Sunday, March 1, 2015

How Anti Constitutionalism Threatens American Liberty

By Earlene McGee


It's been more than two hundred years since the United States adopted the Constitution as its chief governing document, and the liberties secured within its text have continued to inspire people around the world. Though the nation's Founders had many different ideas, they all shared a desire for a system of government that protected liberty. Sadly, there is an anti constitutionalism at work today that seeks to unravel their efforts.

These opponents of constitutional governance have gained power and influence in the media and academia, and thus have access to many of the most effective means available for spreading their worldview. That, more than anything else, has enabled them to garner increasing support over the last few generations. Today, it is difficult to find a college campus or major media outlet that does not offer some level of support to this philosophy.

At its core, this movement's philosophy represents a return to the past as it existed prior to our own Revolution. For most of mankind's history, the rights of the people were deemed little more than gifts from whatever tyrannical regime happened to rule over them at the time. The American Founders, taking their cue from the philosophies of various contemporary free thinkers, held to a different belief.

That concept argued that man's rights were his by nature of humanity, and were thus a gift from his Creator. As such, those liberties predate government and are thus something over which government must not have control. This concept values individual sovereignty by limiting those things that government can rightly affect.

That was the purpose of the Constitution, after all: to establish competing branches of government with separated powers, and then restrict those powers to certain limited areas of authority that would not conflict with individual sovereignty. Those rights were further strengthened by the passage of the first ten Amendments to that document.

Modern opponents of those restrictions on governmental authority, like the Progressives and various socialist groups, have a very different view of human liberty. This view is presented as a new concept, but is actually as old as humanity itself. From Babylon and The Roman Empire to modern tyrannies such as North Korea and the Soviet Union, there have always been authoritarians telling us that the collective interest trumps individual sovereignty.

For these opponents of constitutionalism, limited government as defined under the Constitution is the ultimate enemy that must be destroyed. They cannot control the country while that document endures, so they have worked steadily to undermine individual freedom as they expanded government control. Many of them now believe that their ultimate objective is within reach.

As the American people are driven ever further from their constitutional roots, individual sovereignty is being replaced by arbitrary rule from a centralized government. If those who oppose the limits of this nation's Constitution are allowed to succeed, future generations may curse this one for allowing the greatest system of government ever devised by man to slip through its fingers.




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