Principles of Liberty, Principle 28: The United States has a manifest destiny to be an example and a blessing to the entire human race.

This principle is a very unpopular one right now. There are many citizens of the United States who actually favor and support globalization in various forms – whether economic, political, social, spiritual, or some combination of all of these. There are also many who support and actively work for the goal of “one world government.” They envision a utopia in which man, through the power of his own reason and intellect, creates a harmonious, war free, weapons free, dissension free society; a society where the only thing that is not free is man himself.

The principle of “manifest destiny” does not envision the United States dominating the world. As we have seen in previous principles, the founding fathers of the United States were not particularly interested in world domination; rather, they were interested in providing a nation where anyone who wanted to live free could do so provided they were willing to accept the risks and responsibilities that went with that freedom. The founding fathers believed that the manifest destiny of the United States would become self-evident. They expected that the rest of the world would see the benefits of living according to the principles of liberty enshrined in the United States Constitution, and defended by the government formed under that Constitution. They expected that all mankind would want to enjoy the prosperity of those citizens who lived under these principles. This would naturally lead to the end that eventually people of every nation, race, tribe, and tongue would take these principles, adapt them to their own situation, and re-constitute their societies so that they, too, could enjoy the benefits of a life of true personal freedom. The expectation was that, as Alexis de Tocqueville observed, “America is great because America is good; and when America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” Our founding fathers expected both the goodness and the greatness of the new Republic to be a beacon to the rest of mankind, showing the path to true civilization.

Today we see a troubling scenario unfolding. The United States is currently engaged in no less than three military fronts; none of them have a clear objective, none are directly relevant to our national security, and in none of them is there a citizen led group who understands and desires to implement the Principles of Liberty. We in the United States have lost our sense of goodness, of the inherent worth of our nation. We are embarrassed by the activities of our own government and unsure of our spiritual compass. The result is that we lack spiritual and political vision and “where there is no vision, the people perish.” We have nothing to offer the world today; our greed is consuming us, we have no strong national identity, no defining principles. We stand for nothing, and so we tend to fall for anything. Rather than exporting the ideals of personal liberty, virtue, and prosperity, we end up squandering our military might, creating vacuums around the world that are filled by powers worse than those they replace.

Perhaps it is true that the United States of America no longer has a “manifest destiny.” Our short moment on the world stage may be coming to a curtain call of sorts. Economically we consume, but we do not produce; we are overtaken in growth by the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Politically we lack a cohesive vision; we are threatened by totalitarian regimes because we’ve lost our sense of the importance of personal freedom, and we’ve lost the will to sacrifice and accept risk in order to have it. We’ve allowed the government, rather than God, to be our provider, and now the government despoils us under the pretense of the “common good.” We are no longer fierce in our defense of Liberty; instead we seek only comfort and self-gratification. Our sense of national identity and pride has been subverted to the overreaching power of a “new world order.” Perhaps it is time, after all, for America’s dominant position to wane; if we cannot be good, then we do not deserve to be great. The opportunity for America to fulfill her manifest destiny may be lost if we, the people, cannot reclaim the vision of “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”

As this article explains, the police force in Detroit has been downsized significantly due to that city’s financial woes. This may not be entirely bad. There has been a 79 percent increase in cases of “justifiable self defense”, which means that the judicial and prison expenses may be going down as well. Free Market style justice anyone?

Seriously, I realize this is not a good thing necessarily; but I am heartened that these acts, where appropriate, have been found justifiable. This article makes a good case for the application of self defense in the face of a declining state.

Join the rally if you’re able.

Sponsored by Americans for Prosperity

Principles of Liberty, Principle 27: The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom as subjugation by conquest.

It is a curious thing, in the history of the United States, to watch the gradual transformation from a “lender nation” to a “debtor nation.” It is difficult for us in 21st century America to realize or remember that until the latter half of the last century, buying and selling debt was not only unprofitable but for the most part illegal. It was not until the post WW II era that the average American could even consider taking on much debt beyond a basic mortgage. Consumer loans were something on the shadowy fringes of our capitalist economy; if an individual had debt they were looked at askance by neighbors and friends who pitied them for their poor planning and lack of thrift, or for their dire economic straits.

Enter “government regulation.” Following the stock market crash of the 1920’s the government began regulating financial transactions. Of course, anywhere the government starts to intrude, it does not stop. From the stock market to banking to savings and loans, the dark shadow of government infiltration reached throughout the financial markets. By the 1970’s government regulation was causing the value of debt to be larger than it had been in the past, and it became profitable to “deal in debt” the same way one might deal in wheat, or steel, or any other commodity. Companies sprang up that existed for no other purpose than to buy and sell the debt of others.

This shift in the value of debt, combined with an accompanying shift in how the average citizen viewed debt, led to a net decrease in personal savings. Why save up for a new car or a new appliance when you could “charge it” and have it now. The concept of delayed gratification was lost in the dust of people stampeding to the new credit model.

Of course, the new regulations always played in the government’s favor, and the government elbowed its way up to the credit trough right along with the general populace.

Today the United States government carries, on behalf of its citizens, a staggering debt load. The current debt to GDP ratio for the U.S. is 94.3%. We produce 14.6 trillion dollars a year in gross domestic product, but we owe external lenders 13.5 trillion dollars. In order to understand this historically, consider that throughout the 1800’s our national debt ran close to 10%, and never more than 35%. In fact, the national debt did not begin to creep upward until 1940, when it reached the then unthinkable level of 50%. When Barak Obama was elected president the nation debt ratio stood at just over 60%. Today it is 94.3% – or 34% higher than when the president took office, and 44% higher than the previous peak.

The more ominous news behind this debt is who “owns” the debt. Whoever owns this debt essentially “owns” that percentage of America – everything the US government can “put up as collateral” to cover the debt. Today the largest holder of US debt is the US government itself. In what can only be described as a combination shell game and Ponzi scheme, the US government “buys” its own debt using social security funds, pension funds, and any other large pools of cash it has access to. The government prefers to call this “investing”, as in “The social security fund is 80% invested in US Treasury bonds”. That sounds all safe and secure, right? Wrong. The government is merely manipulating the markets, buying its own debt in order to artificially keep the value of that debt inflated. When foreign investors hesitate to buy US debt, the US government buys its own debt so that it does not appear that the value of the debt is decreasing. Along with the US government, other significant holders of US debt are Japan, China, and Great Britain.

Another interesting side effect of moving from a lender to a debtor nation status is that sin loves company. As the government goes deeper into debt it encourages its citizens to go deeper into debt as well. Savings and consumer thrift used to drive the US economy; in the 21st century, consumer debt drives the economy. We measure consumer spending as a sign of relative economic activity, but a sizable portion of that consumer spending is in the form of consumer credit. When Americans stop spending, Uncle Sam jumps in and offers “incentives” to encourage Americans to take on more debt. Think of the “cash for clunkers” program that encouraged people to buy a new car they may not have budgeted for, or the “guaranteed” mortgages from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that caused the recent economic meltdown. The net effect of this upside down economic activity is a headlong rush toward bankruptcy, for individual citizens and for the United States as a nation. Eventually we must pay the piper; and if the piper asks for payment tomorrow, we may not be able to “pay up.” We will then discover the truth of our economic situation – that we are in bondage to foreign powers, just as surely as if they had invaded our shores.

The 28 Principles of Liberty based on The 5,000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen, © 1991, 2006, National Center for Constitutional Studies.

I wonder if you ever thought about this…

There was quite a fracas at the PA GOP convention when some attendees dared to confront the chairman on the issue of endorsing candidates before the primary. The chairman was virtually forced, on Pennsylvania public television, to say that committee persons could support any candidate they chose. What follows is the text of a letter sent recently to all county GOP chairs. Note the subtle wording change; last year it read “required” now it’s a “long standing tradition” that all County Chairs should uphold. Either way, it’s a strong arm tactic that defies the principles of the Republican Party and the common sense of government process and fair elections.  I say it’s time to break with tradition.

Principles of Liberty, Principle 26: the core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore, the government should foster and protect its integrity.

In this day of shifting morality and increasing pressure on society to accept as “normal” behavior and relationships that are opposed to natural law (see previous articles in this series), we do well to remember the role of family in society:

1. The family unit is the basic building block of society. It is within the context of family that values and beliefs are passed from one generation to another. It was said of the ancient Israelites that Moses and his generation knew the ways of God, but the generation that followed only knew the works of God. In other words, the children saw the works (the effects) but they did not understand the ways (principles). Without the principles, the effects could not be maintained, and the nation of Israel was lost. Similarly, when we fail to pass on to the next generation the principles of freedom and sound government, those ideals we cherish will soon pass away.

2. The family unit is the well spring of self-government. The core principles mentioned above include self-control, delayed gratification, the concept of teamwork and sacrificing for “the good of the order.” When these concepts are lost, society as a whole suffers.

The way it’s “supposed to work”:

1. The family is the basic building block of society, and the well spring of self-government.

2. Families form alliances (neighborhoods, villages, towns, etc.) and elect representatives to govern the geographical area.

3. Communities make up counties, counties make up states, and states make up the nation.

Today a significant portion of the “transfer process” in which knowledge and values are passed from one generation to another has been eroded. Yes, we still have young people progressing from kindergarten to graduate and post graduate studies; but often the knowledge is being formed in a vacuum; too much of the young person’s formation is left to the state, with only peripheral parental involvement. The very structure of the family itself is being warped and changed by outside pressures, divorce, etc. to such an extent that the founding fathers would hardly recognize the unit we call “family.” The result is a weakening of the freedom of the individual.

To understand how this works one need look no further than the socialist and communist nations of the world. The press in these nations is always to remove children from their parents at an ever earlier age. The goal is to have the state, rather than the parent, raise the child so that the child is properly indoctrinated and compliant with the will of the state. The child sees the state as their benefactor and protector. The interruption of the normal relationship with parents often means the child never has an opportunity to form a meaningful relationship with God; the result is that the concept of personal freedom and liberty becomes foreign to the child, and the new generation passively accepts and even welcomes the yoke of state. Individual drive and innovation begins to fail and the level of creativity declines. As the state attempts to be all things to all people, and provide cradle to grave care and protection for the population, the consumers begin to outnumber the producers. Generally the state will at some point attempt to force productivity from the population, but these efforts usually are only partially successful. The overall standard of living declines. Eventually the society collapses and the cycle starts over again.

We need to study history and understand that very often, the decline of civilization begins with the decline of the family; and often that decline is aided and abetted by a state that wants to be worshipped by the citizens; that wants to be the “beneficent dictator.” But as we have seen throughout history, the state is incapable of occupying the role of god for very long. We must see and understand what is happening to the family today, and we must understand the impact of the family on society. If we do not preserve the traditional family unit, we will ultimately lose our nation.

In a previous post I pointed out that the resistance to voter ID laws is grounded in specious and untenable arguments. We provide identification for everything from cashing checks to renting videos, but some segments of our society argue that requiring positive identification to vote is “demeaning” and “disenfranchising.”

Well, the video below clearly demonstrates one reason the protesters don’t want voter ID laws.

As this video proves, “stuffing the ballot box” is a very, very easy thing to do. In close elections, this could make the difference in the outcome of an election.

One popular ballot stuffing tactic, which was used in the last presidential election, is to  bus groups of people (often homeless people etc.) to polling places and encourage them to vote for a particular candidate in exchange for a meal, etc. Technically these people have a “right” to vote, although obviously the circumstances are fraudulent.

As this video demonstrates, another popular tactic is “help” dead people vote. Of course, this is why there is such a hue and cry from the “liberals” against voter ID laws – voter ID laws remove a prime method of stuffing the ballot box.

Voter roles are freely available to the general public for the asking. All you have to do is get a current voter list, compare it with records of deceased persons in the precinct (easier than you might think) and then show up to vote using the dead person’s information.

Not only does “every vote count” – some votes count twice, some votes are easy to “buy”, and some votes count whether the voter is living or dead.

A short time ago I posted a brief commentary on a local event that is becoming oh so common – the fight over closing aged and no longer needed schools.

Having thought more about this, I have another idea; or, more precisely, a different flavor of the original idea. I wonder if perhaps the time has come to take a giant step backwards while leveraging modern technology. If local churches would form educational “co-ops”, manned by volunteer parents, kids could come to the local church building and use the facilities, plus their own laptops, for school; the kids would “attend” cyber charter schools of the parent’s choice. Parents could take turns serving as school “monitors” while kids completed their school work on their computers. The kids could have lunches and recesses together for “socialization” (although I’ve never been convinced what that means, or the value of it.) Age would not matter, since each student would be doing his/her own grade appropriate work on his/her own laptop and using his/her own study materials. This might even be a way for churches to develop education programs with very little to no overhead; if they only offered the service for their own memberships, it’s unlikely (at least for a while) that anyone could police them if their “extracurricular activities” were spiritually themed. The churches could include before and after school programs as appropriate, so that students could be dropped off by a parent on the way to/from work, and picked up the same.

• Churches would benefit from an additional membership/family building activity, and provide a valuable service to their congregation.
• Kids would be spared the frustration (and sometimes the trauma) of an unnecessarily long bus ride.
• Parents would have the peace of mind knowing that their children were in a reasonably safe place being monitored and assisted by people who not only love and care for their children, but also who could presumably be supporting the parent’s values as they answer question, provide direction, and otherwise engage with the students.
• If enough churches participated, local school costs could be significantly reduced. Maybe the answer isn’t closing less local schools; maybe the answer is to close more local schools – maybe even all of them! Church buildings, which often stand mostly empty and unused during the week, could be put to good use, the education system in general could benefit from increased use of, and leverage of, current technology, reducing costs and (one would hope) taxes, and children could receive a high quality “home school” education with a truly local and empowered school board.

“Back in the day” the church was the center of the community, not the school. Maybe it’s time for the church to step up to the plate and reclaim some lost ground. This may be one way to do it.