I had the distinct pleasure, of addressing the members of the Coronado RWF this week at a beautiful oceanfront home near the Naval base. My topic was "Why we limit government". My wife Debra and I were invited to become associate members of the Coronado RWF, after my address, which we accepted with gratitude.
Mia Freymiller, a candidate for SDGOP Central Committee and Programs Chair introduced me. Among the attendees were SDGOP Central Committee candidate and my good friend Eric Andersen, and Chairman of the San Diego Republican Party, Tony Krvaric.
Points I made were:
- The concept of a limited government, constrained by the Constitution, isn't novel nor outdated. Senator Barry Goldwater laid out the framework for the modern restoration to limited government in his watershed work, Conscience of a Conservative. President Reagan gave special notice to the concept of federalism in his 1981 Inaugual Address. These men were not libertarians, they were conservative Republicans. These men weren't "anti-government extremists", they were elected officials.
- American exceptionalism recognizes the concept of natural rights. For the non-religious, this means that our rights pre-exist government because they are a product of our humanity. Religious folks believe that we have rights, which can't be separated, as a gift from God. This made America uniquely good because we departed from our European cousins' belief that God make one man or woman a ruler over others. In these United States, each Man is a King and each Woman is a Queen, but not a one of us is a Ruler.
- This belief makes our nation "exceptional". Alexis de Tocqueville recognized that limited government unleased the goodness of Americans and that goodness made us great. The result, as history has revealed, is an experiment which created the most wealth, for the most people, and meted out the most justice in the world, in the history of Man interacting with Man.
- For the well-intentioned but naive people who try to impose burdens on some, to bestow gifts to others, in pursuit of a Heaven on Earth, they are violating the First Commandment (or Laws of Nature for the non-religious). Stated differently, while Man is made in the image and likeness of God, Man is NOT God, God is perfect and Man is fallible.
- Since we recognize that Man is fallible, we recognize the empowering Man as a ruler is dangerous. Lord Acton warned us that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". We only need to look at the Soviet Union as an example of abslolute and absolutely corrupted power. Of course, that experiment, to create a "Soviet Heaven on Earth" , failed miserably.
- Our Constitution is a flawed but nearly perfect guideline for good government. When we follow the constraints it placed upon the federal government, and all of the branches of government neither arrogate power from other branches, not abdicate power to the other branches, we handcuff government so that the power to rule over others is limited.
- Free citizens, left to their own devices, solve society's problems best through commerce, charity, volunteerism, and association with others. Government distorts those solutions with forced, top-down approaches, inducing a sense of casual indifference towards society's problems from its citizens, and ultimately sufferes a collapse.
- It's not too late to fix what is broken. If we return to First Principles, understand that our morality doesn't come from our laws rather our laws come from our morality, embrace the diverse solutions which different free citizens and citizens' groups attempt, we can restore the Republic.
When I finished my address, I enjoyed the fellowship of Senatorial candidiates Dan Hughes and John Boruff. I had fun offering advice to improve upon Dan Hughes' "Bold Solutions Plan", with the principles from my speech. I'm hopeful to see how if implements those ideas into his campaign
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