The American Attitude Relating to Where Freedom and Rights are Derived has so Drastically Changed in the Last 235 Years.

It is most interesting as well as extremely disconcerting how over the last two hundred thirty-three years of this great country’s existence the attitudes relating to where freedom and rights are derived, and where government gets its legitimate power from has so drastically changed. Prior to and upon winning independence from Britain, the belief of the Founding Fathers and the average citizen was that individual freedoms and rights were derived directly from God. Expanding on the logic that individual freedom and rights came from God, it was concluded that the power of the government came from the people directly. When the ruling government guarded rather than impinging or attempting to destroy those rights and freedoms there was no problem. But as soon as the government began to attempt to take away the rights and freedoms of the governed thus moving down the road to tyranny, it was the right of the governed to alter or replace the government. When there was a problem or issue that affected the whole, the people worked together as a community to fix it. There was no sitting back and looking to government to do it for them.

Today, it is the exact opposite. Rights and freedoms are believed to derive from the government or the latest government program. It is only through government interference and regulation that freedoms and rights be asserted or protected. The power and validity of the government to rule is just assumed to come from government itself, a kind of self-emanating legitimacy. That people are to be instructed as to what rights and freedoms they are afforded by the government, the fact that these freedoms are fluid and changing, and accept it at face value as the governed. It has reached a point where at times it seems that our elected leaders act like they are doing us a favor by allowing us to vote them back into power every several years. The governed today seem to accept this reversal without even a whimper. When a problem arises, the people clamor for and expect the government to do something, anything to make things better rather than to work with others in their community to find a solution or to suffer a little personal pain and hardship.

There are those today that would say that times have changed and our beliefs towards freedom, individual rights and government must change as well. Some would say that the Constitution is a living document that changes as needed to accommodate current beliefs and attitudes. Others would say that the Constitution is a flawed document that only speaks to what the government cannot do while stating nothing in regards to what the government can and cannot do to the people or in the people’s best interest. The idea of working as a community to solve our problems is outdated and unrealistic (i.e. we the people are not smart enough to get it) due to the large size of our country, the intricacies of domestic and foreign policy, and how complex and internationally integrated our economy is. Because of the vast diversity of the country and historic wrongs perpetuated against government identified minority groups it is necessary for the government to interpret and grant to us those individual rights, through new or expanded government programs if necessary, that are deemed acceptable and necessary then enforcing those individual rights by any means necessary. That beyond interpreting, granting, and enforcing our individual rights, the government has the power to rescind, modify, or restrict any individual right deemed unsightly, outdated, or that may infringe on any real or perceived right of another.

These beliefs and attitudes towards freedom, individual rights, and government did not change overnight. It was a slow, gradual change over time through the use of several strategies. One strategy in this change is the modification in curriculum and graduation requirements which mandates less and less studies in the fields of history and government. Because of these modifications, students have become less familiar and knowledgeable in the ideological foundations that caused the formation of America in the first place. Students are now no longer or rarely taught the founding documents, the arguments surrounding them, or the Founder’s reasoning behind their drafting. Those courses which are required at both the high school and collegiate levels are often being taught by those who had nothing but scorn for the founding documents, the principles they stood for, and towards the Founding Fathers themselves. The instructors, rather than teaching how the founding documents and those who wrote them positively effected history, railed on how it was only a bunch of rich, slave owning, white men created the country and founding documents out of hypocrisy, greed and self-interest. That, the United States, rather than being a free country that was extremely generous both publicly and privately was instead an oppressive, imperialistic nation that should be looked upon with disgust and hatred. Students were taught that rather than have pride in their country, they should feel ashamed and embarrassed to be an American. Many of those students went on to teach future generations what they were taught. Those who chose to rebel against this prevalent school of thought were ridiculed, harassed, denied work, forced to quit, or outright fired.

A second strategy is the active struggle to remove any mention of God from society. The constant ridicule of, and assault on, those who espouse religious beliefs, especially Judeo-Christian beliefs, is wide spread in society. The mainstream media and Hollywood elites portray having a strong religious background or principals as an automatic disqualification to any elected office. Anyone with a strong religious background is labeled as a closed-minded radical that will impose their standards on the rest of the country if they had a chance. The religious are lampooned at every opportunity as superstitious buffoons that are uneducated and are easily duped by any con-artist or charlatan they come into contact with. One only has to look at the beating and derision of Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee took during the 2008 presidential primaries by the media establishment for an example. Constant lawsuits regarding the separation of church and state plague public entities at all levels causing these entities to do everything in their power to become as secular as possible to the point of ceasing time honored practices of having prayer before the start of official meetings or legislative sessions or demanding no mention whatsoever of either God or Jesus Christ in the prayer. Along with these suits or threats of such suits, there are politicians aplenty who are willing to remove any form of religion voluntarily for a variety of reasons. The town of Lodi, California is one example of this. The mayor has banned the use of Jesus Christ in prayers opening the city council meetings and has demanded a copy of the prayer beforehand in order to edit it to his liking. One of the favorite, but erroneous, arguments of the anti-religion establishment is that the Founding Fathers wanted nothing to do with religion and were not religious themselves. A quick scan of any of the founding documents or the writings of the Founders would quickly show one the fallacy of this argument.

A third strategy, closely allied with the second, is the move away from moral absolutism to moral relativism. This change is a subtle one. It moves away from concrete rights and wrongs in society towards each individual’s beliefs. We are now told that it is wrong, arrogant, and bigoted to judge the actions of another by one’s own morals and standards. Instead we must understand the beliefs and situation of other’s and accept their behaviors and actions regardless of how it fits within our morals and standards. This takes walking in another’s shoes to understand them to obscene and unacceptable heights. It also has taught our children that the only thing that matters is what you believe and feel is right or wrong and that it is not really wrong if they can justify as righting some past wrong they suffered or that they deserved it more than someone else. That there is no explicit standard in which to judge something or someone right and wrong, and any attempt to impose uniform standards of right or wrong is outdated, bigoted, and an attempt to unjustly control others.

The fourth strategy comes from our elected officials directly. We, as Americans, are constantly bombarded by elected officials, aided by their allies in the media and elsewhere, that some new law, regulation, or program needs to be implemented in the name of providing for us, protecting our current individual freedoms, or creating new ones. What used to be general rights or opportunities have become specific rights and guarantees. Politicians are telling Americans that wealth distribution, for example, needs to happen to even the playing field of the American Dream regardless of the fact that those who are being targeted took the necessary risks to fulfill their dream and succeeded despite setbacks and previous failures. During the 2008 presidential election, Candidate Barack Obama told Joe the Plummer that he didn’t want to punish Joe’s success he just wanted to make sure that those coming up behind him had a chance at success too and that spreading the wealth around was good for everyone. What’s more is that many Americans take what is being given to them by their elected officials without question. Whether these officials actually believe what they are saying or just providing lip service in order to enhance their reelection changes is beside the point here. What is important is that they are turning on its head the true concept and definition of individual freedom.

Many of today’s problems facing America stem from this about-face in beliefs and attitudes towards freedom, individual rights, and government and the strategies that have been utilized to facilitate this change. So how do we, as Americans, change the direction of the country? While the solution is pretty simple and straight forward it is not easy. First, we need to understand we have several weaknesses that are repeatedly used against us. The first weakness is that Americans are easily distracted. When we, as Americans, have had enough and stand up to the politicians in power, regardless of party, they throw some money or new program “designed to solve the problem” at us which gets us distracted and we go away leaving the politicians to do as they please as before. In order to make the necessary changes to the way government runs and those who run it we have to be able to reject and ignore the distractions thrown at us by the politicians.

The second weakness we must overcome is being easily divided and conquered as a people. Whether it is by class, race, sexual identity, or along some other lines; dividing the American people has been used extremely effectively by politicians to either maintain the status quo or to usurp additional power and control for decades, especially since the 1960’s. By playing on our biases, prejudices, and envies politicians separate and reduce us to jealous, bickering groups rather a united people. When Americans act as small, narrow groups we become just like the special interest groups we revile. We need to remember that the old adage united we stand, divided we fall is absolutely true! It is time for the American people to stop being divided and conquered by self-serving and power hungry politicians. In order to accomplish this we all need to look at the big picture and future as Americans rather than as short-term, short-sighted selfish individuals or special interest groups. Until we begin acting as We the People, we will continue to be divided and taken down a road that in the end none of want to go down.

The third problem, lack of civil involvement, stems from the other two. Because of being easily distracted and divided many people feel that it is not worth getting involved. The common feeling I run into is the why vote when it won’t matter. I have lived in many liberal-leaning states where the conservatives don’t participate because they believe that it is in vain. Take the states of Oregon and Washington for example. The heavily populated, urban areas of the Willamette Valley and Puget Sound have a history of voting in liberal politicians much to the disgruntlement and frustration of the rural areas of those states. On the flip side, it is interesting how many don’t get involved in the political process because their party is in control of their state or the federal government. In this case the attitude is that my party has the power so I don’t need to do anything. Regardless of the political stripe of the state one lives in, political participation is paramount. It is when there is a large amount of apathy that the politicians go off on a tear. When a politician fears coming back to an angry electorate, they begin to think about what they are doing. Done correctly and in large numbers, political participation should keep the elected representatives on their best behavior.

Remember it was one average individual, Thomas Paine, who wrote a pamphlet that pushed America towards independence. It was a small group of individuals that drafted and were instrumental in the ratification of the Constitution. It is now one individual and a small group of people that are shifting this country in a different direction than the Founders initially set. We the people can change that. We have to wake up to what is going on, stand united as a people, get involved in the political process, and focus on the needs of our great country rather than what we can extract from others for our own little interest groups. We also have to work to reverse the inaccurate and harmful teachings of today’s teaching instructors that are demonizing the ideals of America and America itself while teaching the younger generations that there are no absolutes to right or wrong only personal opinions. It will not be easy to go against the habits and attitudes that have been built over many decades but it is possible if we want our kids to live the same or better than we did. We, the people, did stand up and say enough in 1776 to gain independence from Great Britain; we can do it again today but it will take a great deal of work to reverse decades of neglect.