Opus 2018-181: Cornerstone Considerations: BRX, Limited Government

An important foundation of the American Experiment was the idea of limited government and the belief that the purpose of government was to guarantee the rights that God had given us.

In Europe you had the Divine Right of Kings.  In China you had the Mandate of Heaven.  In Japan, as in many countries around the world, the Emperor was god.  In all of these cultures the government was in the hands of the head of state.  God sanctioned that arrangement.  The government existed to maintain his power.  In what we would call benevolent dictatorships the ruler would look at himself as a protector.  That never overwhelmed the primary role of self preservation.

America was supposed to be different.  The Declaration of Independence makes it clear.  The Constitution was designed to keep that difference.  The Tenth Amendment spells it out.

“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 to the people.”

Of course powerful people are not happy with that.  Some want to become powerful for power’s sake.  Some believe they are being altruistic and only trying to do what is best for everyone.  That comes with a belief that they and a small group of their friends, the elite that Thomas Sowell calls The Anointed, are better equipped to guide us, make our decisions for us, and keep us out of trouble.  It is not important who is hurt or killed in the process.  They truly believe two things:  1)  The end justifies the means and 2)  You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. 

You and I are the eggs.  Elitist power is the end.

When we look beyond our party affiliation and come to grips with being Americans, that awareness should pull us together.  When power is limited to a few we need to understand that the chances of us being one of the few are worse than my middle school students becoming starters in the NBA.  You will not be on the top of the heap, as much as you think your ideas are golden.  You will be one of the first ones they lock away or finish off because you could represent problems in the future.  Selfishness, if nothing else, should bring us together on the principles set down by the Bill of Rights.

November is coming.  Elections matter.

homo unius libri