Posted on 09/09/2014 8:46:17 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
America has fought for the Constitution and its values for a short time, but liberals and progressives have gotten the upper hand as of late. Tim Donner, the president of One Generation Away, spoke at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. on the importance of teaching millennials, youth and children about the Federalist Papers and the U.S. Constitution. One Generation Away is a non-profit organization committed to restore American constitutional values. millennials on electronics
Donner shared how the Constitution “has been a subject of great debate over the last several years” and yet, “the good news and the bad news are intertwined.” He pointed out, “the Constitution has been breached with impunity,” adding that “there is no debating that it has been weakened by the Left, the progressive movement which feels not liberated but constrained by it. It prescribes individual liberty, they want collective action, and they’ve largely had their way for some time.”
Now, this has shifted America “from a constitutional republic to a European-style social democracy.” Donner posed the question about how conservatives are reaching out to the future of America’s leadership. He suggested that the conservative movement should “teach our children well.” He added, “The Constitution is not as important as The Federalist Papers. “ An important contrast is that conservatives believe, “contrary to the Left’s view that the Constitution was appropriate for a small, agrarian society,” that the Constitution is appropriate for a more modernized society like today. Why is conservatism right about the Constitution? Because conservatives believe “it’s grounded in human nature” and “the Constitution is only the byproduct of the principles embedded in it.”
Today, said Donner, “America’s founding is either not being taught, or is being corrupted in most of our schools.” He admitted, “We can no longer count on our children and grandchildren being taught that America has been on the right side of history.” Young Americans need “a fresh understanding” in their education about American exceptionalism. And, adding insult to injury, “the political process has failed us.”
The next up and coming generation of conservatives.
From your lips to G-d’s ears.
hope & change?
More like an intervention from Starbucks, XBox, crap music, and pop culture in general.
Not really enough to just be conservative anymore, now many important strains of this thought are actually criminal in most states. One has to be truly reactionary. It’s no longer a case of conserving what vestiges we have left. The entire damn system must be overthrown and the Obama put on trial for treason.
America's founding generations had studied and understood humankind's centuries-long struggle for liberty from oppressive "rulers" who sometimes masked themselves a great beneficent grantors of rights to those blind enough to submit to their demands for allegiance to their demands.
As a result, America's 1776 "Declaration of Independence" set out a philosophy of liberty, and "The Constitution of the United States. . ." incorporated that philosophy into a People's limitation on the power of government.
James Madison:
". . . every word of [the Constitution] decides a question between power and liberty. . . ." - James MadisonThe Writings of James Madison - Vol. 6 (to James Monroe):"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others." - Federalist Papers, No. 58, 1788
"As the cool and deliberate sense of the community ought, in all governments, and actually will, in all free governments, ultimately prevail over the views of its rulers; so there are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind?" - Federalist Papers, No. 63, 1788 (Underlining added for emphasis)
"Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson?...the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it....It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free." - James Madison
"These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety." - Thomas Jefferson - (Concluding paragraph of Jefferson's First Inaugural Statement of Principles of Good Government)
Madison wrote: "To consider a principle, we must try its nature, and see how far it will go: in the present case, he considered the effects of the principle contended for would be pernicious. If we advert to the nature of Republican Government, we shall find that the censorial power is in the people over the Government, and not in the Government over the people." - James Madison - Vol. 6 (to James Monroe)
"...experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government), those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate...the minds of the people...to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth. History, by apprizing them of the past, will enable them to judge of the future...it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views...." - Jefferson's Bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge for Virginia
Second paragraph should have read: "America's founding generations had studied and understood humankind's centuries-long struggle for liberty from oppressive "rulers" who sometimes masked themselves as great beneficent grantors of rights to those blind enough to submit to their demands for allegiance."
I always thought classical liberalism was a more apt descriptor than conservatism. Conserve what? the New Deal? the Great Society? the UN? Roe v. Wade?
God forbid the millennials decide to turn on the government and its masters; it would make the civil war look like a walk in the park, and would more than likely spark another world war.
yeah, going back to the 1940s isn’t really good enough
We need this desperately. I rarely have a conversation with a Millenial where they don’t say at least 2 things that horrify me.
If only they wake up to the screws of the state being slowly being turned into their skull before it reaches their brains and they become lobotomized....
Most millennials are probably leftists anyway, at least until they graduate into the real world.
I would ask conservatives just what, exactly, do they seek to conserve?
For example, I know that society will be better, more civil, more peaceful and more prosperous when every citizen holds godly values.
But some people who call themselves “conservative” relish big government, that is when it is a government that uses its power they way they approve of. They love a big-stick US military power. What they don’t realize is that when progressives get in power, they can use that big stick in a way that destroys liberty and prosperity.
Big government is how we get a government real-estate manager that can justify having its own sniper team, or a department of “education” that thinks its auditors should carry concealed firearms.
A big government is how we get a department of the Army in charge of making sure that a farmer doesn’t commit the crime of “disturbing” a stream bank when he tries to stop erosion or fills in a mosquito breeding wet spot in his field.
A big government is how we got millions of ObamaPhones and having most school children receiving free or subsidized meals at school prepared by SEIU members.
The modern “conservative” candidate for local office will tell the voters that he will run the local socialist government school more efficiently than the socialists have been doing.
The conservative candidate for Congress will tell the voters that he believes in the Laffer Curve, in a way that reassures the voters that lower taxes will pay for more government.
In short it is time for conservatives to understand that the role of government is to maximize liberty not to optimize the size of government.
With their having been exposed to the leftist lies about conservatism in public education and media, I’d be pleasantly surprised to learn that many millenials are embracing it.
You wake up and term limit the b@$t@rd$.
“Most millennials are probably leftists anyway, at least until they graduate into the real world.”
Their ‘leftism’ is probably no more true today than it was for ‘boomers. Boomers got tagged as leftist because the media focused attention on antiwar demonstrators and hippie culture. We ended up electing Ronald Reagan.
Depending on their age I’d suspect that Millenials are nothing at all politically. Late teens, early 20s tend to have things other than politics on their minds, particularly if they end up having a conservative bent.
“Nothing at all” but everything they have been taught is left-wing propaganda, which many accept as fact
I don’t know why millennials would be any more eager to accept what their teachers are selling than I was. I think a more powerful influence is the culture that is sold to them, the music, movies, television.
If there’s a conservative presence some of them will find it with the same relief that a camel has when finding an oasis.
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