Posted on 04/24/2016 1:36:19 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Among the reasons I enjoy Independence Day is that it makes Leftists squirm. They despise the American Revolution. If they could, their scotus judges would gut the Declaration as thoroughly as they have the Constitution. To them, our Noble Declaration, this expression of God-given reason is subversive of social justice; they are right.
Since the Declaration is indeed hostile to their moral relativism, the Left has long attempted to minimize our founding to a fuzzy faith in the people. The “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and “all men are created equal,” translates in their Marxist minds as widespread democracy accompanied by equal stuff to all. It is in the democratic atmosphere alone in which their demagogues can rise to incite the people into various factions constantly at each other’s throats.
Despite their efforts, the Declaration cannot be twisted into a statement of majoritarianism. A few minutes in actual reading and contemplation puts their slogans to rest. In the Preamble, the Founders dissolved political bands, the statutory power of Great Britain. However, left untouched were the moral bands which connect all men (equal station), which are derived from the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.
Our Founders recognized their duty, as equals among mankind, to explain why separation was necessary. Only a decent and civil people would even bother. The Declaration isn’t a crude manifesto of political separation and power to the people.
Consent of the governed is not a rule for democracy. Consent is the means to an end, the security of our unalienable rights. Majoritarian consent alone is insufficient to make political power just, for we are all subject to the Law of Reason, the Natural Law. If numbers alone made right, the American Revolution would be deprived of its moral justification. Absent moral justification, our revolution could be regarded as littler better than a Black Lives Matter riot. Modern resort to dangerous majoritarianism is heard when the media often describe a congressionally passed bill as having “bipartisan support.” That is Left-speak for just law.
Before resorting to force for correcting abuses of government, civilized men will appeal to reason and even sentiment. So imbued were the Founders with introspective reason, they asked if they weren’t making too much of their complaints against George III. The same reason convinced them that America was headed for despotism, and it was necessary to “throw off such government.” Being rational yet knowing that one should not sit alone in judgment of one’s actions, they not only submitted facts to a candid world, but asked God himself, “the Supreme Judge of the World” to determine if they were right.
The Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed by the chairman of a peoples’ committee. No demagogue-in-waiting stood ready to assume authoritarian power. Individual men, through reliance on the protection of divine Providence, mutually pledge(d) to each other (their) lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor. There is nothing more to pledge beyond one’s life, possessions, and especially honor. In an age when a man’s word carried more force than law, these men were so convinced in the righteousness and truth of their cause, they swore to never dishonor themselves and suffer the disdain of their peers.
This coming fourth of July, I suggest the reader take some time for fun beyond BBQ and fireworks. Engage your liberal friends and in-laws in discussion of Our Noble Declaration of Independence.
Hat tip:
Eidelberg, Paul. On the Silence of the Declaration of Independence. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1976. Page 56.
......and reflect on how in the historically short time of 200+ years we transitioned from being ruled by a monarchy to being ruled by a political mob with a short period of self governing republic in-between................
Great posts.
Ideologically speaking, the Declaration is little more than a curio, a peculiar relic full of flowery language and the inspiration for old-timey parchment-like wallpaper. It, like the Constitution, has been robbed of its moral force. (The Constitution has at least managed to retain some LEGAL weight.)
A culture that eschews transcendent morality would not be expected to find anything relevant in a document whose very authority rests on moral piers.
Thank you.
It would be nice if the left at least had the decency to come out and admit that their ideas are 180 degrees opposed to the ideas of our founding.
Oh, don’t be too sure about that. Just as the ink on those documents has faded with time, the sentiments behind them are fading in the withering beams of ignorance, self-service, and corruption. Another generation this historically challenged and we will have no anchor at all.
I appreciate these posts. Thanks
Yet truth is just that.
We've seen plenty of resistance from the states these past seven years, from Obamacare to open borders. The rise of Trump represents a mass upwelling of disgust with our present course.
Still, I've never implied a guarantee here at FR that all will work out well. The most unconstitutional and treasonous act by this administration is the importation of a foreign, conquering army by the name of islam. If left unchecked, it will destroy what remains of the civil society on which our once republic was built.
We are in complete agreement on that. Admitting hordes of muslimes into this country is nothing short of an act of treason. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, how many deaths will it takes till we know that too many innocent people have already died?
BTTT!
I agree IronJack. We are very much on the same page.
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