Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

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How we can get there from here

Last week I wrote an article for the Grizzly Groundswell asking the question “What are we fighting for”. In that article I outlined my vision for our government, and I presented a plan for achieving that vision.

• We must educate the American people with respect to the founding principles upon which the nation we have inherited was established. This includes not only the basis of our own political philosophy, but the basis of that of our political opponents.
• We must examine the current structure of our governments – at all levels and compare them with the foundations that were laid for them and with our own ultimate goals for our government.
• We must use the power granted to us over our government wisely – the one power that we have without resorting to force of arms – our votes. We must use this power with purpose and resolve – but we must remember to use it with one goal in mind at all times – to win a victory for our principles. Not just in the individual office that we’re voting for, but even in those that we are not.
• We must think globally and act locally – to borrow a slogan from the left. The power of any man’s vote is greatest when it contends with the votes of fewer men. Your vote can make the biggest difference locally – and it makes the smallest difference nationally. Conservatives deride the “community organizer” that became President at our own peril.
• We must hold those we elect accountable – not merely for their behavior, but for their votes. If an elected official fails to represent us then we must take action, quickly and effectively.
• Remember the tenth amendment to the Constitution. In the end, it will be the key to retaking our government – but only if we learn what it means, and only if those we elect to office take its meaning to heart.

I also wrote another article that I posted here where I gave a very brief paragraph on what I believe to be the basis of a modern conservative philosophy.

Conservatism is about honoring the past, preserving our heritage and defending liberty. Real conservatism is about securing and safeguarding the rights of the individual and about living responsibly in a state of ordered liberty. True American conservatives believe in these principles and they believe in their consequences.

If you think of yourself as a conservative, I would like you to ask yourself a question. That question is this – Do the men and women that have been elected to represent me believe in the same principles that I do, do they merely give lip service to them, or do they believe in and act on other principles that I do not believe in? If after careful consideration you find that they don’t believe in and act on the same principles that you do then you must ask yourself another question – what are you going to do about it?

Fellow blogger Maggie Thornton notes that the first item on my agenda, educating the American people with respect to the founding principles of our government, will probably be the hardest item.

…Of you[r] list, I see the first as the most difficult. We have, for far too long, let Liberals write the text books. We have lost a generation to false and revised history. We have teachers who obviously haven’t noticed. Does this mean they approve of what they are teaching?…that they believe what they are teaching from those onerous textbooks? Who will speak up and get something done for the children?

To tell you the truth, I don’t base my political philosophy on anything I learned from text books in school. I was raised by my parents with basically conservative values, although my mother sits much farther to the left than either I or my father and brother do. For some time I fell in with the liberals – rebelling against my upbringing as it were. Even so, once I began to give my principles serious thought I returned to conservative roots. If we have lost a generation to false and revised history it is not our schools fault; it is our own as parents.

Don’t look to the schools to provide the necessary education to raise up conservatives. We must educate ourselves and our children. We must also educate one another. I am fairly certain that if you put fifteen conservatives in a single room and asked them to explain the basis of their conservatism – or even what conservatism means to them – you’d get fifteen very different answers. Not that that should be unexpected. None of us has the whole truth and we can all learn from one another if we’re willing to do it.

On a side note, the same could probably be said about liberals – put fifteen of them in a room together and ask them to explain their philosophy and you’ll probably get fifteen different answers too. And despite what some conservatives may say not all liberals base their philosophy on mere feelings. Some of them have given serious though to the matter – they just start from different foundational principles.

To understand the basis of modern conservatism you only need a single document – The Declaration of Independence. No matter what any of the “liberal textbooks” may have to say this document is the justification for and the explanation of the founding of our nation. Careful conversations with young people centered on the philosophy of the founders – particularly Thomas Jefferson – illustrated in this document will go a long way to teaching the basis of modern conservatism. As a young mind grows to understand these principles, you could go deeper and examine the philosophy of John Locke. Locke’s work serves as the basis of what Thomas Jefferson summarized in the Declaration of Independence.

Fellow blogger “The Lockean” who sometimes blogs under the pseudonym “The Machiavellian” has been doing a good series on Classical Liberalism (a more accurate term than conservatism, but the left has co-opted the language) and the philosophy of John Locke. See Classical Liberalism: The Bedrock Theory of Our Rights–Part One, Classical Liberalism: The Reason for Government-Part Two, and his latest post in the series Classical Liberalism: The Right to Rebel–Part Three. They’re really good reads.

Now understanding the basis of modern conservatism is well and good, and it’s a necessary first step to basing our principles upon it and taking action to take back our government. It’s obviously not enough, and if we only educate our children and one another about one point of view we’re doing them and ourselves a disservice. To truly be effective we need also to understand the basis of the liberal point of view. Just as conservatives tend to seek smaller government and to emphasize the importance of individual rights, liberals tend to seek larger government to ensure the rights of blocs of individuals and “group rights”. Understanding why this is, and the consequences of each point of view is important to determining the direction we want to go. Understanding the philosophical underpinnings of both modern conservatism and modern liberalism will help us to understand the strengths and weaknesses of them both.

I’ll write more on my plan to take back our government in a future article. For now though, I’m going to say goodnight. I start work fairly early in the morning, and I’m looking forward to it.

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The Machiavellian responded with:

Thanks for links.... America is unique for the reason that we American's not because of birth, or race, but because we believe in a unique political philosophy. What happens to our nation when we no longer share a belief in our founding philosophies. Though I'd bet my paycheck for a month that Locke is seldom taught anymore....

Angel responded with:

from your keyboard to God's ears!!

Glenn Cassel AMH1(AW) USN Retired responded with:

Now that you bring it up, possibly a few times, less than a handful. The most conservative being Todd Tiahrt when I was still a resident of the Sunflower State. I doubt any shared all of my values, as strained as they sometimes are. But most of mine were forged in the Sea Service, before it became "for the greater good" Pansies anyway! I was in a Navy that was hard on a young man. That hardness built character and instilled values. Those who leave the Sea Service and become devout liberal loons have at some point surrendered their own selves to the belief that others are there for their shortcomings as "productive members of society." Any of you remember that one.I guess these days, we could refer to all 535 members of the congress as un-productive members of society. As I now live in California(Civil Service Job!) I have to deal with a state legislature that is even worse than the congress. At least all mine are Republicans, which may not be saying much. But they are at least a bit on my side.

David responded with:

*sigh* Education in the principles of the Founders will require far, far more than simply pouring into empty heads shaped by libtard revisionary textbooks and Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind propaganda. The sad fact is that people today 1. read less than in previous times and 2. understand less of what they read Heck, reading comprehension is slipping so badly, one might as well call it a growth in illiteracy. And that's a serious problem, since as darned near everyone from Marshall McCluhan to Bandler and Grinder have noted the strong link between reading (and comprehending) the printed page (in English--other languages have a varying effect) invariably requires the development of linear logic. "Data+action/state=result" is so very normative in English construction and visual-linguisitc patterns (in many Romance languages and in the polyglot English tongue as well) work synergistically to drill logic into thought patterns. Of course, 20th century "literature" worked very hard to destroy as much of that benefit as possible, and the almost purely visual-auditory media--TV, movies--work against logic more times than with, so even so-called "culturally literate" (meaning "literate in contemporary culture" nowadays) people are woefully stupid in many regards, especially those which are required for the survival of a representative republic: reasoning skills and a knowledge of the successes and failures of the past. It is reasoning skills (and the intellectual fortitude to use them) that are most lacking in the American sheeple. Sure, sheeple are woefully ignorant of history, but sheeple are also too intellectually lazy to even know that they are intellectually lazy. That's one of the "unknown unknowns" that plague the American electorate, because the American electorate is massively incurious about things that require thought. Why? because thinking is work they've only rarely been called upon to do, and the American electorate just doesn't want to go there. It's as though Maynard G. Krebs were alive and well in the American sheeple and "thinking" were substituted for "work" in his famous, terrified lament, "Work?!? *shudder*". I'm not saying this is an insurmountable problem, but it will take a Herculean amount of... work to overcome.

ablur responded with:

People of today (especially the young) expect to be told what to think. They no longer have the drive or interest in looking for answers by way of research and effort. They expect it to be simply given to them as if walking into a convenience store. Few are willing to test and retest in order to predict results and set courses in worthy directions. Most choose to pick a pendant of choice and then blindly follow. This course of action makes those GPS mistakes where people end up in lakes and rivers possible. The key being, we each need to do our part in the small circles we have influence over. I have had some amazing discussions over the last year. People are waking up. I guess I can thank BO for that much.

Glenn Cassel AMH1(AW) USN Retired responded with:

I realize that this is on the order of a thesis but you should know this. The 1918 SMLE and the Shiloh Sharps Number One are at your service.

Perri Nelson responded with:

Silly me. I had to look up what those were. Yes, I suppose that armed revolution is an option, but I'd like to hope that it's a final resort. We can still restore the government that we should have by peaceful means. Still, you're right. That is one of the reasons that the founders protected the right to keep and bear arms. I think that it may also be one of the reasons that so many of our politicians keep trying to find ways to infringe upon that right.

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