The founders feared that the central government, once it had united the states, would become too powerful and would impose its will upon the people—or the individual states—without regard to their wishes. This “government knows best” model was one that they were quite familiar with from their extensive studies of other governmental models as well as from their personal experience with the British monarchy. They felt that their best defense against a tyrannical government was to divide the power three ways, with each branch of government having the power to check the other two. They also listed the powers that the federal government would have, being sure to leave the balance of power in the hands of the states and the people. They wisely concluded that the states would not be eager to give additional power to the federal government and limited its power accordingly.
Unfortunately, the founders did not realize that the time would come when the federal government would approve a federal taxation system that could control the states by giving or withholding financial resources. Such an arrangement significantly upsets the balance of power between the states and the federal government. As a result, today there are numerous social issues, such as the legalization of marijuana, gay marriage, and welfare reform, that could probably be more efficiently handled at the state level but with which the federal government keeps interfering. The states, instead of standing up for their rights, comply with the interference because they want federal funds. It will require noble leaders at the federal level and courageous leaders at the state level to restore the balance of power, but it is essential that such balance be restored for the sake of the people.
DANGERS OF AN IMPERFECT UNION
As the founders feared, the federal government has become much too large and much too powerful. It has usurped responsibilities that belong to the state governments, and as a result it taxes and spends far more than it should. The lion’s share of the gross domestic output is consumed by the federal government and its many programs. For a large number of Americans, particularly those who are well-to-do, federal income taxes are their greatest annual expense, in many cases more than double their annual mortgage expense. This is a natural consequence of ever-expanding government. Legislators who feed at the public trough have no desire to curtail that feeding and keep the taxing and spending going. To compound the problem, our government is expanding by borrowing from the futures of our children.
The obvious problem of mounting debt should inspire our government to unity, but so far it has not. Although each branch of the federal government should bear some responsibility for our overwhelming federal debt, our leaders seem only to engage in finger-pointing and passing the buck. They need to understand that they all have different roles to play but that they are on the same team.
Our government can be compared to the game of chess, where on each side there are several kinds of pieces that move in different ways but are all focused on the same ultimate goal. I was on the chess team both in high school and in college, and I learned a lot of strategies that combined the strengths of different pieces to win the game. Failure to understand these strategies frequently led to a stalemate or a draw when in fact there was plenty of firepower to win the game. Similarly, unless both parties and all branches of our federal government recognize that we have departed from the original intent of the Constitution and work together, true union and its attendant freedom and prosperity will be a distant reality.
Under an imperfect union, we have steadily increased the diet of taxpayer money and grown the government to an unmanageable and inefficient size. The federal government constantly attempts to control every aspect of our lives. Many politicians seem to feel entitled to take our resources regardless of how hard we worked for them, believing that they have the right to redistribute them to other citizens.
Thomas Jefferson would not have agreed with such ideas; he wrote, “The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property, and in their management.”1 He and, I’m certain, the rest of the founders would have been horrified to see a federal government trying to regulate the foods that we serve our children or the type of care that we can receive from our doctors, to name just two examples. This is not to say that government shouldn’t play some role in public-safety issues and civil matters, but the Constitution makes it clear that in most cases those things should be handled at the state level rather than at the federal level.
There was a specific reason for empowering the states rather than the federal government to deal with civil issues. Namely, a federal judge can, as we have seen recently, overturn the will of the people without facing any repercussions. It is much more difficult for state judges to ignore the will of the people. Since our country was designed around the will of the people, this is an exceedingly important issue that will need to be addressed in the near future if the people are to retain power. Having a ballot referendum on an important issue is a farce if a federal judge can throw out the results and impose his or her own will in place of the will of the people. Unless these kinds of actions truly upset the populace, and unless the people are willing to actively involve themselves in restoring the balance of power, our carefully balanced union will turn into tyranny, and self-determination by the people will become only a distant memory.
PRESERVING THE UNION
Although our Constitution is not perfect, it set up a good balance of power and has worked quite well so far, but it will do us no good if the American people don’t uphold it. The more perfect union has lasted, but today it is deteriorating. In one sense our union is too weak, as politicians squabble about details and can’t take action even as our nation heads toward disaster. In another sense the union is too strong, because the federal government has taken too much power from the states. Our goal today should be to follow the founders’ example. We must compromise for the sake of the big picture, and we must return power to the states. Only by doing that will we return to being a “more perfect Union.”
CHAPTER 5
ESTABLISH JUSTICE AND ENSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILLITY
“Those who control their tongue will have a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything.”
Proverbs 13:3
We live in a world in desperate need of justice and domestic tranquillity. In the summer of 2014 in Missouri, an eighteen-year-old black male was shot and killed by a white police officer. A local grand jury composed of mixed races decided not to indict the officer. Crowds disagreeing with the decision rioted. The riots spread throughout the country, causing incredible destruction, while Americans argued over what true justice was.
One group of citizens argued that the teenager seemed likely to have been involved in a recent strong-arm robbery and had attacked the police officer, attempting to take his gun with the intent to inflict great bodily harm upon the officer. Multiple eyewitnesses testified that the teenager had been rushing the officer at the time of the fatal shooting. Many Americans agreed that the officer had acted in self-defense.
However, many other Americans believed justice called for the police officer’s punishment. They refused to accept the accounts of the eyewitnesses who said that the young man had been rushing the police officer and instead believed witnesses who said that he had had his hands up in surrender and had been mercilessly executed by the police officer. It’s difficult to know what the truth is, but the only prudent course of action in such a case is to abide by the rule of law and have the matter settled in court, not by riots.
Historically, justice was defined by mob rule or by monarchical decrees. The founders of our nation had seen the results of this kind of “justice.” They wanted nothing to do with it and wanted to craft a legal system that would be consistent regardless of who was in power. They set up our Constitution to “establish Justice” and “insure domestic Tranquility.” Today we can uphold those aims by sticking to proper legal procedures, insisting that our law enforcement keep the people’s b
est interests in mind, applying the definition of marriage consistently instead of changing its meaning, and strengthening local government.
PROPER PROCEDURE
Justice can be perverted, even in the best of systems. However, it’s always best to address that injustice through the proper channels. It is true that slavery ended only through the bloodshed of the Civil War, but that tragic event became necessary only because Americans had not been diligent in addressing the evil of slavery properly. Since then, through the use of the system created by the Constitution, skillful jurists like Thurgood Marshall, who worked with the NAACP, were able to overcome the evils of Jim Crow and its segregation. If there is injustice in our country today, we should follow Marshall’s example of persistent and legal pursuit of justice. If we try to take matters into our own hands, we run the risk of deluding ourselves and becoming the tyrants once we get our way.
The signers of the Constitution wanted a nation where people were treated equally regardless of their social status or ethnic origin. This could be achieved only if the leaders of the nation were willing to apply the laws equally to everyone and not pick and choose which laws they wanted to enforce. In recent decades we have seen significant deviation regarding the equal application of the laws, but again, it is not too late to rectify the situation if we the people of the United States take enough interest in our political situation to exercise our right as voters and put people in office who will uphold our Constitution.
TRUSTWORTHY LAW ENFORCEMENT
Since the beginning of human history, men have been involved in wars and tremendous strife. It appears to be a part of the human condition. The founders understood that war would never be eliminated entirely, but they felt that we could maintain peace within our own borders. If they could form a nation where the people trusted the government to uphold justice, they believed, people would be much more likely to remain peaceful.
A key ingredient for upholding justice and keeping the peace is a well-trained police force under the control of a local government elected by the people. People tend to be much more comfortable with the forces of law and order when the lawmakers are from their own area and the enforcers are people who understand local culture. This is the reason why we have local law-enforcement agencies rather than a national military presence to maintain domestic order.
Ensuring justice is a vital element of ensuring domestic tranquillity, because people who feel that they are being treated fairly are much more likely to be tranquil. A combination of fair laws and friendly and understanding agents of enforcement has a much higher chance of achieving peace and harmony than does dictatorial imposition of power.
As an elementary school pupil in Detroit, I saw the benefits of kindness and reason in authority figures. Like most of the other students, I rode the bus home from school at the end of the day. Some of the bus drivers were mean and seemed to take no interest in the children. Our bus driver, Pat, was kind and knew all the children by their names. He could frequently be seen comforting children who were distressed for one reason or another. He also knew that the children were thrilled whenever he pulled past one of the other buses, giving them a chance to cheer and make faces at the kids on the other bus. Although Pat didn’t speed, he was very good at anticipating the traffic signals, which made for many exciting rides home. Because Pat developed camaraderie with the students, he was regarded very differently from the other bus drivers, who seemed much more interested in exercising authority. Some of them felt that Pat was wrong to become friendly with the kids, but what they didn’t know was that the kids had the utmost respect for Pat: He never had any trouble on his bus. The kids saw him not only as an authority figure but also as a friend.
Local police forces could learn a lot from this story. If the people in a neighborhood regularly have friendly encounters with the police, their children’s first impressions of officers will be as friends rather than enemies. Some police departments have developed athletic leagues and other mechanisms to foster relationships between the community and the police in an amicable way. There are far fewer problems when this is the case.
Fortunately, our country was designed in a way that allows the people to choose the type of leadership that they prefer. When we see government authorities abusing their power, we have the power to fire them. That power does not come through rioting. It comes through voting.
JUSTICE AND TRANQUILLITY IN MARRIAGE
One of the most significant changes to our Constitution involved the emancipation of the slaves and the establishment of their rights as full citizens of the United States. The important civil rights amendments added to our Constitution are critical to the protection of justice and domestic tranquillity. However, it is essential that we do not misapply the amendments and so sabotage one of the mainstays of tranquillity: marriage.
I would be a vociferous opponent of anyone who was unwilling to apply our civil rights laws equally to all American citizens. Some would argue that my opposition to gay marriage is inconsistent with that statement. I would argue that marriage was established as a religious ceremony that officially recognizes the establishment of a family and creates an ideal environment for the raising of children. It also confers upon the man and woman civil privileges such as hospital visitation and property transfer rights. I am not in favor of keeping from anyone the benefits of marriage; I just do not want to change the definition.
There is nothing in our Constitution that prevents any two consenting adults from establishing legal civil relationships that would allow them hospital visitation rights, property transfer rights, and a host of other civil rights. A gay couple need not be married in order to live together or love each other. But that is not marriage, at least as it is understood religiously.
The framers of our Constitution intended that these kinds of issues be handled by the states, where the input of the people could be most directly expressed. Citizens should be able to decide how they wish to handle the issue of marriage using voter referenda, and judges should not be able to overturn the decisions made by those citizens. Unless we are able to work through this issue at the state level, we risk ignoring the will of the people, misapplying the ideas of justice won by the civil rights movement, and damaging the domestic tranquillity created by solid marriages.
LOCAL RULE AS A SOURCE OF TRANQUILLITY
The issue of marriage is not the only one that should be decided at a local level. We are actually more likely to maintain justice and tranquillity if the majority of problems are dealt with locally. People are more likely to peacefully trust local authorities than federal. A local state judge is much more likely to pay attention to the will of the people than a federal judge who does not have to answer to those people. Local control means we can have states with a variety of positions, allowing people to seek happiness among others sharing their views. Our country is very large and can accommodate a wide variety of living preferences, as long as those of one person do not infringe upon the rights of others. When politicians prioritize local rule instead of trying to force the whole country to agree with them, I think the pursuit of happiness will be within the reach of a far greater portion of our populace.
PRESERVING JUSTICE
We will never achieve perfect justice on this earth. We will never have perfect peace. But the prescription for justice and domestic tranquillity provided in our Constitution is the best we will get. Following the patterns set out by the founders, let us fight injustice wherever we see it. Let us be disciplined in fighting it through the proper channels, being zealous in maintaining the peace. Let us keep our law enforcement accountable to the people, let us uphold marriage, and let us champion local rule. By doing all of these things, we give our children of every race a chance to enjoy an even more just and peaceful society than we have yet experienced.
CHAPTER 6
PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENSE
“The horse is prepared for the last day of battle, but
the victory belongs to the Lord.”
Proverbs 21:31
Establishing and preserving internal peace was a top priority for the founders. Just as pressing was the matter of defense against outsiders. Standing alone, any one state would have stood little chance in a fight against a foreign power. Imagine the state of New Hampshire taking on Great Britain without the backing of the other states—defeat would have been certain. Accordingly, the founders created a union to “provide for the common defence.” By combining their military forces and resources, the original thirteen colonies became a formidable opponent to anyone foolish enough to risk attacking them.
The founders also knew that every government system risks corruption, and they wanted to make sure Americans would be able to defend themselves should the nation’s leaders become tyrannical. To that end, they ratified the Second Amendment, guaranteeing the right of Americans to bear arms. An armed populace is a powerful deterrent to tyrants both domestically and internationally, and we must defend this liberty as part of our common defense.
Today America faces dangers at home and abroad. In the spirit of the preamble, the country must meet threats like ISIS with strength and wit. We must uphold the rights of Americans to defend themselves. And we must ensure that the government doesn’t overstep its boundaries in the name of keeping us safe.
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