Quo Vadis, America?

Like many of my countrymen, I have been dimly aware that our Constitution was a miracle, a world-class document, the cause célèbre of the free world.

Studying the Constitution and our political system for the last six or seven years has greatly increased my respect for the genius of the framers, those old, angry, rich white men who were only looking after their own interest. If the framers had been black, would the Constitution be any less glorious?

There are perhaps five groups of people when it comes to the Constitution, they are: Those who appreciate it, but don’t really understand the “why or the how” of it. Those who appreciate it, and do understand the “why and how” of it, will probably put their lives on the line for it (this accounts for much of the voluntary military, and the police). Those who are oblivious to it, or are indoctrinated against it in our schools, but do not wish to be serfs (slaves).

Those who do understand it, but do not appreciate its limitations on government, and so ignore or dilute its power for their own advantage (these are the elites, who believe they know better than the people, and so they should be in charge). The sheeple: (these are the followers, and include the clueless, the misinformed, the apolitical, the stoned, and many of the beneficiaries of government largesse).

The history of man has been mostly tyrannical rule and slavery, with small periods of scattered freedom, which always deteriorated back to domination in one form or another. This is obvious, even in our own short 400 year history. The first European settlers dominated the natives because they could, being militarily superior.

Blacks enslaved their own countrymen and the British saw a business opportunity to sell these slaves all over the world, which made the slave trade even worse. Our Southern states bought and subjugated the blacks because they could; the blacks who survived the terrible ordeal of an ocean crossing in chains, who had no idea where they were, who couldn’t speak English, were purposely kept uneducated, to do the hard work in the stifling heat of the cotton and tobacco fields.

Women were subjugated because they were physically weaker than males. Citizens are being subjugated by the last few administrations, even as we speak, because we are complacent, busy with our own lives, in denial, or simply confused as hell. There will always be those who want to control others, either because they believe they know better and can create Utopia, or just to be in control for selfish reasons. There is a lesson here about strength and weakness, and why appeasement never works.

The framers were well aware of man’s tendencies over the course of history. They studied which forms of government worked best and lasted the longest. They understood that a democracy was not much more than mob rule. And so they created a Representative Government where representatives (citizen-legislators, not career politicians) would be wise enough to understand the Constitution, the politics, the agendas, and the consequences of bills they needed to vote on; they were also supposed to be virtuous enough to speak for the benefit of the people. A government that did not run on polls, but on principles. This would allow the people to do what they do best; go about their businesses, raise their families, and be charitable to those in need.

They understood that the discovery of a new continent (the Americas) was an extremely rare event, and presented the chance of a hundred generations to set up a country, not on might and subjugation, but on principle, values, self-reliance, and self-rule.

This is the great American experiment (self-rule), which made possible, American exceptionalism (setting an example of how to govern to the rest of the world, and the use of the power and riches that our political and economic system made possible, to do good all over the world), and the American Dream (the individual freedom to do whatever legally makes you, not momentarily happy, but truly happy).

We have been allowing all this to slip away through complacency. Knowing the history of man, should cause you to keep this saying at the forefront of consciousness: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance!” Will we continue to allow the Great American Experiment to slip away? Socialism is gaining ground here. Better learn how to recognize it quickly, learn its dangers, and understand why it cannot coexist with our system of individual freedom. And do not neglect to learn and understand the Constitution either. You must understand these 2 competing governing systems in order to navigate the next few years. We may not get a second chance!

Quo Vadis, America?

Armand Carreau
Bridgeville