Volume 2, Issue 1
It further has traditionally been an opportunity for the President to offer solutions to standing problems and propose legislation to cure current needs. From this platform, it is an unwritten code that the President will provide hope for the American people -- hope that our founding principles are intact and will survive.
The message that we should be hearing from the President of the United States and our elected officials is centered on three themes. First, it is not America’s destiny to be in decline. There are those who believe that the weaknesses of the United States are incurable and are inevitable, that the best we can do is to manage our decline just to maintain stability. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our Constitution is sound. Our republic form of government offers solutions through states if we would just trust the states to make decisions for their respective citizens and cultures. The federal government has an obligation to manage the rights between states. The federal government does not have an obligation to dictate to states policies and actions not enumerated in the Constitution. The uniqueness of our economic system which allows for small and family-owned businesses to operate effectively with large corporations is not only the example for the world, but for the ages.
The second theme is America’s destiny is to be a leader of the world. The United States, as a government, as a society, and as a culture, advocates rule of law, due process for all citizens, free and independent courts, free and independent press, and transparency of all government finances and actions. The United States of America is one of the few countries in the world that pursues these ideas as a purpose, not as ideals to simply tolerate and manipulate. The freedom that empowers our citizens is an energy that develops prosperity and fulfillment in an individual. That should be the fuel for citizens of the world.
And the third theme is that the answer to America’s perceived problems today is not less freedom through government regulation and higher taxes; the answer is more freedom, less controls, and more local authority, resulting in an absolute commitment to individual liberty.
Now we find ourselves at a time in our history when partisanship and debate on policy appears to be intractable. The debaters can’t get beyond what’s good for their own special interest because they haven’t started from a point of principles that unite us so that the followers of each side of the debate can at least catch a vision of the strength and stability of the common good.
In 1787, our country was at this exact point. We were the United States of America, but we were a confederation, not a republic. Each state printed its own money, controlled its own borders, and set its own taxes. The various ports fought over the entry of goods. There was little trust between the states and economic prosperity was declining. From 1781 at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War to 1787, the situation deteriorated to the point that there was insurrection, riots and blood-shed. George Washington prior to 1787 said enough! It is wrong for Americans to kill Americans.
The Constitutional Convention at Independence Hall in Philadelphia was a great debate and conversation about principles that unite us. It was not about policy. They analyzed their problems and proposed solutions wherein every state gave up some control and authority for the greater good by binding themselves together in a republic. James Madison made the argument in the Federalist Papers that states were stronger acting collectively as a republic than they were acting individually as states with sovereign authority. The Constitution along with the Bill of Rights has been the foundation of the greatest and most successful government experiment in the history of the world.
Trusting in the American people to make decisions for themselves by and through overriding principles that guarantee that no one’s rights are infringed upon to the benefit of someone else’s rights, was a revolutionary idea. Abandoning this foundation of liberty by raising taxes and producing more government regulation to control our lives, is not just wrong, it can have the effect of putting future generations into government bondage.
It is important for the American public to understand that we not only have an obligation to ourselves to protect freedom, but we have an obligation to the world to demonstrate the benefits of freedom. Our military is important to maintaining stability in the world. As a benevolent super power, the United States is the system that allows for the world protocol of other nations to pursue their culture. It is the United States who maintains order so that sovereign states don’t impose their will on the rights of other states. This is a protocol in which we are uniquely prepared to execute as the federal government does the same with the 50 states of our republic. Without the global net of security of the United States military, the world would rip apart at the seams. Most other nations pursue their political needs, and therefore their government policy, on a regional basis as dictated by their historical culture. Only the United States has the resources to act in the best interest of the world globally.
The last time in history that one super power dominated the world was during time of the Roman Empire. They were not benevolent, to the extent that they ruled by force. At the fall of the Roman Empire, the world fell into anarchy. One could argue that the world went dark for a thousand years until the dawn of The Renaissance. When Ronald Reagan made his famous “Rendezvous With Destiny” speech in October of 1964, he said:
“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We can preserve for our
children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we can sentence
them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail,
at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified
our brief moment here. We did all that could be done”
As we continue this conversation about principles, liberty, and the destiny of the United States, let us seek leaders who will commit to these principles, without compromise, as a basis for the implementation of all policy, domestically and internationally.
For the election cycle of 2016, may each citizen determine the principles on which he or she is willing to stake their children’s future and actively participate in finding leaders, from President to the school board, who will defend those principles and our liberty.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?