Some time ago, Glenn Beck’s Common Sense, the second part of which is Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, made its way onto the
reading list. The parallels between the issues faced by Americans then and
Americans now are remarkable, with one key difference. Then, the threats to liberty were posed by a
country thousands of miles away that wanted to control the New World. Today, the threats to liberty come from our
own government, which has lost it way in a myriad of regulations, taxes, and
progressive polices that bridle the American Spirit. What follows is an observation of the
parallels between then and now.
Thomas Paine’s Common
Sense outlines clear and concise arguments for why America needed to
declare its independence from Great Britain.
Interestingly, and unfortunately, many of the arguments used in 1776 to
justify independence from the crown can be used today to demonstrate how the
United States has veered off course from the ideas of its original founding and
the reasons it declared its independence. Take, for instance, the reason for and role of
government. Paine argued a government is
best in its simplest, least expensive form and is a necessary evil only because
man himself is incapable of maintaining the order and security necessary for a society.
He goes on to explain the simpler form a government takes, the less likely it is
to be bogged down in disorder. But the
more complex the government, England for example, the more damage that could be
done to the country, and the lesser chance anyone has of figuring out who is
responsible, leaving politicians the ability to escape responsibility and point
blame at others. Sound familiar?
Paine goes into great detail to explain how representatives
should be elected and what their role should be. He argues they should be elected often enough
so as to have to re-enter the population so they will live under the same laws
as the population and not have any incentive to make special laws for
themselves. If this is the case, the
representative will have a stronger desire to act the same as those who he
represents, since he will have to live under the same laws he passes. “On this,” Paine writes, “depends the
strength of government, and the happiness of the governed.”
Paine ridicules the British government as being a
farce. It placed the king in the
position of having to make decisions affecting those from which he is so
insulated and out of touch, he could never make the best decision for
them. And while not an absolute
monarchy, it essentially acted as one, with the king’s decrees being handed out
by parliament instead of directly from the king. While there is the appearance of a balance
government with checks and balances, the king had the ultimate authority. Paine describes it this way, “for as the greater
weight will always carry up the less, and as all the wheels of a machine are
put in motion by one, it only remains to know which power in the constitution
has the most weight, for that will govern; and though the others, or a part of
them, may clog, or, as the phrase is, check the rapidity of its motion, yet so
long as they cannot stop it, their endeavors will be ineffectual; the first
moving power will at last have its way, and what it wants in speed is supplied
by time.”
So does America today align more with the ideas of small,
effective government, ruled by citizen legislators or with the heavy handed
authoritarian approach of the British monarchy?
More and more, the government is taking the role of the King of England,
choosing to serve its own interest at the expense of the citizenry. But instead of a king, we have presidents who
think they know best and a willing bedfellow in the political class that
purports to represent the people, but never seem to do what they promised
during the election once they get into office.
The president changes laws with a wink and a nod under regulatory cover and
a complacent congress does little or nothing to stand in the way. The president is the “greater weight” Paine
spoke of, congress the “clog”, and the court system eventually makes the payoff
of time down the road and sides with the government against the will of the
people. Substitute American with
citizens and British/England with the federal government, and the following
quote form Thomas Paine is as applicable today as it was over 200 years
ago. “America is only a secondary object
in the system of British politics – England consults the good of this country,
no farther than it answers her own purpose.
Wherefore, her own interests leads her to suppress the growth of ours in
every case which doth not promote her advantage, or in the least interferes
with it.” Simply put, today’s citizens
are a means to an end for the political class - just votes on Election Day and
then forgotten after that. By that point
the people have served their purpose of letting the political class continue to
rule over them until the next election cycle, at which point they will again
pretend to care and tolerate them just enough to get voted into office once
again. And miraculously, despite
pathetic approval ratings and scandal after scandal, the same politicians are
sent to Washington election after election.
This proves Paine’s point that a complex government simply gives cover
to those responsible for the mess.
Today’s politicians have perfected the art of shifting the blame to the
other guy, party, or branch of government.
No one is responsible for anything within the government – from the
president to the congress, down to the lowest level bureaucrat.
It seems around every turn is an attempt by government to
regulate, or otherwise restrain the prosperity and productivity of the American
people, whether through regulation, taxation, or both. Why is it that government and the political
class wish to control every aspect of our lives? Paine asks an interesting question. “Is the power who is jealous of our
prosperity, a proper power to govern us?”
This is just as true today as it was then. Why does the government have such an interest
in keeping its citizenry cut down to size?
Why are they always playing one group against another? The answer is simple. As long as everyone is fighting among
themselves, government gets to step in under the guise of fairness and dictate
the rules of the game. They only want
you to succeed to a point, but never beyond the point at which you realize
government is more of a hindrance than a help.
In this way, government is very jealous.
If you can make it on your own, you do not need government to direct
every aspect of your life. Therefore,
government and the political class have a huge stake in making sure you will
only succeed playing by their rules, thus perpetuating their invented necessity.
Just as the colonists had to come to grips with their
reality before declaring their independence from an oppressive king over 200
years ago, Americans today need to realize their government has slowly, and
over time, became the behemoth from which their forefathers declared their
independence. To many, this seems like
it cannot be true, and all the freedoms and liberties we enjoy today, even
though watered down in many ways, are a historical reality that can never be
taken away. They live life as if this is
just the way things are and the way thing will always be. But that does not have to be the case. Not if we take our liberties for granted and
let our guard down, allowing government intrusion into every aspect of our
lives. If we sell the American soul in
the name of convenience, fairness and security, we will wake up one day and
realize we have neither. Hopefully it is
not too late.
