What is the “state” of the union today? No, not in the sense of the requirement for the president to periodically apprise the Congress of the state of the union, but rather our individual and collective state of mind about the foundational elements of our society. Are the Constitutional underpinnings alive and well, or are they being threatened or are they in some cases already gone? Liberty, and will, need to be defined, explored, investigated, discussed and protected. To ignore the discussion is to put them in jeopardy.
First, we need to put liberty in the context of mankind’s history.
Throughout human history there have been perhaps thousands of, at least semi-organized, human groupings of varying types and sizes; family groups, stand-alone tribes, groupings of tribes, kingdoms, city-states, individual nations, grouped nations (USSR), etc. One thing they all have had in common is that some ONE was in charge of the grouping. ONE person held the power. ONE person decided what was best for all others.
U.S. BACKGROUND:
The United States of America was founded on July 4, 1776. “Founded” means that it was declared independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain. But it would take another fifteen years to get it all sorted out.
Having fought and won the Revolutionary War, 1783, popular sentiment was decisive, the American people wanted something very different from the despotic English monarchy. They wanted strong guarantees that the new government would not trample on their newly won freedoms of speech, press, religion and upon their right to be free from warrantless searches and seizures.
In May of 1787, delegates from the 13 states convened the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to draft the Constitution. They began the debate with a we-the-people theory based on a lot of assumptions that they believed were within the art of the possible. From that they developed a concept of operations that ended up being one of the greatest stand-alone documents for self-government in the history of mankind, the U.S. Constitution, four pages long.
The majority of the text of the Constitution is boiler-plate about the three branches of government and how they are to function. The Constitutional underpinnings are codified in the 50-word preamble.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America” There it is, “secure the blessings of liberty” the essence of the overall intent of the founders that set the stage for something revolutionary that had not heretofore existed for humankind summed up in one word, liberty.
The Constitution was ratified, June 1788.
Liberty, we say it every time we put our hand over our heart and pledge allegiance to, “….. one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.”
LIBERTY, Oxford dictionary: “The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views”. Liberty is being able to exercise a freedom, to take an action, or even think a certain way without being prevented from doing so, and without being forced to do so. Liberty is the linchpin for what we-the-people have always believed in and depended on. Liberty is a state of mind.
The Constitution was remarkable but not yet perfect. For one, it did not contain a “bill” of individual rights. It specified what the government could do but did not say what it could not do. It would take four more years of intense debate before the new government’s form would be resolved.
Essentially the debate was over the breadth and depth of authority the federal government would have or not have. Thomas Jefferson led the debate with: “A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse or rest on inference.”
The nation’s founders believed that containing the government’s power and protecting liberty was their most important task. From that came the 10th Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or the people.” From Jefferson’s inspiring argument, the American Bill of Rights, drafted by James Madison, was adopted in 1791, becoming the Constitution’s first ten amendments and the law of the land.
Like no other nation, liberty is the cornerstone of our foundation. But having liberty is not the end-all be-all. What we do with liberty is what counts. What we have experienced in America since the passage of the 10th Amendment is the application of liberty throughout every element of our society through personal and collective will.
Will, defined: “Unwavering strength to carry out one’s own wishes, decisions or plans.” Individual and hence collective will power, competitive spirit, not to be denied ideology, driven to be-all-you-can-be. Will is a force in and of itself and has made the United States of America the greatest nation on earth.
Stop for a moment and contemplate the thousands of Americans who, in the 19th century loaded all of their possessions into a covered wagon and set out across a thousand miles of desert and mountains to start a new life. Undaunted personal will to succeed!
In the 1930s we watched the Axis Powers, Germany, Italy and Japan, ignite World War II. Who would have believed that the U.S. would produce 300,000 combat aircraft and 1,200 major combatant ships, including 99 aircraft carriers by the end of WWII and fight in two theaters of war 3000 miles apart. Unprecedented collective will to win not only by those on the front lines but also by the millions of “Rosy-the-riveters” who put the military gear together.
SMALL BUSINESSES: A “small business” is officially defined as one with fewer than 500 employees although the majority have less than 100. There are over 32 million small businesses in the U.S. representing 99% of all businesses. Small businesses employ over 61 million Americans, 47% of the U.S. workforce. Small businesses are the heart and soul of the U.S. economy. The American entrepreneurial spirit exists because of the liberty provided by the Constitution and the individual will to grow something and be successful.
The will to win has emboldened ordinary Americans to accomplish extraordinary results for themselves and for others since our Founding Fathers made it all possible.
BUT, ARE WE LOSING IT? Are political and social forces today undermining our liberty? Are these forces systematically destroying individual and collective will to move forward and succeed? What will be the consequences and long-term ramifications?
LIBERTY AND WILL, SOME DISTURBING INDICATORS:
SOCIAL MEDIA:
In the past few years, social media platforms have become the go-to medium for Americans to voice political and social opinions. The problem that has too-often surfaced is that those monitoring social media are capable of and have been depriving many Americans of their First Amendment right of free speech. It would be nice to know exactly who is doing it and why but what is most disconcerting is that it is being condoned by powerful political operatives who see it as an advantage to silence political opponents in particular and the public in general if they are of a different political persuasion. They justify it by calling free speech misinformation. Elon Musk recently summed it up best by saying, “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.” Silencing free speech is all about control and it is very dangerous. It strikes at the heart of liberty.
MASS MEDIA:
TV, radio and printed media have historically performed a vital role in society; sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate. They have in the past been characterized as one of the pillars of democracy that bind our society together. Mass media can be the watchdog of elected officials, our rights and our liberty.
Unfortunately, the role of the Fourth Estate has changed. Mass media has become so politicized their believability is constantly in question as they are unlikely to present all the news and opposing viewpoints. The greatest power of the mass media is the power to ignore.
What does that have to do with liberty? Today’s liberal Democrats and Progressives believe in big government, power and control over the citizenry and they have near total support from mass media. Too much government, too much power in the hands of one political party, supported by most mass media and too much control over what we-the-people can do and say is infringing dangerously on our liberty.
FBI AND THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT:
Politization of the FBI and Justice Department has been increasingly evident over the past few years and has become front and center with the Biden administration. On day-one, 20 January 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order lamenting America’s “systemic racism.” The order called for the administration to pursue “an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda.” It is no secret that the target of the ridiculous “systemic racism” charge was the whole of the Trump supporter population; about 73.6 million of us.
Then came nation-wide Democrat support for teaching critical race theory to kids of all ages in schools across the nation with teachers making students stand in privilege circles, dividing them into categories of “oppressor” and oppressed” based solely on skin color and ethnicity. Parents across the nation loudly exercised their Constitutional right to free speech during school board meetings objecting to the radical, unfounded and dangerous CRT curriculum.
This led the National School Board Association to advise President Biden, in writhing, that, “America’s public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat” and imploring Biden to deploy the Justice Department, the FBI, Homeland Security and the National Threat Assessment Center to combat this supposed scourge. The letter described complaining parents as “extremist hate organizations”, aka domestic terrorists.
What followed was Attorney General Garland’s memo, October 4, 2021 to FBI Director Christopher Wray and all 93 U.S. Attorneys, stating that the Justice Department would shortly be announcing “a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel” and directed addressees to convene meetings with local officials to “open lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment and response.”
Snowball effect: The Democrats support a racially divisive school curriculum, the president gets involved, he has already primed the Executive Branch to battle by charging “systemic racism”, the Justice Department over-reacts and we end up with the strength of the Federal Government and its tentacles reaching into millions of households in a national effort to restrict free speech; all of this vigorously supported by the majority of mass media.
There are about 180 million American adults with an under-18 years of age child in the household. The majority of parents want to be a player in their child’s education. With the feds involved through intimidation at the local school board level, how willing are the parents to remain engaged, exercising free speech? What choices do they have?
This scenario is real, it just happened; a perfect-storm example of the cornerstone of the Constitution, liberty, under attack by a too-big government with too much power exercising massive control through intimidation. And what did we do about it? Nothing yet, but we can and should on November 8th.
That’s an example of how easy it is for important things like freedom of speech to go south. Big government, power and control is like a cancer on society that if unattended will spread and destroy all that has made this the greatest nation on earth. Yes, it can happen to us because it is happening right now before our eyes. Wake the hell up America; it’s a simple equation.
REGULATIONS AND BLOATED BUREAUCRACIES:
In 2021 there were 4,283,079 federal employees. How did it get so big? There is a corollary between regulations imposed and those administering them. For example, between 1995 and 2016 there were a total of 88,899 federal rules and regulation on the books. Some group of federal employees have to administer those regulations; hence the rise of a national, bloated, sometimes out of control bureaucracy. Massive government regulation is stealth government control and a stealth tax on all Americans.
Complicating the issue is that as new regulations pile on, old regulations rarely go away and neither does the bureaucracy supporting them. It’s called “regulatory accumulation”. The bottom line with regulations and bureaucracies is that they tend to distort business investment, limit innovation and slow economic growth. This is a perfect legal formula for suppressing and/or destroying a person’s will simply with too much “red tape.” Too often it can just become too hard, too expensive and too time consuming to overcome the strength and depth of needless government interference. It gets more difficult every year to start a new business, expand existing businesses and understand the potential penalties and taxes.
By the way, why do you think deficit government spending is out of control and we are $30 trillion in debt? Every one of those groups of bureaucrats administering a regulation, that we may not need, will request and get tax revenue with which to operate no matter how unnecessary or destructive or debilitating that regulation might be.
Bottom line is that regulations and bloated bureaucracies dampen the entrepreneurial spirit and kill the will to be all you want to be and can be. What are we doing about it? Nothing now. Trump set deregulation as a priority initiative and made some progress. That is now gone. Don’t forget, 8 November.
THE WELFARE STATE AND WILL:
There will always be those who are incapable of caring for themselves. The U.S. is the most benevolent nation on earth and we will continue to care for those in need. But under the guise of “helping the poor” the Democrat Party in particular has for decades created a dependency class in America, particularly among Black Americans. Some refer to it as vote- buying. In 2022, $1.3 trillion is projected to be spent on welfare programs in the U.S.
Let’s work the numbers: The “labor force participation rate”, is a monthly calculated percent of the 243 million Americans age 16 and up. The participation rate is now about 62%. That means (62% of 243 million) 151 million are working or looking for work.
That leaves 92 million (243 minus 151) who can work but are neither working nor looking for a job. Of the 92 million, 9 million are age 16 and 17 and still in school, 21 million are in college and 40 million are over age 65. That math leaves us with about 22 million that are able to work but are not looking for work. Granted there are some mentally or physically incapacitated but most are in the over-65 age group.
What are the 22 million who are not looking for work using for income? Probably some type of welfare and this is at a time when it seems nearly every employer in America is looking for more workers. These are the Americans who have lost the will to be all they can be simply because the government will take care of them even though they can and should be part of the labor force. Speaking of will, the government seems absolutely unwilling to solve this simple math problem. Remember, $1.3 trillion this year for welfare.
DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION:
Biden in particular and the Democrat party in general are hell-bent on application of DEI to shape every aspect of our lives and society. Is that best for we-the-people?
EQUITY vs EQUALITY AND WILL:
“Systemic equity is a dynamic process that reinforces and replicates equitable ideas, power, resources, strategies, conditions, habits and outcomes.” Where does one even start to unravel that bowl of spaghetti, how is it done, who does it, what is the end-state? Contrast that with the concept of equality with meritocracy wherein everyone has an equal opportunity to pursue “X” and the best and brightest will be chosen to do so. The concept of meritocracy drives will to win and be all you can be. What does equity do for individual will? Nothing positive and probably lots of negatives.
PARENTING, EDUCATORS, GOVERNMENT AND WILL:
We now have a couple generations of Americans who grew up receiving participation trophies (PT). Life is one big competition start to finish while PT dampens development of a sense of competition and the will to win. PT creates a false sense of importance. PT deprives children of learning from their mistakes and the will to do better next time. PT is misled motivation. One needs self-motivation, aka will, to be all you can/should be. PT is harmful to child development.
Recently three of California’s largest school districts dropped “D” and “F” grades. There is a bunch of psychobabble associated with this concept but the bottom line is it kills the will to do better.
A recent poll revealed that 90% of college students would like for their school to have “safe spaces” where they can escape being exposed to ideas that make them feel uncomfortable. We are talking about young ADULTS!! What happened to “man up” you wimp? Life gets ugly, get used to it and build the will to overcome tough times because there will be a lot of them and there are no institutionalized “safe spaces” out there in the real world.
You work like hell to build and succeed only to have one or a team from the 87,000 new IRS agents camping out at your front door. This is the return of Lois Learner on steroids. Nice going feds, do all you can to kill the will.
We cannot build a successful society on a false premise thereby producing adults who are aimless, pampered, perhaps lazy, and without a sense of will to win, succeed and prosper. Government responsibility is like parenting responsibility, build will don’t kill it with cradle-to-grave guaranteed handouts and “safe spaces.”
POST SCRIPT:
This article would not be complete without a comment about the elephant in the room. Our glorious system has for too long had some holes in it. Slaves had no liberty. Once freed, minorities and women had insufficient liberty which led to low levels of willingness.
Some of the founding fathers were slave owners but that issue needs to be put in perspective. Nothing one can say will every make slavery right or morally acceptable but two hundred years ago there was a different view of slavery. Slavery was the way of the world and had been for thousands of years. Humankind has always had to deal with conflict and to the victors went the spoils of war which were, for the most part, territory and people; hunting land, agricultural land and enslaved workers.
The issue of slavery certainly must have been a topic of conversation during the Constitutional Convention. But historians tell us that if resolution of the slavery issue was to become a part of our Constitution, it would surely have been a deal breaker. There would never have been a United States of America. Standing together on the Constitution as drafted was the linchpin.
The framers of our independence were surely guided in their deliberations by the famous Thomas Payne quote, “If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.”
Slavery was a perplexing issue for the founders because no society had ever abolished slavery before. But to their credit, they did include a place-holder in the Declaration of Independence with the words, “all men are created equal”, and eventually we got there.
BOTTOM LINE:
The concept of liberty, first written in the preamble to the Constitution, set America on a path heretofore not accepted in the world. The American spirit embraced liberty and practiced it as individual and collective will. Pioneers expanded our country to the Pacific Ocean on will, we have prospered like no other nation on earth from will, fought and won world wars on will. But now we are trending towards a government with tens of thousands of active but unnecessary regulations, bloated do-nothing bureaucracies, a welfare state and driven by the concept of equity.
Pound a stake in the heart of liberty, kill the will of we-the-people and ultimately destroy all that we hold sacrosanct.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, and a new book May 2022, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.