Reclaiming our Heritage and our Freedom: The American Eagle

I strongly encourage everyone to study up on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and its Amendments, and the writings of the founding fathers. One thing all Americans would hopefully agree upon (regardless of party or leanings) is that America was founded on truly exceptional and worthy ideas, principles, and precepts. If we are far off course now -- and we are -- the answer isn't to try to re-create America as a socialist or communist country (none of which have ever or could ever provide the kind of quality of life and prosperity we have right here right now in the U.S.A.). The answer lies in getting back on course with the principles upon which this great country was founded: reclaiming our heritage and our freedom.

I've just started reading the 5,000 Year Leap: The 28 Great Ideas that Changed the World to gain a better understanding of the founding fathers and the creation of our government. Skousen describes the "polemic process" of our founders to get "the American Eagle in the balanced center of the political spectrum". Our eagle has a right wing (responsible for conserving the nation's resources and protecting the people's freedom) and a left wing (the problem-solving wing, sensitive to the needs of people and dreaming of elaborate plans to solve these problems). When both wings work together and balance the government, the eagle (our country) flies straight and high. Maintaining the balance is crucial, as the founding father's were acutely aware. "If wing #1 becomes infatuated with the idea of solving all the problems of the nation, regardless of the cost, and wing #2 fails to bring its power to play to sober the problem-solvers with a more realistic approach, the eagle will spin off to the left, which is tyranny. On the other hand, if wing #1 fails to see the problems which need solving and wing #2 becomes so inflexible in its course of not solving problems simply to save money, or not disturb the status quo, then the machinery of government loses its credibility, and the eagle drifts over toward the right where the people decide to take matters into their own hands[, anarchy]".

Fascinating, and it should prove to us that working together, with the core principles of freedom at the heart of all involved, we can continue to hold our government in the balanced center, where it serves the people the way it was intended to. "With both of the eagle's wings flying -- one solving problems, the other preserving resources and freedom -- the American future couldn not help but ascend to unprecedented heights of wealth and influence."

So right now we are in a tailspin, and those in Washington are too entrenched in their own positions and too intent upon their own agendas to be effective in achieving the vision of our founding fathers for balanced government. Add incredible and widespread corruption to that; while there is nothing new under the sun, this is more than just tainting those holding public office, it indicates a self-interest that is in direct opposition to the responsibility of serving the people in moral and ethical ways. Can you imagine what our constitution might have looked like if lobbyist and special interest groups were buying off the founding fathers and embroiling them in a web of mass corruption (which is realistically what we have in Washington today, with the exception of a small handful of individuals)?

As much as some people might like to believe that our Constitution is not up to the challenge of our times, the founding fathers in actuality warned against the very thing that is happening in our country today. Far from being "out of touch" with modern times, great ideas transcend times. The Founders warned against the drift toward the collectivist left. From the 5,000 Year Leap, "They warned against the 'welfare state' where the government endeavors to take care of everyone from the cradle fo the grave.... They warned against confiscatory taxation and deficit spending." Sound familiar?

Thomas Jefferson wrote, "If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy." There is a very real danger to Americans coming to believe that it is the government's job to take care of them, as American Idle as well as numerous polls are now showing. This is the direct opposite of "becoming happy". Placing government in charge of our lives out of a sense of entitlement is directly in opposition to what this country was founded upon. It will not create happiness, it will destroy happiness. It will also destroy liberty and freedom by forcing "public choice" and disallowing "private choice" (see an earlier blog entry for my thoughts on public vs. private choice).

The founding fathers also warned against confiscatory taxation and deficit spending, both of which are now well past alarming and downright dangerous. In Fiscal Year 2008, the U. S. Government spent $412 Billion of your money on interest payments to the holders of the National Debt. As of 28 February 2009, the total interest spent so far this fiscal year is $148 Billion. The interest expense paid on the National Debt is the third largest expense in the federal budget. However, these numbers do not include the spending being proposed and signed by Obama. The spending of the Obama administration this year alone will give us the first trillion-dollar deficits the world has ever seen.

Addressing the immorality of passing "the results of its extravagance in the form of debts to the next generation", Thomas Jefferson wrote "we shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves; and consequently within what may be deemed the period of a generation, or the life of the majority." Failing to heed that principle, we have already spent our children's and our grandchildren's tax money -- money which hasn't even been created or earned yet. How can we justify this? Worse still, how will we explain it to our children?

What are we spending this money on? Sickening pork projects like swine odor research, grape genetics, the promotion of astonomy in Hawaii, green golf carts, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, the Polynesian Voyaging Society, sustainable Las Vegas, Jazz in Lincoln Center, coral reef research and preservation, Montana World Trade Center, Myrtle Beach International Trade and Convention Center, and $30 million dollars to the salt marsh harvest mouse (oops, I mean "wetlands restoration"). This kind of wasteful spending would be an abomination if we actually had the money to pay for it. The fact that we are printing and borrowing money that future generations will have to pay for WITH INTEREST is beyond the pale and a travesty of the worst kind to perpetrate on our children.

As forward-looking as the founding fathers were, I wonder if even they could have envisioned a government that would bring the people to its knees with this inconceivable level of debt, even though they did envision a people who would be willing to enslave themselves to government for the sake of entitlement and under the precept of being taken care of (and deserving it). We may have that government, but we are not those people. We've got to get back to basics and firmly re-establish the principles the country was founded on, then maintain the balance (of an American eagle flying straight and high) between ideas to solve problems and the judicious use of resources to do it as well as the freedom of the people, which is non-negotiable.