to miss the intent. Other ways are to miss or dismiss the intent by asserting that the Founders were merely looking out for themselves and their own fortunes or that they really weren’t all that bright and didn’t have nearly the intellect of the political thinkers of the twentieth century.
Our Founders left behind, for posterity, liberty’s true and enduring compass. That compass is embodied in:
- The writings of the Founders from before the Revolutionary War up through the first thirty plus years after the formation of the Republic
- The Declaration of Independence
- The Federalist Papers
- The U.S. Constitution and
- The Bill of Rights
Liberty’s enduring and true compass
The compass is readily available and not that difficult to understand and to follow. Unfortunately, a plea of cluelessness may be a reasonable defense for many of our citizens given the type of nonsense being passed off as a U.S. history curriculum in the public school systems these days. See The Shaping of the American Mind: The Diverging Influences of the College Degree & Civic Learning on American Beliefs. Others attempt to dismiss value of the intent of the Founders based on (1) a misrepresentation of the motives of the Founders or (2) an assertion that the Founders merely left us with a reasonable starting point but it’s up to their superior intellect to determine the best way forward and fill in the gaps left by the Founders. Those attempting to diminish the Founders based on a misrepresentation of the Founders’ motives are being intellectually dishonest and it is their motives that should be called into question. Those asserting that they are applying superior intellect to shape the way forward are invariably found to have confused intellect with wisdom; all they really needed to do was to have the good sense to check the compass. They would have found that perhaps some brush and a few tree limbs needed to be trimmed to tidy things up a bit but that “old” path is clearly the one to follow to secure the blessings of liberty.
It certainly seems clear to me that the Founders’ intent was that each generation should safeguard the blessings of liberty and pass them along, intact, to following generations. They didn’t put those specific words into the preamble of the U.S. Constitution simply because they had a word count quota to meet or they couldn’t think of anything else to write at the time. They labored long and hard over (1) how much or preferably how little government was necessary and (2) what form of government could be put in place that would maintain the security of those liberties that had been secured through their valor and patriotism. Consider that they had little in the way established benchmarks or successful models they could draw upon at that crucial juncture of our history. This much is clear in words of James Madison at the time that they were wrestling with the question of forming a government that was enough but no more than necessary.
“It is a melancholy reflection that liberty should be equally exposed to danger whether the Government have too much or too little power, and that the line which divides these extremes should be so inaccurately defined by experience.”
Where are we now?
We are facing out of control deficit spending and an accelerating deterioration of what was once our clear world leadership in the development of energy and applications thereof to the benefit of all mankind. These two things represent clear and present threats to our will and ability to place the defense of liberty above all else and with that the defense of and dedication to the assurance of free market principles. These are the very foundation of American exceptionalism.
1. A Federal deficit of over thirteen trillion dollars and growing at a rate that if not turned quickly into a decreasing deficit will most certainly destroy the Blessings of Liberty that we have enjoyed.
1a. We the People recognize this threat but there is an apparent inability on the part of a sufficient number of our elected representatives to restrain themselves from further out of control spending and take immediate and lasting action to reduce the cost, size, and scope of the Federal government.
2. A dependence on foreign sources of energy combined with seemingly never ending stream of ill conceived middle school science fair green energy projects that can only survive by way of ever increasing share of public funding is an insidious and growing threat. This is a threat that hastens us down a path leading to a third world economy status and an inability to provide for our own national security. American exceptionalism produced dominance in the development of new and better energy sources, uses, and methods of delivery that not that long ago found the U.S. in a position of world leadership by a wide margin. Our energy dominance has been destroyed in large part by misguided and ill conceived attempts to zero risk combined with naïve assertions of the potential for “alternative” sources of energy to be brought on line to replace the proven economically feasible methods and sources.
2a. We the People recognize this withering of our energy dominance. However, there is an apparent lack of recognition and inability on the part of a sufficient number of our elected representatives to take immediate and lasting action to remove policies and regulations piled on by the Federal government. Among these are regulations that have been placed squarely between the industry and ingenuity of citizens and domestic sources of energy that through free market actions could be brought on line that and restore our energy dominance.
Property rights and liberty; one cannot long endure without the other
One might mistakenly think that these deficit and energy dependence threats have only to do with “property”, mere physical possessions or inheritance, and bear little or no relation to the matter of liberty. Such a view could not be further from the truth. Fortunately for us, along with the Blessings of Liberty that the Founding Fathers passed on to their posterity, they also left behind clear words of meaning and intent. They left behind clear words of meaning and intent that future generations could turn to when in need of a better understanding and appreciation of the blessings of liberty.
Ask any of our elected representatives today to explain the relationship between liberty and property rights and see if they can come close to the clarity and wisdom of James Madison (emphasis added).
This term in its particular application means “that dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in exclusion of every other individual.”
In its larger and juster meaning, it embraces every thing to which a man may attach a value and have a right; and which leaves to every one else the like advantage.
In the former sense, a man’s land, or merchandize, or money is called his property.
In the latter sense, a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.
He has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions, and in the profession and practice dictated by them.
He has a property very dear to him in the safety and liberty of his person.
He has an equal property in the free use of his faculties and free choice of the objects on which to employ them.
In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
Our generation owes those that came before us and those that will follow us nothing less than those same Blessings of Liberty that we have enjoyed throughout our lives as citizens of the greatest nation on earth. We cannot allow our elected representatives to continue down the coward’s path of delayed, temporary, half measures. The actions to resolve the crises must be based on principles of liberty and free market solutions; actions to be implemented swiftly and permanently.
Government out of control
Our Federal Government is out of control. Many of our state and local government entities are out of control as well but by far the greatest threat to our property rights and our liberty stems from our out of control Federal Government. .
- Size: (1) too many departments, agencies, bureaus, programs and so forth, (2) too many people on the payroll, and (3) too many individuals/companies/organizations feeding at the public trough (filled with tax dollars and now IOUs).
- Cost: (1) paying too much for personnel, (2) overpaying for the quality of goods and services purchased, and (3) burdening the private sector and state/local governments with costly and unnecessary regulations
- Scope: (1) performing functions that are not legitimate or necessary functions of the Federal government, (2) performing functions that should be left to state and local governments, and (3) regulating things that either should not be regulated or are regulated far beyond what is in the best interest of the citizens
Our elected representatives at the Federal level are:
- Out of touch – expanding government while the citizens are demanding less government
- Out of control – creating new programs, expanding existing programs and selling their votes for pork laden legislation
We the People have operated under the notion that the representatives we elect work for us yet we have not been sufficiently involved in managing our elected “employees”. The press, what we now refer to as the mainstream media, that we once relied on to be on the lookout for problems has for the most part let us down. Whether through incompetence, negligence, or misguided notions that they should be shaping policy rather than reporting the facts so that the citizenry can make informed decisions, they have let us down.
“Reflection,… with information, is all which our countrymen need, to bring themselves and their affairs to rights.”
Consequences of our lack of information and reflection to bring our affairs to rights are;
- out of control spending and waste
- deficits that will cripple the economy
- programs and regulations that have made us energy dependent and will drive us to third world status and keep us there if not turned around
- abject failure to control our borders and protect our citizens
- a Federal government doing far and away too many things that it should not be even be attempting to do and doing the vast majority of them poorly
- a Federal government doing things that either cost far more than they should or add unnecessary and productivity stifling costs to the production of goods and services in the private sector
So what do we do about it?
We do not need the biggest government in the world. We need the best government in the world. What we should expect, demand, and deserve is a Government that does what it does better than any other government in the world; American exceptionalism.
Our Blessings of Liberty are being eroded by this debt, dependence, and over regulation. What we will pass on to our posterity, our children and grandchildren, will be the burden of indentured servitude forced upon them by the struggle just to pay the interest on this mountain of debt. Never mind entertaining thoughts of escape from under the mountain in hopes of once again securing those precious Blessings of Liberty. Shackles, which those of our Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to break forever. Although many of the signers did in fact lose their lives and their fortunes, not one of them abandoned their sacred honor and the struggle to secure liberty for themselves and for their posterity. Will ours be the first generation to break with this pledge to our posterity?
What I intend to do with this blog is look at things from the standpoint of our Founders’ compass/intent and free market principles. I’ll deal with a number of things but the primary focus will be on examining recent and current events in search of solutions based on our Founders compass/intent and free market principles. Indeed these two things are intertwined. We must approach the defense of liberty from a mindset of minimizing the amount of our rights we must cede to government while constantly monitoring what government is doing with those ceded rights. Frame our thinking about the defense of liberty in terms of our rights to our property as well as our rights in our property.
We need to manage our employees, become informed citizens and stay informed. Pretending to become informed citizens once every 2-4-6 years in conjunction with an election cycle is not something we can afford to do if we are to secure and pass on the blessings of liberty to our posterity. Clearly all of us can’t be dedicated to and focused on matters of good citizenship and managing wayward elected officials as our full time jobs. However, collectively we can and we must become far better and more aware stewards of liberty if our generation and subsequent generations are to continue to pass the blessings of liberty on to posterity.
Some of us ordinary citizens must be purveyors of information and others must be discriminating consumers of information. Those who are primarily consumers can perform functions of great value to their fellow citizens. They can pass along what they learn, make their awareness known through their actions, decisions, and communications with friends, family, and fellow citizens in general. They can recommend sources of information, participate in discussions, and increase their understanding of the Founders intent and why it matters as much today as it did then, if not more so.
We don’t need to approach this as if it were trying to solve problems in nuclear physics. Relying on our Founder’s compass and some basic free market principles to figure out how much government we need to secure the blessings of liberty is pretty straight forward. We need only rely on a basic core curriculum of Common Sense 101, Free Markets 101, Management 101, and Boy Scout 101 (look at the map, read the compass, get on the right path, and get to where you need to go).
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