Volume 6, Issue 15
Until 1776.
The United States of America is the only country in the history of the world that was founded on an ideal. This premise, and therefore the promise, was that there is an eternal truth that all people are created equal with unalienable rights granted by a Creator. This yielded confidence that birth is not destiny. The former British colonies of these United States did not risk all things physical and spiritual to protect a non-diverse common culture, a common bloodline, or a common alliance for security. They risked everything for a common vision of freedom.
This vision was revolutionary then, and it is still revolutionary today. The Constitution of the United States was penned and ratified for the purpose of securing unalienable rights for all. These rights are ethereal. They are of the spirit. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to trial by jury, innocent until proven guilty, attorney-client privilege, and the right to bear arms are rights that are not physical in nature.
Government services beyond the category of protecting constitutional rights fall into the categories of promotion of the common good and specific services for the needs of humanity. Examples of the common good include roads, airports, infrastructure, border control, and national defense. These government services provide security, safety, and facilitation of commerce. Examples of services for the needs of humanity include health care, education, and welfare for those in need. As provisions of need, these services are an entitlement. However, delivering such services originates from fellow citizens’ brotherly love, not government authority. Government may be the tool to implement the service, but not the genesis. The entitlement is not guaranteed.
There is no constitutional right to an entitlement.
Defending Principles
From 1776 to 1945, the United States found itself in the primary role of defending this vision of freedom against the world steeped in historical traditions of cultural bloodlines. What began in 1776 as a new purpose for government was met with great resistance by the ruling nation-states of the day. For 169 years, the United States was united in its commitment to defend the principles of 1776.
Great Britain continued during this period to be the standard of civil government structure. The empire was based on colonial trade. The model worked until the Industrial Revolution began to pressure the Old-World economic system of monarch rule. This was part of the underlying stress fracture that led to World War I.
England did abolish slavery throughout the empire in 1833. The United States faced the moral imperative internally to do the same. Abolition was accomplished by and through the Civil War.
World War I has been termed by some historians as a family feud between royal bloodlines of hierarchy. World War II was the ultimate conclusion of the restructuring of the world order. At the end of 1945, there was no ultimate authority in an emperor of Japan. The emperor of China was deposed. All the authority of kings had been virtually terminated. Only the constitutional monarchies of Great Britain and Jordan remained with any basic head-of-state status.
Eighty percent of the world’s manufacturing had been destroyed in World War II. Eighty percent of what survived existed inside the United States. America became the manufacturing center of the world for the next ten years. Great Britain no longer possessed the capacity to lead the world economically. With the help and design of the British Exchequer, the United States was established as the chief financing sovereign for the rebuilding of Europe through the Marshall Plan. In effect, at the Bretton Wood Conference, the reestablishment of the world’s banking system designated the dollar as the world’s primary reserve currency. The United States was now a world leader without peer.
Projecting Principles
The years immediately following World War II were most difficult for developing nations. China had been dominated by imperial powers like Japan and Great Britain. They were now free to pursue their own cultural destiny. The Korean War unfolded as an unstable world struggled to find diplomatic footing. Post-World War II powers beseeched America to intervene with its military might to stabilize theaters of conflict. America inherited the Vietnam War from France who could no longer afford to perform the duties of a colonial power.
The United States, which began as a nation defending its principles against a world entrenched in self-identity, matured into nation projecting principles of freedom as a leader of the free world.
By 1974, the economic infrastructure of the world had been rebuilt. Globalization manifested itself as a new political conundrum. Wages in the United States began to feel the pressure of competition. America found itself no longer able to just defend spiritual freedoms. It was now necessary to provide benefits, as the public perceived sufficiently, in terms of their physical needs.
It is important to reflect on the fact that only the United States of America, as a sovereign in the community of nations, was established on the principle that God is sovereign over man, and man is sovereign over government. Unalienable rights of freedom are to be protected as a primary purpose. Other countries address citizen’s rights such as fairness, due process, and equal access to all national resources. However, those countries pursue rights through the foundation and viewpoint of their historical DNA. That is the premise that the government has some rights and demands over the people. The United States stands alone in the world as a lighthouse of unalienable rights. And, that the superiority of the individual over the sovereign is paramount.
The question now emerges - why do so many citizens demand physical government services as entitlement rights?
One possible answer rests with the evidentiary debate that we have been tepid as a country in standing on the principles that defined us as a nation from 1776 to 1945. One such principle was that too much government leads to too much loss of freedom. We have abandoned our obligation to teach our children the doctrine of self-reliance and that entitlements are not a right, but a privilege granted by society. And, we have failed to hold the educational system, at all levels, accountable for teaching and instructing the doctrine of unalienable rights. And further, the educational system has failed to impart the exceptionalism of the United States.
We should never be afraid to advocate and defend our beliefs.
As the United States continues to stand for liberty and freedom, the country finds itself in conflict over defending principles versus providing entitlements.
What Happens When the U.S. Withdraws from Defending Principles
Even at the mention of a term of presence in Syria, emboldened moral monsters use chemical weapons on the population, imperiling even women and children. Withdrawing to our shores leads to selfishness in world trade. And the slippage of commitment to the rule of law and due process as purity of government purpose is causing disruption in world affairs from the Middle East to Asia. No other country has the wherewithal to hold tyrants in check.
The gift to the world of the principles of 1776 are as critical to individual and state prosperity today as they were 242 years ago. The generations must continue to teach and advocate that each of us has an obligation to give back for the greater good. Defending principles as a nation is Americas moral mission. Citizens have a right to freedom. Freedom is enough when equally applied.
The doctrines of 1776 are still the hope of the world in 2018. In fact, they are the last Great Hope.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?