Republican government still works
Naturally, most pundits have weighed in on the remarkable victory of Republican State Senator Scott Brown in the special election for the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts, held by the Kennedy family for more than half a century. It is surely a negative verdict on the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress. It is also a ringing affirmation of the virtues of republican government.
Our Constitution is perpetually in danger, both from its friends and its enemies. The former too often despair when bad laws and bad policies are proposed or enacted. Last year as the party in power wasted trillions of dollars of misnamed “stimulus” and expanded federal programs, appeased enemies and abused friends in foreign lands, and demagoged Americans for expressing their objections to these actions, many citizens feared that our liberties were in danger of being lost.
Those liberties are still in danger. But in Virginia, New Jersey and now Massachusetts, voters have shown who’s boss, though we are not out of the woods yet. Many liberal Democrats believe, or profess to believe, that their unpopularity is due to their programs being poorly articulated or to weak candidates. Hence, we should be not be surprised to see the proposed nationalization of health care repackaged but essentially unchanged. If that is the case, the president of “hope and change” will be judged as out of touch.
The enemies of republican government are not limited to advocates of totalitarian ideologies or militant religions. Every office holder in the government is required to taken an oath to support the Constitution against domestic enemies as well as foreign, and we have not been wanting of either. Slave holders, segregationists and socialists may differ in important ways, but they are all enemies of our Constitution.
The fundamental principle of our form of government is a firm dedication to the equal rights of all persons. Few fail to understand today how slavery and segregation violate that principle, although these had their powerful defenders in the past. Socialism has a more benign countenance, as it has been embraced by republican governments in Europe and parts of the old British Empire, but no less by departed despotic governments in Germany and Russia. It still reigns in the dictatorships in China and many Third World nations.
Fortunately, the very European nations which American “progressives” admired in the recent past, such as Germany and France, have undergone electoral shifts to political parties less enthusiastic about socialism, and Great Britain appears to be next.
It would be unwise to underestimate liberal Democrats’ passion for Big Government, which they have been seeking for a century, with high points in the 1930s and 1960s, and the present time promising to be the “third wave,” so to speak, which ends all debate or any possibility of turning back. We see a Democratic majority in Congress openly considering the idea of passing unwanted legislation in the face of clear evidence that a solid majority of Americans is opposed to it. Fortunately, some in their own ranks are calling for rethinking it or even backing off.
While Barack Obama clearly has an exalted opinion of himself, it is not clear that Obama would complement his demagoguery with a willingness to suspend the Constitution. However, we must watch his administration as it attempts to implement far-reaching environmental regulations by administrative fiat rather than the less-promising route of actual congressional legislation.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” For even though we have a free government with powerful checks and balances on the abuse of power, it is still ultimately up to us, the people, to restrain the government to the exercise of its rightful powers. If there is such a thing as a “moral majority,” it is that aggregation of citizens that is determined to protect our equal rights.
Currently, the government is led by people who think that the Constitution is an antiquated document that has long since outlived its usefulness. They believe that our society should “evolve” into one in which equality of condition replaces equality of rights. As they seek to deny us the right to make our own decisions regarding health care, use of energy, investment of our money, education of ourselves and our children and so on, we must deliver the message that self government starts with us, not with the government, be it federal, state or local.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Richard Reeb taught political science, philosophy and journalism at Barstow College from 1970 to 2003. He is the author of “ Taking Journalism Seriously: ‘Objectivity’ as a Partisan Cause” (University Press of America, 1999). He can be contacted at rhreeb@verizon.net.
