Freedom is a fire that can only be doused with laws and force. Left to its own, freedom soon becomes license, or the law of the jungle, where the least principled take advantage of their fellows. Freedom without regulation becomes freedom for the powerful, and slavery for the rest. And so The United States was envisioned as a nation of law and freedom. The law would apply evenly to all, enacted by duly elected representatives, and enforced as written. Freedom would be preserved by the establishment of strict limits, sacred rights, areas where law and force could not trespass. It is the nature of freedom to burn beyond control to anarchy. It is the nature of law and force to douse the flame of freedom to the point of tyranny. At the balancing point between these destructive pressures is the government of a constitutional republic.
The oft quoted admonition of Thomas Jefferson that “Occasionally the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants” is reminiscent of the Declaration of Independence’s opening salvo, “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…” Clearly the framers saw revolution as the ultimate remedy for the reestablishment of freedom when the scale had tipped to tyranny. Lest we jump to the conclusion that Jefferson et al. envisioned a future that vacillated between tyranny and revolution, we need only look as far as the preamble to the Constitution where one of its stated purposes was to “Secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. Within the Constitution the framers saw the mechanism to balance law, force, and freedom without resort to the ultimate remedy of bloody revolution.
There are multiple layers of checks and balances cooked in the soup of our nation that make the freedom at our core a fire not easily extinguished. The gridlock and disharmony in Washington we so often complain about is exactly the system of checks and balances that ensures that the exercise of government follows the overwhelming will of the nation and not the fleeting whim of a tyrannical minor majority. The addition of term limits for the Presidency ensures that this office, the most potentially dangerous source for tyranny, does not have the time to become entrenched. No matter how bad the Commander in Chief, eight years is the most we need endure them, and that has generally proven to be less than enough time to permanently and fundamentally transform the nation. Oh, damage can be done, and it has been, but eight years of damage can be fixed. The courts provide another check that keeps law and force from running rampant in disregard of the established constraints of the Constitution. Our freedom is a well designed fortress built to withstand the attacks of enemies and friends alike, it will take a siege on a level we have not seen to conquer that fortress, and such a siege would likely come from within the walls, and not without.
Ultimately, Government does not exist in a vacuum. It is a reflection of the will of the people, and not always just the majority of the people, but sizable minorities as well. The will of the people is perhaps the final check on the power of government before the appearance of outright revolution, or the complete elimination of freedom in tyranny. The power of the vote is an enormous one, particularly for the majority, and any majority is essentially made up of a coalition of minorities. Beyond the vote though, the people have another power… the power of resistance. Even when not engaged in by a majority of the people, resistance by a sizable minority can change public opinion and public policy. Legislation, court opinions, and executive decisions are often greatly influenced by how much resistance the public employs. Policies on Prohibition, civil rights, taxation, women’s suffrage, The Vietnam War, and more recently, marijuana, gay marriage, gun control, and even Obamacare have all been influenced by active protest and resistance. Protests require a lot of time and energy, and interestingly are the easier to ignore; someone is always protesting something. Resistance can be done from the comfort of your own home.
More is being heard about a strategy against government overreach called “Irish Democracy”. The quote from the film “Michael Collins” by it’s title character the Irish revolutionary exemplifies the idea: “We have a weapon more powerful… than any in the whole arsenal of the British Empire! That weapon… is our refusal!” Professor James Scott defines “Irish Democracy” as “the silent dogged resistance, withdrawal, and truculence of millions of ordinary people”. When government goes beyond just confiscating our wealth, and inserts itself into our liberty, using the taxes we pay to make our lives less free, and less how we would have them; people eventually say, “No.” Whatever you think of Colorado’s legalization of recreational pot, it shows that a state can effectively nullify a federal law. If Obamacare “falls of its own weight” as many predict, it will more be the missing weight of those who refused to participate in the program as it becomes a party where nobody came. In Connecticut a law was passed requiring residents to register guns that now meet the expanded definition of an assault weapon. Of the estimated 150,000 to 350,000 guns, less than 50,000 were registered by the deadline. Of all people, those with guns are the last that you want to push too hard, because if “Irish Democracy” fails, well, that’s what the 2nd amendment is about.
IMHO: Tyranny works best with people accustomed to tyrants. Free people may at times be too preoccupied to protest government overreach, but push it too far and they may be just as easily too preoccupied to comply with the increased burden. Push it beyond that, and their resistance becomes active disobedience. Free people like their freedom, and they will not voluntarily surrender it without the threat of force. The “threat of force” just doesn’t mean the same thing here as it does in North Korea or Iran, and the strength of numbers means our tyrants have no teeth. It would be better if our leaders would know the limits of their governance, and if we as loyal citizens could willingly follow their direction. It is a thin line between Irish Democracy and anarchy, and the border is a hazardous place to abide. But men are not angels, neither we, nor our leaders. So the idea of checks and balances occasionally goes beyond our political system to our social contract. Our leaders are human beings, and the only thing more corruptible than individual human beings are groups of human beings. We ought to honor them as long as they show themselves honorable, but they have no divine authority, nor “majesty” as Geraldo Rivera would put it. If ever I speak of a President’s “majesty”, whether he be Democrat or Republican, Progressive or Conservative… please, somebody slap me. We have a heritage of understanding for which this concept of “majesty” is profane. Even our leaders need to be continually monitored, questioned, checked, and sometimes stopped. We have no Kings or Queens, all men are created equal… and none of them are angels.
