Standing On Principle in Politics
Now that we know where all of the power of America comes from, we can begin to look at how it is and should be applied. The best place to start is in politics. This is somewhat unfortunate, because politics and governance should be in some ways invisible to daily life. Ideally our government is meant to ensure our freedoms and liberties. The should be relatively silent servants seeking only to protect the people they serve from “threats foreign and domestic”. Unfortunately, this is not how people work.
It is usually power hungry people who seek positions of influence and such people have no interest in up holding their Constitutional Oath nor in defending the rights of their people; because, their real objective is to benefit themselves. Also, rather than remaining vigilant and hyper aware of people they elect to positions of governance most, citizens have a tendance of slipping into listless stupor. Especially in such an abundant affluent society such as our own. This rather unfortunate cocktail of greed and sloth will eventually start to spell disaster for a nation.
Politicians will begin to make promises to get elected. They start to take over what are supposed to be responsibilities of their people, such are education, healthcare, and even in some cases providing for basic needs like food and housing and, while these promises all sound good on the surface, there are two problems. Problem number one is value. The government has none. No government does. That is to say they do not actually add anything of value to society and therefore do not create any kind of profit.
I don’t actually mean this as a dig. No government adds value to their counties, because that is not their job. It is the people who build nations either by their own efforts of through collectives such a businesses or charities. The problem this lack of value (all they care about is the lack of profit) creates for the politicians is quite obviously a lack of funding. But that is okay, they can take whatever fund they need from their citizens through taxes.
There are many unintended and destructive consequences to these “well-meaning” government programs, which we will examine at a future date, but the main problem is such efforts disregard human nature. Human being need incentive in order to produce. Necessity is the mother of innovation and growth. To remove the risk only makes people dependent and compliant. Even if their physical needs are provided for they still begin to parish. Also, by taxing their citizens they inhibit both the ambition and the ability of their people. This can limit their peoples’ capacity to actually add value to society. Leading to a dilapidated state at both end so the spectrum. The remove the incentive of some and kill the ambition of the rest. This leads us to problem number two, which is greed.
As more and more unscrupulous people are elected into positions of influence, such people are no longer content with money, they now want control. They want to be able to dictate to the people they are supposed to be serving and you begin to see them take aim at the founding principles of the nation themselves. This is because if things like the dignity of man, the traditional family, and God remain in the public conscious then the people are harder to control. You are only free to the degree that you are willing to accept responsibility. If you make people unwilling to accept responsibility, you take away their willingness to be free. This often happens without the people even realizing it. The more people you sway over to your side of thinking the easier it is to institute and solidify your control over them and benefit both yourself and your cronies.
The longer this is allowed to go on the more dire the situation becomes and eventually you end up living in a world like ours, where the people are divided, no longer driven by universal truth or a universal culture, and are willing to give up so much of their own responsibility and freedom, that they jeopardize the freedoms of others. This is especially devastating in democracies where, even though your rights do not come from the government, a majority can elect individuals who begin to legally disregard the constitution and actively look for ways to undermine it.
When it comes to living on principle in relation to politics, it is very important to understand what the true role of a government is supposed to be. If you are an elected official, you are beholden to your oath to uphold the Constitution and the principles it was written on and that is all. You are not responsible to a party. You are not responsible to special interest groups. You are most certainly not responsible to your own selfish desires. And, even though your are the servant of the people, you are not responsible to every one of their neurotic wishes especially not the ones that conflict with your Constitutional oath. Say for example, the majority want you to shut down the country to attempt to slow the spread of a virus. This would be an infringement on your oath to uphold their liberties and it is your responsibility to protect those liberties even if the people will not. This is a very difficult job, but we need more self-sacrificing statesmen in government these days. Citizens have a political responsibility as well though. Beyond the obvious responsibility of voting for patriots we are all required to live by the founding principles of our nation. Every. Single. Day.
Unfortunately, in our present day the politicians and many of the citizens have already failed us and the only way out of these turbulent times is through. What is even more unfortunate is that selfish greedy people seem to occupy not only positions of influence in the government, but also in business and banks. Institutions which actually DO provide value to society have now decided that they will only sever those that they see as worthy. These are the so-called “elites” and “experts” and the only reason they are of any interest to anyone is because they now have so much control over our daily lives. So, how do we respond? What do we need to do?
When it comes to these “elites” and “experts” who currently control the financial and political institutions, the legacy and social media, the government and big business, the health industry and the organizations that are supposed to regulate the health industry all from a global international level it is very important to understand that, while they seem to have all of the “power” and be holding all of the cards, they have a critical weakness. They don't care about anyone except themselves.
It doesn’t seem like much, but that is because we are so used to looking at worldly institutions and thinking of them as sources of power. They are not. Business rise and fall all the time. Governments crumble. These organizations only have existence to serve. If they no longer serve they no longer exist, not in a way that maters. Real actual power always comes from the principles behind the organization, nation, institution, and culture.
True masters do not combat one another in the realms of politics, finance, or business. They don’t even meet on the battlefield. They compete on the level of principle. The principle of the elites is selfishness and well… elitism. They care nothing for other people, they believe everyone else is beneath them. Their only interest is in their own wealth and survival. Friends, I assure you. This is a very weak position. They have no support and now they know it.
If we are to combat this effectively we need to recognize the reality of the God given rights and dignity of all people and the only way to do this is to live by it. We have to be willing to recognize the dignity of others. All other, even our enemies, and treat them with the respect that they refuse us. Yes. This is hard. If it was easy everyone one do it, but make no mistake, it is essential. Jesus always told us to forgive and pray for our enemies. This is one of the reason why. When you do this, you get on God’s side.
The reason our nation is so powerful and so hated is because it represents real power which is the recognition of the dignity and greatness of every life as put there by God. The only true shot we have at pushing back against the over arching authoritarianism that we face is to recognize, hold, and live by this universal truth. It is why the elitist has have been working so hard to undermine America, it’s because they recognize it as a threat to their goals. Why don’t we choose to make the same recognition?