Humanity, of course, can survive under various forms of tyranny. It has for thousands of years. In fact, real freedom for large numbers of people came into existence a little over 225 years ago, in 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed. This real freedom was then protected in 1787 when the Constitution of the United States was ratified. It’s possible, however, that this brief interlude of freedom could become just an historical accident in the long history of humankind. It is our hope that this in only possible, but not probable. However, unless we do something and do something quickly, I believe that our freedoms could be totally lost in a generation or two.
That’s because tyranny has been creeping into the culture of the United States since the days of the Great Depression and Roosevelt’s New Deal. The trend toward centralization of government has deprived us of much of the individual freedom Americans once took for granted. I first became aware of this creeping tyranny when I moved to Minnesota in 1983 and discovered that one had to purchase a state license to cross country ski. I couldn’t believe it. My wife and I recently hiked in the San Jacinto Mountains in Southern California. Before going into the wilderness, we were required by law to get a permit. It was free, but the fine for not doing so was not. The law was supposedly created for our own good. Our failure to return the permit would tell someone that we were lost. While these may seem like a minor, even good, things, they are indicators of the “Big Brother” mentality of our government. If I am stupid enough to hike in the wilderness without a map, compass, plenty of provisions and without telling someone where I am going, I deserve my fate. I don’t need nor want “Big Brother.” Good citizens don’t either.
As I said, these are minor things. But the mindset that allows minor things produces major intrusions into our lives. Viktor Posgay was sentenced to serve time in prison for removing a heap of trash, thousands of old auto tires and other rubbish from his property, and replacing what he had removed with clean sand. EPA inspectors decided that Posgay’s land was not his land at all but was a “wetland,” which could not be developed because of overriding and uncompensated state interests. Posgay, an immigrant who came to this country to escape communism, ran afoul of our own version of the secret police. Bill Ellen was also charged with an alleged wetland crime. He had secured some 37 different permits to fill land in order to build a series of duck ponds. He was creating wetlands, but an EPA bureaucrat ordered him to halt the dump trucks he had hired. Ellen redirected the trucks to a different place on the site. This was judged to be “insubordinate behavior.” Ellen spent six months in jail. The greatest irony is that he did not even own the land; he was simply the environmental consultant on the project. Despite his expert knowledge, he was trapped. Such things are happening repeatedly in our society in our encounters with government at all levels—local, state, and federal. The good thing about dealing with local officials is that we can influence them far more because they are our friends and neighbors. If they don’t listen to our words then we can more easily vote them out of office than we can at the state and federal level. That’s why our founders limited our federal government. Tyranny is far more difficult when you live next to the ones you want to tyrannize.
The question we all need to ask is why did this happen? How has tyranny crept into our society and why is it accelerating today? Let me use Social Security as an illustration. The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. Roosevelt explained the need for Social Security in an address to Congress on June 8, 1934. "Security was attained in the earlier days through the interdependence of members of families upon each other and of the families within a small community upon each other. The complexities of great communities and of organized industry make less real these simple means of security. Therefore, we are compelled to employ the active interest of the Nation as a whole through government in order to encourage a greater security for each individual who composes it . . . This seeking for a greater measure of welfare and happiness does not indicate a change in values. It is rather a return to values lost in the course of our economic development and expansion . . ." Two things to notice here. Roosevelt appealed to a value we all hold dear for ourselves and our families: security; and, he claimed that government could do a better job at providing security than any other entity in our culture, including ourselves, our families, and our communities. We bought into his arguments fully and completely. That has led to the increase of tyranny in our lives.
Today, we look to government for far more than social or economic security. We expect government to do our charity work. We demand that government protect us from corporate greed and environmental disaster. Today, we even expect government to provide affordable healthcare while giving us the license to live in unhealthy ways. All of this is forced on the backs of taxpayers, because the government has no funds of its own, only that which it can extort out of taxpayer’s pockets. After signing the Social Security Act Roosevelt addressed the American people. "We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life…Yet, down deep we expect the government to insure us 100 percent. That’s why tyranny is creeping into our lives.
Anytime we turn to government for security, we give them permission to take liberty away from us in the form of taxes. There must be some taxation, of course, so the government can perform its enumerated functions, outlined for us in Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution. However, Congress is authorized to do only 21 things. Social Security is not one of them. In fact ¾ of what Congress taxes us and spends our money for is nowhere on that list. Not only is that unconstitutional, it is tyrannical. Taxes are confiscation of private property, something that does not fit with liberty. Unless they are for those 21 things, taxes are unconstitutional.
The most important question here today is not how it happened, but what must be done to reverse the trend and bring liberty back into our lives?
1) Desire liberty more than security. Hitler tried overthrowing the German Bavarian government in 1923 by force, but failed. He was imprisoned during which he wrote Mein Kampf. The worldwide depression in 1929 gave him another chance. This time, however, he used the crisis and the democratic process to succeed. On July 14, 1933 he consolidated his power when the Reichstag ruled that the Nazi Party was the sole political party in Germany. It is true that Hitler then engineered a near miraculous economic revival in his country. If only he had stopped there. But he didn’t stop until the German people had surrendered their personal rights, until laws were enacted that led to the extermination of more than 8 million people, and until Germany and several other countries were destroyed in a way that killed fifty million people in the greatest bloodbath in history. What began as an economic miracle ended with a moral and political nightmare.
This happened because the German people loved security more than liberty. Gerald Suster writes in his book, “Hitler: The Occult Messiah,” Many welcomed the abolition of individual responsibility for one’s actions; for some it is easier to obey than to accept the dangers of freedom. Workers now had job security, a health service, cheap holiday schemes; if freedom meant starvation, then slavery was preferable.”
In Aesop’s Fable 29 a lean, hungry wolf met a plump well-fed dog on moonlit night. It had been a bad time recently for the wolf. He was next to starving. So when he saw the well-fed dog, he asked, “How did you become so sleek? Your food must certainly agree with you.” The dog responded, “Well, if you want to live like I do, you only need to act like I do.” The dog then explained how he was fed choice morsels off his master’s table, as much as he wanted. This sounded good to the wolf, so he started making his way back with the dog to the master’s house. But along the way, he noticed a mark on the dog’s neck. Curious, he asked how it got there. “Oh, it’s a mere trifle. It probably got there from the collar that’s fastened to my chain.” “Chain!” the wolf exclaimed. “Do you mean to say you can’t rover whenever and wherever you want?” The dog tried to explain that he was chained only part of the time and reminded the wolf of the choice food. But then he noticed that the wolf was returning to the forest. “Where are you going,” the dog asked. “Farewell, my friend,” said the wolfe. “You’re welcome to your dainties, but for me, a dry crust with liberty will always be worth more than all the luxury a king with a chain could ever provide.”
We must once again, as our Founders were, become people who say, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”
2) Assume personal responsibility rather than asking the government or even corporations to do it for me. Part of that responsibility is paying for the debts that we have incurred rather than asking our children to do it.
3) Learn the Principles of the Constitution and elect political representatives who will abide by those principles. We must learn not only the words of the Constitution (though that would be a good start) but the principles and values that prompted their writing and enshrining.
4) Develop virtue. Benjamin Franklin said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” If we are virtuous we won’t need or want masters. It’s a virtuous people who will also care for their neighbors without the tyranny of the government.
5) Educate the next generation. We must pass along the principles of liberty to the next generation. That’s why we are starting a Classical Charter school here in the Estancia Valley.
The job of the next President and Congress is not to get things done, but to get things undone—to dismantle bureaucracy, repeal regulations, reduce spending, and lower taxes—to get government out of the way and off our backs—so that we, the American people using the free enterprise system, through our own creativity and hard work can get things done. That is liberty—economic and political—the very thing that enables people to live well and brings them happiness. Before the Tea Party looks to Washington, let us look within. That is where the Constitutional, limited government we desire finds its genesis.
