The two major political parties often speak loftily of “freedom.” Republicans talk about economic liberty while neglecting to mention personal freedom; Democrats talk about personal liberty with nary a word about economic freedom. Why aren’t both parties consistent across the board?
The Declaration of Independence states that we are endowed by our creator with rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This phrase is based on natural law, which predates all government. Government was formed to secure those natural rights as individuals would determine them – so long as we do not violate the equal rights of others through force or fraud – not as government would dictate them to us.
Our founding fathers based our Declaration of Independence on these self-evident truths and wrote a Constitution enumerating those truths. Because our founders possessed the wisdom to make freedom a cornerstone of our Constitution, America has been blessed with a prosperity far beyond what our forefathers could ever have imagined.
Some believe that the Constitution is a “living document” that must, in the words of former Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, “draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” Contrary to Justice Brennan, I believe that the virtue of the Constitution is that it is NOT changeable.
The purpose of our Constitution is to protect the individual from democracy, which is nothing more than a tyranny of the majority. Individual rights are under constant assault from this tyrannical majority. For example, various factions in Congress can assemble a 50% plus one majority that obliterates the freedoms of a minority of citizens. The only check on this erosion of individual rights is the Constitution.
Unfortunately, the judiciary – the branch of our government tasked with reviewing the laws enacted by the legislature and enforced by the executive to ensure that they are in line with our Constitution – too often defers to Congress when interpreting our laws rather than first determining if authority for a given law exists in the Constitution.
Republicans often complain that activist liberal judges legislate from the bench by interpreting laws in a way that deviates from Congress’ intent. This is where Republicans miss the mark. They want the Supreme Court to defer to what legislators want, many of whom are only concerned with what the special interest groups who line their campaign coffers desire. Instead, Republicans should insist that the judiciary defer to the original intent of the Constitution, as amended, as the founders intended.
Our founding fathers wisely created an independent judiciary – one that was to be free from partisan politics. As it stands today, however, the justices’ desire to be popular among legislators has trumped the necessity of protecting the individual from an onslaught of legislation that reduces our liberty. The Supreme Court has thus shirked its duty.
Now, the verdict is in. After decades of the judiciary treating our Constitution as a “living document,” we have an out-of-control regulatory state and rampant overspending that threatens to bankrupt our beloved country and leave future generations awash in a sea of debt. The Republican brand has lost its lustre, tarnished by the oxymoronic philosophy of “big government conservatism.”
The purpose of my campaign is to question the currently accepted principles of the so-called conservative movement in an effort to expose its failures, reinvigorate respect for our founding documents and bring us back to the original intent of of the Constitution as amended by the Bill of Rights. By building a movement of likeminded lovers of liberty, I hope to be a part of our country’s second major struggle for independence – one that pits the people against our own out-of-control government.
-T.R. 10/16/14
http://thomasravenel.com/the-answer-is-freedom/
Connect With Us