Within our own country, the Founders and Framers understood that there has to be a balance between individual rights and the rights of the community. They were under no illusions that in a country this large that everyone could hold the same beliefs and goals. They wanted to create a place where, to the largest extent possible, people could be free without imposing on others. You could say their end goal was freedom. In creating the U.S. Constitution, they created a document that would maximize freedom and minimize conflict.
For example, rather than elevate one religion over others by sponsoring it by the state, they included the First Amendment, which reads:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”What is meant by this is that the FEDERAL government will not become involved. They knew better than to tell the states to what level they become involved in religion or whether or not the states should even sponsor any particular religious practice. By the same token, if one religion imposed its beliefs on others, this would be abridging the free exercise of a faith and that would not be acceptable. Remember, the idea is to maximize freedom and minimize conflict.
The US Constitution was based on the philosophy of government laid out in the Declaration of Independence, which declares:
“All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”The U.S. Constitution was established to protect these truths and it was agreed to by the citizens of this country as explained in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”Some practices today are contrary to such truths and contrary to the U.S. Constitution — practices such as justices in our court system allowing for Shariah law to supersede what is guaranteed to all citizens under our own system of government, allowing precedents established by international law to influence decisions made by our Supreme Court (though it could be argued that the roots our legal practices come from Great Britain and therefore any practices which were established before the ratification of our U.S. Constitution can be considered for proper context), introducing belief systems into our public education system that undermine the values taught at home and require students to accept what may be unacceptable based on their religious faith, and narrowing our world views to create one people not based on individual freedom but based on a socialist-type system where property can be taken from one person and redistributed to another. Sadly, there seems to be a large segment of the population that doesn’t understand the fundamental law of this country or believes it to be outdated, irrelevant, or that the U.S. Constitution is a living document and can be changed.
They don’t believe it is updated by amendments or ratifying conventions but through precedent based on court decisions, through law made by bureaucrats unanswerable to the people, and those who do not question the lack of standing of our citizenry when bringing questions of constitutionality before the federal courts.
When people do not understand the value of what they have — when they don’t understand the domino effect of changes made lightly or quickly, become complacent and allow others to think for them, or abdicate their responsibility to vote — this is when our country will fall. The Framers understood that when those who are ruling lose touch with the citizens they represent, when they do not believe themselves governed by the same law, we have tyranny. The citizens of this country have to ask themselves, do we have a representative government or are we living under tyranny?
The election of 2012 gives us the opportunity to elect candidates to office who understand federalism, the philosophy of this country, how law is to be made, how law is to be interpreted, and the limited role of government in our lives. To be a responsible citizenry, each and every one of us must make sure that our votes are counted and that we vote to maximize freedom and minimize conflict. When going into a voting booth, it makes no difference whether a candidate believes in Mormonism or is an atheist if that person’s world view includes perspective and tolerance and if the end goal of that person’s campaign is to maximize freedom and minimize conflict.
Ask yourself, what was the end goal for the Founders, the Framers, and the citizenry? Are we forming a more perfect union? Do we understand what we stand for? Do we understand why? Do we understand the alternative? What is the end game? How will we get there?
Big Government
