Greetings my fellow Americans (i.e., anyone still walking this big blue marble who still believes in, and abides by, our founding principles)! Here is my recipe for American revival.
I had launched my AFNN writing career nearly a year ago with a series of articles focused on the 28 Principles of Liberty as laid out in the seminal work of W. Cleon Skousen, The 5000-Year Leap, and according to our Founding Fathers. Given the accelerated spiral away from these in which we now appear to be under the “leadership” of Joe Biden, I thought this would be a good time to revisit these, briefly assess where we are today relative to them, and talk about a recipe for American revival based upon them (emphasis mine):
1. The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law.
2. A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.
3. The most promising method of securing a virtuous and morally stable people is to elect virtuous leaders.
4. Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.
5. All things were created by God; therefore upon Him all mankind are equally dependent, and to Him they are equally responsible.
6. All men are created equal.
7. The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.
8. Men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
9. To protect man’s rights, God has revealed certain principles of divine law.
10. The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.
11. The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.
12. The United States of America shall be a republic.
13. A constitution should be structured to permanently protect the people from the human frailties of their rulers.
14. Life and liberty are secure only so long as the right of property is secure.
15. The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and a minimum of government regulations.
16. The government should be separated into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial.
17. A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power.
18. The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written constitution.
19. Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained in the people.
20. Efficiency and dispatch require government to operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.
21. Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.
22. A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.
23. A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.
24. A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.
25. “Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none.”
26. The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family.
27. The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom as subjugation by conquest.
28. The United States has a manifest destiny to be an example and a blessing to the entire human race.
How are we currently doing relative to these principles? I believe we still have local pockets of general adherence to many, if not all, of these, across much of the United States (and around the world), though we’ve abandoned the lot nationally, and those local areas of America in practice are shrinking, as more and more of us spend considerable amounts of time and attention on news and information that is nationally or globally focused, and greatly propagandized. We’ve largely allowed ourselves to be led around by the nose by people whose allegiance to America and these principles has been superseded by their quests for power and control, as they leveraged the personal freedom they enjoyed as citizens of the United States to build the corporate empires which they now seek to grow to global proportions.
Several people have asked me the same question over the past year: What do we do now? I’ve alluded to this notion in several articles over the past months, i.e., that we need to shift the majority of our focus back to the local levels, and to ourselves. We must return to the founding principles which made us great, and it starts with each of us and the communities of people in which we live. We need to return to our republican (small r) roots, and begin to re-establish the individuality of our cities and states by identifying, and electing, candidates for public office who also ascribe to these principles, and have the courage to say “no” when these, and our U.S. Constitution, are being violated by those in national government. The sovereignty of the individual United States was, and is, a key component of the federated system of checks and balances which sustained America for so long. This won’t be easy, but it is simple.
In my first installment of papers about these principles, I had included the following quote:
“In fact, I am surprised how little improvement there has been in human evolution. Oh, there has been technical advancement, but, how little man himself has changed.” – Khan Noonien Singh, character from the episode Space Seed, of Star Trek: The Original Series
This is an amazingly poignant and transcendental indictment of human nature, albeit made by a fictional character in a sci-fi series, and becoming ever more apparent as our society regresses to a state of cultural darkness which predates America’s founding. The solution is also in the past, and it is a return to the principles which truly, and fundamentally, made America the greatest civilization in human history.
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I’ll always agree with you about returning to our local roots, politically speaking, but something will still need to be done at the national level, even when our local expression at the ballot box produces more for the national offices. There is that disease that pols tend to get once they pass over the Potomac. Too many forget who brought them to the dance, and they will still need to be dealt with, or our federal government will continue to grow into more of a leviathan.
My concern is that it has already grown too much, and will force a solution, one we might not want, but will be necessary. It’s already out of control, and many Republicans aren’t showing to be up to the task.
Lots of work to do.
One thing would be great: if your article was put on billboards across the country, bold print and all. People need to understand what they give up.
Sadly, I must agree that the Feds are beyond reform from within. That is why I think local reform is our best hope.
And regardless of what happens from here on, we must find a way to preserve these principles somehow, so that after this latest human-as-god boondoggle fails these may be passed on to future generations and implemented again.
Jeff, for some reason the WordPress comment system is automatically flagging you as Spam and I can’t find a way to Whitelist. My apologies for it sometimes taking a it to get you up. 🙁
DB,
When you get some time…please send me a private e-mail regarding your thoughts about moving to Disqus as a comment platform.
Regards,
Mike
Email sent! To be quite blunt and in public view: Lately Disqus has been maliciously flagging conservative commenters including myself as spam.
When the Great Republic of USA 🇺🇸 was started; the Constitution limited the powers of the Federal Government.
For more than one hundred years the States have been bribed to give up more of their responsibilities, which were their domain, for example EDUCATION. This was in violation of the 10th Amendment.
As the Federal Government has encroached more and more into the States’ Powers a humongous 2.1 million strong Federal Bureaucracy has evolved. This bureaucracy has an insatiable appetite for funds and furthermore it grows every time an Administration changes. More arcane and intrusive laws are written. This gives rise to an ever growing Federal Dinosaur.
Departments created during the last seventy years, for example Education, Energy, Health & Human Services, Homeland Security are unending drains for wasted money.
Eliminate many of these bureaucracies and let the states handle them. Oh and while we are at it; repeal the 16th and 17th Amendments. That will take a lot of money out of Politics —- the root cause of corruption.
That’s a great comment. Any chance you could flesh it out a bit so we can publish? Hit me up at managingeditor@afnn.us
Regards,
Mike
“Social Power and Political Freedom” by Gene Sharp contains some of these basics.
Sadly he passed away a few years ago.
aeinstein.org is a source worth viewing for several reasons.
There’s a historical title “Before-Lexington” at 994 pages for free
In his seminal work “The Politics of Nonviolent Action” has the most important notion – the nature of political power.
While these have been tools used by the Left, they are universal and worth the time to read and understand the principles.
Enjoy