Preserving The American Spirit

From Liberty Defense League:

Preserving The American Spirit


Sun, Jul 4, 2010

Political Philsophy, Wilton Strickland

by Attorney Wilton Strickland



With the Fourth of July upon us, it is time to commemorate the extraordinary events that gave birth to America as an independent country. I submit, however, that it is even more important to commemorate the spirit behind those events, for if it is extinguished, the sacrifices of the founding generation will have been in vain. The spirit that once raged as a fire in all American hearts now flickers in only a few, so pause for a moment this holiday to consider whether you still possess it.



A crucial aspect of the American spirit is, of course, independence. The colonists enjoyed the protection of the mightiest and most prosperous nation on Earth, and they paid only a small fraction of the taxes we endure today. Such taxes were fair considering that Britain had assisted the colonists to expel the French from the continent in a costly and brutal war. Despite this, the colonists knew that no amount of prosperity or good governance could compensate for independence, so they strapped on their boots and went into a hopeless war that, even if successful, would leave them poorer, weaker, and with little standing in the world. They were willing to risk death for this shabby bill of goods because a true American does not tolerate being told what is good for him, regardless whether it may or may not be.



Contrast this to the abject dependency prevailing in America today, where everyone from universities, banks, manufacturers, cities, states, and individual citizens lines up for federal money while eagerly submitting to all manner of federal rules in order to receive it. Whereas the founding generation ventured to sacrifice all earthly goods to secure its dignity, Americans today venture to sacrifice all their dignity to secure earthly goods, and plundered goods at that. Americans today also show little regard for the independence of other nations, cheering military action across the globe to “liberate” those worthy of the favor. We thus have donned red coats and made a mockery of what our forebears struggled to achieve, forgetting that liberty means nothing without independence.



Along with a love of independence, the American spirit cherishes the rule of law and expects both the government and the governed to obey it. In 1789 America adopted a succinct Constitution as the supreme law, announcing that government has concrete limits and may not exceed them. This was more revolutionary than the war itself. Combating other men is easy and commonplace, but asking men to combat the urge to expand their own power is nearly impossible, and virtually unprecedented in matters of state. As John Adams observed: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” This is because only a moral and religious people is capable of the self-restraint necessary for limited government and the rule of law; the amoral and irreligious see no reason to restrain their appetites, an unfortunate fact whose destructive power we are now witnessing all around us.



On the moral side of the equation, Americans now regard self-restraint as a vice rather than a virtue, embracing a new morality whereby one can and should do whatever he pleases if it produces no immediate harm. If harm does eventually occur, though, there is no shame in demanding assistance. This childish and narcissistic worldview has left in its wake increasing amounts of turmoil, with government all too happy to provide external controls to replace the internal ones we have discarded. For example, the new morality has spawned a tsunami of private lawsuits based on the petulant notion that every accident or injury must be someone else’s fault – whether it’s a car crash, a slip-and-fall, a poor investment, or a contract that proves inconvenient, someone else must pay.



Americans of yesteryear would never sue a restaurant for serving unhealthful food, or a cigarette company for marketing products known to be hazardous for centuries; even if they did, American courts would have dismissed such complaints at the pleading stage, yet now these lawsuits are allowed to reach a jury and often yield obscene awards. The new morality also has laid waste to the bedrock of society – the family – as couples who marry may obtain a “no-fault” divorce as soon as the thrill wears off, and unwed parenthood has lost any social stigma to encourage marriage in the first place. Government steps in as the new spouse and offers to take care of children who are lost in the lurch.



On the religious side of the equation, Americans once had a healthy sense of an eternal and transcendental power above all earthly authority, which is precisely what gave them the fortitude to challenge that authority when necessary. The very foundation of our system of law is that rights come from God, not from the government, and that government loses its legitimacy when offending those rights.



Unfortunately, increasing numbers of Americans are secular and materialist, disbelieving any truth beyond the dry facts that science may reveal. Thus stripped of transcendence, Americans slavishly turn to the government and its paid scientists as new gods whose job it is to preserve all that is tangible at the expense of the soul – food pyramids, healthcare reform, environmentalism, and “animal rights” supersede human liberty and property in the modern pantheon of justice. Consider that animal cruelty is now a federal crime, whereas aborting a human fetus is now regarded as a federal right. In short, for a materialist there is no fate worse than death, which makes it impossible for many Americans to emulate the colonists whose heroic deeds are celebrated on Independence Day.



And through it all, we wonder why our situation continues getting worse. If there is hope for America, it will not be found in the halls of Congress, the chambers of the Supreme Court, the maze of bureaucracies, the Oval Office, or any politician’s hackneyed prose. We must find it within ourselves, for no government can give freedom or dignity to a people who do not want it. My wish is for as many Americans as possible to rediscover the spirit that made this country great, and for us to come together and bring that spirit out from the shadows to burn brightly once again. Towards that end, I wish you all a Happy Fourth of July!