Surprisingly one of the hardest plank in the VTC4L's "platform" to get across to people is the idea of limited Constitutional Government. Whenever it is mentioned, the average Joe's eyes glaze over and a hint of fear washes over their faces. This reaction is understandable given that we live in an age of Santa Claus politicians, entitlements, and the ubiquity of the Statist attitude. However, in each exchange with our fellow Vermonters there is hope that minds are changing.
An old friend of the family stopped by the fair booth last night. Though he knew about my work with the Campaign, he was never really interested to learn more. After taking the World's Smallest Quiz, and scoring exactly like I thought he would (conservative statist), we started to talk about the conditions our nations finds itself.
In his seventies, my friend grew up in a world of ever-growing entitlement programs and expansive government. For most of his lifetime, he had been told that all of the troubles in the world could be solved by governmental action. However, since his birth during the Roosevelt administration until the era of "Hope and change", these problems seemed to have never gone away and still more problems were caused by the very entity that was to cure them. He honestly admitted a sense of hopelessness and impotence in the face of this growing wave of troubles. "If the government can't fix it, how can we?" He asked. I replied, "did it occur to you that many of the problems we face today has been the result of governmental attempts to fix everything?" He was taken aback by my observation, but the thought clearly struck a chord deep within him.
The Vermont Campaign for Liberty honors and cherishes the Constitutions of this State and the Nation. We believe that they were well-crafted and deliberate documents which were created with great care and forethought. Looking at contemporaneous documents (among them the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights), we find that the spirit and the philosophy of a limited government is readily apparent.
The founders created a Federal Government with a complex system of checks and balances. The three branches curbing the impulses toward power in each other. The power of the Federal Government restrained by the sovereignty of the several states. The people being the ultimate check on all government, intervening when any of them becomes destructive to their liberty.
Looking specifically at the Federal Constitution, we know that the document envisioned a limit on its power through the enumeration of its authority in Article One, Section Eight. Under the traditional protocols of legal interpretation, whenever there is such an enumeration, it is assumed that such a list of powers serves as a limitation of authority. For if it were otherwise, then the enumeration would be rendered meaningless. Therefore, faced with this guide to interpretation, one would have to wonder why the Founders included such a list if it was not meant to act as a restraint upon the powers of the Federal Government.
Turning to the Bill of Rights, we have further evidence of this intent to limit the power of the Federal Government in the provisions found there, especially in Amendments IX and X. It has long been established that the Bill of Rights is not a statement of what rights you have. In fact, this document clearly set further limits on the Federal Government regarding what they can do while interacting with the average citizen. The Government can not restrict your rights to speak as you wish, pray or not as you wish, publish what you like, and gather together. The government can not prevent you from defending yourself. Your home is your castle, a domain which the government can't invade without just cause. The evils of a darker age in the law are abolished and the State must try you in open court, before a jury of your peers, and must find you guilty before punishing you. And when punishing you, the government can not use methods which are inhumane or bizarre. Finally, this document concludes with two reminders that the power of government is limited and the rights of the people are absolute. The Ninth Amendment clearly indicates that nothing mentioned before, either in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, serve as a limit on the unnumerated rights that all people are born with. The Tenth Amendment further holds that those powers not specifically granted the Federal Government belong to the States and the people.
These fine-crafted documents created a government meant to perform specific things and to do so in a manner that is not destructive of the liberties of its people. Government was to be the referee in the game of society and commerce. It was to serve as the foundation and framework for our activities. It was to be the defender of our safety and liberty in the face of dangers both domestic and foreign. Government was to be the necessary evil that allowed civil society to function. However, time, ignorance, greed, covetousness, and apathy has lead us to this age of mega-government.
We, as a nation, have forgotten that the very wealth and opportunities we enjoy today came from the individual initiative of our fellow citizens, and not the government. We have been condition to consider every problem we face in the world around us as something government is best able to address. "There outta be a law!" has been the mantra of the people for way too long.
Long ago, it was observed that the government which governs least, governs best. With all of the failures, mishaps, waste, and fraud that plagues this nation due to the bloated bureaucracy of our governments, both state and national, this axiom has been proven true over and over again. Our government races to intrude more and more upon our daily lives, creating poorly thought out and financially unsustainable programs, all of which endanger our liberties, our labors, and our futures. The tidal wave of debt, regulations, and economic mismanagement must be stopped before it washes away all for which we have worked.
Our system, which no longer has the confidence of the average American, is out of balance. It no longer serves the long term interest of our nation and its people. The States, once sovereign and proud, are little more than financial junkies pitifully begging for another hit of stimulus dollars just to get by. Citizens of this great republic have become pliant servants of the grand scheme of the elites.
It is up to us to restore the balance. We must work to return our government to its constitutional foundations. It will not be done by protest or voting alone, but by the consistent effort of those who see the danger and can no longer standby and do nothing.
During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the Founders assumed that the American people would be the ultimate restraint on the government they were creating. They feared the power and the passion of the average person. They knew that the American was jealous of his liberties and would take on anyone who sought to infringe upon them. It is time to fulfill that assumption and restore our Republic. It is time to return our government to its limited, constitutional role.
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