Posted on 04/21/2014 7:55:16 AM PDT by Kaslin
Mid-April seems like an odd confluence of events. Not only is Tax Day upon us, but it also marks the annual commemoration of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, known as Patriots’ Day. The stark contrast between the two is an annual reminder of the ongoing struggle between two opposing forces—one which seeks to relish, in an ever-increasing way, the dominion it has over how we live our lives, either by substituting its judgment for that of our own or by thinking it can spend our money better than we can.
The other force, of course, is freedom. The freedom to live our lives in a manner in which we choose, the very essence of what makes this nation an exceptional one.
And like the confluence of two opposing holidays, there are other events, other circumstances which seem to underline these opposing factors in deeper contrast. The ongoing struggle for a rational public lands policy, which came to a head most recently in Nevada with the Bundy Ranch, and the choice of federal officials to offer the appearance of a resolution, when what they’re really doing is moving the controversy behind closed doors (almost certainly to the detriment of the Bundys). While this administration promised to be the most transparent in American history, it has, as we all know, been anything but.
By taking the Bundy Ranch case back into administrative and judicial spheres, they take it out of the public eye, putting the Bundys right where they want them—at the mercy of the bureaucracy, and without the ability of the general public to show its support for their family, which is, of course, precisely what the left wants.
Or take the ongoing erosion of American strength on the world stage. While the administration stays focused on how to increase federal intrusiveness into our private lives, they are unable to respond with any effectiveness to multiple challenges abroad. The lack of a strong response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea gave Russia just the kind of tacit permission it needed to flex its expansionist muscles throughout Eastern Europe. With the foreign policy of the US being only a shadow of its former self, Russia has no reason to even think twice about pushing into Eastern Ukraine.
It may be that this is precisely what they had in mind, though. After all, the President’s belief is that America is not an exceptional nation—or, at the very least, that it is one exceptional nation among others (which kind of turns the very definition of exceptionalism on its head).
One area in which the US could show some strength is on trade policy—especially when it comes to pushing back against the cronyism of other nations. Other nations, with governments actively colluding with corporate interests in order to massively subsidize their efforts, serve to undermine US economic power. And yet this administration (engaging in crony capitalism of its own), seeks to further erode these economic interests by doing what it can to put US companies at a competitive disadvantage: running up regulatory costs, labor costs, energy costs.
Free trade works, and our efforts to promote US interests abroad should be based on this precept. We should be using what remaining power we have to promote a system in which no country uses cronyism to a competitive advantage—and that we, as a nation, will not unilaterally disarm when it comes to trade until they do. This “zero-for-zero” policy is a clear step in that direction.
Patriots’ Day reminds us of the principles upon which this nation was built. It also serves as a reminder as to the erosion of those principles by those in power. In order for America to remain strong, both here and on the world stage, we have to ensure that our industries remain competitive. We must not, cannot disarm. We must act.
WHAT IS A PATRIOT?
PATRIOTS are not “Revolutionaries” trying to overthrow the government of the United States.
PATRIOTS are “Counter-Revolutionaries” trying to prevent the government of the United States,
from overthrowing the Constitution of the United States. - Unknown Author
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion...
Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams:
"Patriots" should, indeed, uphold the principles and ideas underlying their Constitution's protections for individual liberty. The following essay, reprinted with permission, addresses the founding philosophy on a subject discussed here.
"Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise." - Thomas Jefferson
"The enviable condition of the people of the United States is often too much ascribed to the physical advantages of their soil & climate .... But a just estimate of the happiness of our country will never overlook what belongs to the fertile activity of a free people and the benign influence of a responsible government." - James Madison
America's Constitution did not mention freedom of enterprise per se, but it did set up a system of laws to secure individual liberty and freedom of choice in keeping with Creator-endowed natural rights. Out of these, free enterprise flourished naturally. Even though the words "free enterprise' are not in the Constitution, the concept was uppermost in the minds of the Founders, typified by the remarks of Jefferson and Madison as quoted above. Already, in 1787, Americans were enjoying the rewards of individual enterprise and free markets. Their dedication was to securing that freedom for posterity.
The learned men drafting America's Constitution understood history - mankind's struggle against poverty and government oppression. And they had studied the ideas of the great thinkers and philosophers. They were familiar with the near starvation of the early Jamestown settlers under a communal production and distribution system and Governor Bradford's diary account of how all benefited after agreement that each family could do as it wished with the fruits of its own labors.
Later, in 1776, Adam Smith's INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS and Say's POLITICAL ECONOMY had come at just the right time and were perfectly compatible with the Founders' own passion for individual liberty. Jefferson said these were the best books to be had for forming governments based on principles of freedom. They saw a free market economy as the natural result of their ideal of liberty. They feared concentrations of power and the coercion that planners can use in planning other peoples lives; and they valued freedom of choice and acceptance of responsibility of the consequences of such choice as being the very essence of liberty. They envisioned a large and prosperous republic of free people, unhampered by government interference.
The Founders believed the American people, possessors of deeply rooted character and values, could prosper if left free to:
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Such a free market economy was, to them, the natural result of liberty, carried out in the economic dimension of life. Their philosophy tended to enlarge individual freedom - not to restrict or diminish the individual's right to make choices and to succeed or fail based on those choices. The economic role of their Constitutional government was simply to secure rights and encourage commerce. Through the Constitution, they granted their government some very limited powers to:
Adam Smith called it "the system of natural liberty." James Madison referred to it as "the benign influence of a responsible government." Others have called it the free enterprise system. By whatever name it is called, the economic system envisioned by the Founders and encouraged by the Constitution allowed individual enterprise to flourish and triggered the greatest explosion of economic progress in all of history. Americans became the first people truly to realize the economic dimension of liberty.
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