Constitutional Libertarianism

Constitutional Libertarianism

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

If you want a better America, then be a better American.

Being a citizen of the U.S.A., commonly known as being an American, is no simple task.

It really requires a person to do some work to really "get" what it means to BE an American.

Unfortunately, it seems that a great many people do not "get it".  Throughout history it has much been the same and American history is chock full of examples of people who were far from the best examples of "getting" what it means and takes to BE an American.

We need to keep in mind though that the U.S.A., that America, and "being" an American, is defined by our founding documents.  Those documents represent the ideals and the best of what America wanted to be and what it can be.  IF the right people are placed in positions to carry it out and represent it it properly.

Therein lies the problem.  Many ideals are just that, ideal, but people are people and subject to failure as ALL people are.  We can look at our founding documents and be excited and motivated because those documents MEAN something.

If we then look at the people, the imperfect and fallible people that have been noted in history, who represent those ideals, well, they can fall sometimes very short of those ideals.

Of the men who put the words to paper that "All men are  created equal", some of them owned other people as property who were slaves.  Hypocrites? Absolutely.  Yet that doesn't change what the words mean and represent.  It means that those people fell short of rising to the expectation of that ideal.

Lots of people from a variety of religions will, when their particular religion is challenged based on the actions of some who claim to represent it, will ask and even demand that you do not judge the religion by it's supposed followers but by what it is really supposed to be.  They will tell you that people are not perfect and a few are not enough to judge it as a whole.

The same respect then should be give to the U.S.  Our founding documents have set up an ideal and a path that expects it's citizens to work at to live up to. This is our system of Law.  It requires it's adherents to see the Law for what it is and to respect the law as the last word.  It requires each person to know the law and to not expect the law to bend low to accommodate each individual.  Instead, each individual is expected to extend themselves to meeting the law's expectations.

If there are some who don't "get" that or choose to ignore it or even deliberately work to undermine it, it doesn't mean our whole law system is bad or flawed.  it means that just like many religions, there are people who do not represent it the way it is intended to work.

There are examples in U.S. history in which people who were elected to the government or employed by the government did other people very wrong.  There is no excuse for what they did and anyone who knows the Law, knows that what they did was wrong according to the law.

Yet and still, there are people who want to use those people who failed America and failed to represent the Law the way it is supposed to be.  They still want to hold those people as evidence the the whole system of law is bad.  That's not true at all. 

The People as a whole have been lied to by politicians who will say one thing then do another just to get into office and act for personal gain, abusing the system and the People's trust.

The People are often apathetic and lazy, unwilling to rise to the expectations of the founding documents and be educated participants in the American system.  Having thus failed to meet those participation expectations, they then want to whine and moan and complain about the results afterward which might have been a much different outcome had they as people, not failed to meet those expectations.  No, instead they choose to blame the system as a whole.  It sounds ridiculous but it's true.

People nowadays are known for saying "Don't judge me, you don't know what all has come up in my life to make me what I am."  yet at the same time, they want to judge the entire U.S. system based on what some failing people have done.

The system hasn't failed.  The people have failed the system and being people, instead of working harder to get back to where we are expected to be, we have so many who cry instead to change the system to lower it's expectations so they can have things easy.

If you want a better America, then be a better American.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Liberty isn't for weenies

In the America of the founding documents, all people are created equal.  No one is better or more special than anyone else. No one.

All people have the god given right of Liberty.  No government, no religious group, no social organization can tell you how to live your life.

That idea of Liberty means so much more than most people ever consider.  Your life is your life. No one can live it for you.  No one has the right to take your life choices away from you.

Your life and the things you make in life are yours to gain, to walk away from, to protect and defend or to give away.

The risks you take in life are yours.  It is your responsibility to make the best choices for your life.  The government isn't supposed to do it for you, no church is supposed to  do it for you.  No person or group of people is supposed to do it for you.  Your life is on you.

Think about it.  You have the right to be the type of person you want to be.  You can be a risk taking hero.  You can be a drunken slob.  You can be a teetotaler.  You can be an obnoxious twit or a responsible, dependable stand-up kind of person.

Whatever you do, you shouldn't expect anyone else to do it for you. 

If you want to be safe, learn to protect yourself, your property and your dependents.  It's not anyone else's job to protect you from others or from yourself. 

If you want to be rich, do the work, take the risks, make the investments and spend wisely.  No one owes you a penny or a guaranteed income.

If you would rather have  others do it for you.  If you want someone else to make the investments and make sure you have the necessities of life, then don't expect too much liberty.  Once you owe them, they own you.  You asked for it.  Life in a gilded cage is still life in a cage and you are no longer your own person, but their person.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Seeing it all in context

"What have here people, is a failure to communicate."  We also have a failure to contemplate.  Any reading of the founding documents requires an appreciation of the context in which they were written.

Too many people now have been convinced somehow that there is something "wrong" with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  They have long been afflicted with the notion that somehow they need to be "translated" or "interpreted".

First of all, this country, this federal government, exist only for the purpose of addressing mutual needs such as national defense, commerce among states and transportation between states, among other things.

It has been a primary understanding, first described in the Declaration of Independence, of which the Constitution is essentially a continuance, that all individuals are self determined.  Each and every individual person that is a citizen in this country has the god given right of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, among other things.  As discussed in previous posts here, we really need to understand the word "liberty" because it means that people are not dictated to by any group be it governmental, religious or otherwise.  Liberty means you think and do for yourself.

It is not the government's role, from that passage forward, to determine any person's life goals, actions, needs or desires.  We do that for ourselves.  As such, the federal government, and state governments before that, exist to see that shared needs are met and that the Constitution and people's rights and liberties are upheld and defended.  This is in the oath of every elected representative they are required to take upon taking elected office.

The thing people need to understand about our specific founding documents is that there is an unspoken but necessary requirement on people in order for it to work as intended.  That is that the citizens need to be truthfully and well educated in order to ensure it's continued andproper functionality.

Jefferson understood this need, he fought for the establishment of public schools so that the people would have that education regardless of how much money they had or where they were or came from.

The primary and basic purpose of public education is to ensure the people are educated and able to continue our style of government as far into the future as possible.

Public libraries support that objective by allowing adults and those not otherwise able to attend public schools due to age, infirmity, etc.. to have access to the information necessary to educate oneself to that end. 

Anything the public schools and libraries provide beyond that is supplementary.

Our Constitution and other founding documents are not "broken" or needing to be changed.  The people tasked with the continuance of it have failed and are becoming unable to meet the requirement of self government as we have established it.

Our public schools have become corrupted and have left the path of honest education to the purpose of continuing our lifestyle and founding documents.  Instead, they have been co-opted  by people who use it to teach misinformation and outright lies in order for them to retain the power and control they have created for the new "ruling class" they have created and foisted upon those same improperly educated, uneducated and apathetic citizensthat ahave allowed it to happen.




Tuesday, March 11, 2014

We, the People, are failing the Constituton

There are people who love to talk about how the Constitution is "failing" and how the government is "failing" and how everything else is "failing" the people.

This, my friends, is one of the biggest problems this country has.  It is that We, the People, are failing the Constitution.

Every time we do not bother to go vote, we fail.

Every time we succumb to the misdirection of the two party system message that third parties "mess the system up", instead of realizing that we are supposed to vote for the best person, not the party which spends more money, we fail.

Every time we vote for a representative who will not support individual each and every time, we fail.

Each time someone tries to convince others that the group is more important than the individual, we fail.

Every time someone believes that, we fail.

Every time someone promotes for the government to do something that each person should be doing, we fail.

Each time a judge "interprets" the Constitution instead of using it as it is written, we fail.

The failure of our government is a failure of each one of us and altogether we are failing the Constitution.




Friday, February 28, 2014

Collectivists Don't Get it and Never Will

America is built on the premise of individual liberty.  The Constitution is written to protect individual liberties.

Yet, somehow, there are a lot of people who view this country and our government as collectivists.  Many people in Europe see things the same way.  They don't get it.  Of course they don't.  It's a concept that is alien to them having been adapted to living in gilded cages for their entire lives.

There are people in America, citizens, who desire what Europe and other socialist countries have because they see themselves and other people as collectivists do.  They do not see a person as "one",  they only see a person as being "one of..."

That is the fundamental difference between what America really is about and what others want to think it should be changed to.

Americans who get it understand that unless a law or an action taken benefits each and every individual person, it is not a good law for this country.  Collectivist thinking is what the founders of the country were escaping from.  Mob Rule.

To them, you don't exist unless you are part of a group.  The individual has no place except to fill the gaps in between the others who make up the group.  To them, it is only as a group that people are safe and able to lead productive lives because their endeavors are to benefit the group instead of the individual.

Individual liberty though, relies on a full appreciation of recognizing that all people are born with Free Will.

It is because of Free Will that individuals are able to invest themselves to their fullest potential to whatever they apply themselves to.

If a person is forced, drafted, coerced, pressed into doing something, even if it's something they might have eventually decided upon themselves, the odds are, they will resent doing whatever it is.   When people resent their situation, they do not fully invest themselves in it and only give the least amount of energy required.  That is only human nature.

If people are not forced to help each other, to cooperate, to collaborate, to help one another, it doesn't meant that they will not choose to do so of their own volition.  If we believe that most people are good people, then we agree that most people, when they see someone in need, they will choose on their own to help and work together to accomplish mutually beneficial tasks.

The truth of the matter is, most people do try to help others.  They donate money when they have it and can spare it.  If it's their own choice to donate, they often donate more than they would than if they were forced, cajoled, pressured or otherwise made to do it by someone else.

This country and our Constitution are a testimonial to Free Will and Individual Liberty.  It has been shown that when people have the chance to make their own choices, to take risks on for themselves, of their own choosing, they will do so and do so with enthusiasm.

Will there be some people who do not? absolutely.  Some people will always be assholes.  That is the risk America takes when allowing each person to live their own life and make their own choices.  Some people will choose to be asses. We have to let the few do so so that the rest of us can see them for what they are and using them as bad examples, become a better person themselves.

Collectivists don't "get that" and they never will because to them, the only thing an individual is good for is serving the needs of the group.

If you want to live like that, go to one of those countries that are already doing that.  No one is stopping you. 

Saturday, February 15, 2014

American, Party of One

You know, maybe I've been going at this dislike of political parties all wrong.  Sure, they have accomplished nothing but to polarize the american public and completely defeat the purpose of electing representatives who represent the will of the people but hey, maybe there's another way to go about this.

Here's my effort at creating a party that might actually get done what the others fail to do, some intentionally so.

1) The Constitution is the final word, it is as it is written.

2) The Constitution is not malleable, it does not change to fit any individual or specific group of people, but all people are to make the effort to live up to the Constitution.

3) The only "Greater Good" is that which ensures that all people equally are able to access and exercise their individual liberties.  Anything that attempts to supersede that by granting special rights and privileges to particular groups or collections of people is undermining the greater good that is the collection of individual American citizens.

4) The government does not have as a purpose to "protect" any individual, but rather to protect that all individuals rights are protected.  Individuals should be able to protect themselves, their families and their property as best they are able.

5) Elected representatives are seen as fulfilling a voluntary service to their community and to their country, much as the individuals who choose to volunteer as soldiers. They are not considered to be part of an elite class of citizens above or beyond the capacities and abilities of any other citizens.

6) Elected representatives are expected to be held to an ideal of respect for their office and to expect they are above such corruptions such as coercion, bribery and false representation.  If they cannot be trusted to be better than that, they are not worthy of holding elected office.

7) Members of Party of One are expected to stand for an ideal of "one voice, one vote".  Think for yourself, speak for yourself.

When you join the Party of One, you are expected to educate yourself on the topics facing your community and your country.  You are expected to elect representatives who have the ethical, moral and logical capacity to rightfully fulfill their role as an elected representative.  It is your responsibility to make sure to communicate with said elected representatives to ensure they are aware of the will of the people they represent.  Don't wait for them to ask you, you take the initiative and let them know.

America is not a collective of people.  It is an agreement, one by one, of individuals who voluntarily choose to work together as required and desired to exercise the recognized inalienable rights of Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness for every individual.

The Party of One has only the goal of vetting candidates who exemplify the expressed interests and purposes as described above and don't certify anything more than the potential representatives in question have thus far shown themselves to be free of duress, undue influence and corruption.  Their individual platforms are their own and they speak for themselves as they present themselves to the people for consideration.The Party of One.  Think for yourself, speak for yourself.

Who's with me?




Monday, January 6, 2014

You can't legislate morality, but they keep trying

The problem is that at the same time they are trying to force people to do what some think is "right", they are trying to remove the final arbiter of right and wrong who exists beyond the ability of people thus has the last word on the subject and we, the people, then have to deal with it and move on.

Yes, that would be God, the Creator of all things, Mother Nature, name it what you will, it's the same higher authority.

People can make laws causing a behavior or an action to be considered legal or illegal, meaning, it is to be tolerated in society to a certain degree or it will not be.

However, we can, or should all be able to see that something that is "legal" is not necessarily the same thing as being "Right" just as something that is "illegal" is not always going to be the same thing as "Wrong".

For example, most people might likely agree that although it is legal for a lender to foreclose on a back-owed property, when said person is owing has just lost their job, has a family and is just barely able to get food on the table, it isn't likely to be considered as "Right".

Consequently, someone witnesses a nare-do-well attempt to brutalize an old woman in broad daylight and take her money, it is "illegal" for that witness to walk up out of nowhere and do harm to that criminal with extreme force.  Yet, there are many who would say that the witness did exactly what was "Right" in stopping the criminal with extreme prejudice.

There are many other countries who try to legislate morality telling the people what is "Right" or "Wrong" and that their laws reflect that (whether they actually do or do not.)  However, almost all of those other countries have a much different type of government which does not hold individual liberty as the core or the base of society.  It is their own view of morality they are forcing everyone else to observe.

In trying to say that the United States of America should be like other countries in doing something in regards to legislation, it must be remembered that the U.S. is in certain core, basic ways, very different from any other country and those comparisons are incorrect and inapplicable.

The U.S. rejects the idea that there is one single moral perspective for everyone and that every individual has the god given liberty to exercise their own judgement.

Because of that individual liberty and respect for a variation in moral perspective, the U.S. is a country that operates under the rule of law.

The laws are there, or are supposed to be there, to protect individual liberty and to protect the rights of every individual.  Thus, ideally, the laws are supposed to be written to consider the person who intrudes upon the rights of another as criminal when they commit an act that causes harm to another person.