By Brose A. McVey

These days, I find myself reflecting on the debate in Washington in apocalyptic terms.  Maybe I am guilty of an exaggeration and hyperbole.  But during this period between Flag Day and Independence Day, I reflect on the tens of thousands who gave their lives to defend what our flag stands for.  I cannot help but feel that another, more important war is underway here at home.

This war is more dangerous than any struggle our country has faced against a foreign army.  This is more like a civil war.  Only the battlefield is different.

This is a war over the shape and fate of our republic, and the battlefields include the floor of the Congress.   Know it or not—and few Americans do – a well intentioned group of our neighbors is quickly moving to replace the nation our founders built with a different kind of nation.  Under the cover of economic duress, a sort of coup d’état is underway while most of our troops are distracted with a very real economic battle.

The news headlines deliver the fusillade each morning. The assault on the senses is constant and numbing, like the percussion of so many shells.  Trillions in new spending, bailouts,  dozens of new programs, the take-over of banks and businesses, exploding debts, more and more borrowing, nationalized health care, new taxes, new mandates and new regulations, liberal court judges and attacks on cherished American values. 

Day after day, hour after hour, the assault continues.

I related today’s freedom fighters to scared soldiers, outnumbered and short on ammunition, as the bunker they defend is overrun by enemy soldiers.   Panicked and overwhelmed, they flail away with weapons inadequate to the fight.  Without a training manual or a clear enemy to attack, and with a tidal wave of troops on the other side, Americans who cherish the original ideals of our republic must feel paralyzed and scared to death.

This metaphor brings to mind a quote by the late Justice Louis Brandeis, who said, “”The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal — well-meaning but without understanding.”

Why would Americans who would pick up a rifle and give their lives to defend our freedoms against a foreign threat, stand by while our own elected leaders trade them away for economic security?  After more than 25 years of watching, reading, and participating in the American experiment, I have reached these conclusions:

We Don’t Know Any Better

In the schools we created a century ago to teach our people how to read, we have all but removed from the curriculum the core pillars of democracy, such as a free marketplace, individual liberty, and the right to succeed or fail.  These core principles have instead been relegated to simply one more political or economic theory.  This educational relativism sits atop the fact that we simply do not spend a fraction of the time necessary in our schools on history, economics, civics or the core theories behind the Constitution.  When these critical lessons are taught, our teachers walk on egg shells, careful not to imply that free markets or personal responsibility are treated with more credibility than any other political or economic theory.

A self-governing society simply cannot perpetuate itself without educating – and yes indoctrinating – each new generation on its core values.  We have stopped trying.

We Are Losing Our Character

It takes unbelievable strength and commitment to put one’s short-term self interest behind that of the greater good.  In many circles, we’ve stopped trying.

A stubborn defense of core American principles would mean that our business leaders, our school teachers, our farmers, and especially our wise senior citizens would fight tooth and nail for these principles –and for leaders who embrace them –and against anything that threatens them.

Instead, business groups donate huge sums of money to legislators who work day and night to destroy everything the same businesses claim to stand for.  Every day, selfish special interests happily lobby to trade the broader public good in favor of another special privilege.  Teachers who are great Americans blindly send money to unions who lobby for radical social agendas that have nothing to do with educating our kids.  Barbers, insurance agents, bankers and farmers retire, and send dues payments to groups who fight for trillions in government subsidies for financially secure seniors with winter homes in sunny Florida.

Who is left to lobby for what is right?  What special interest groups, or overpaid lobbyists, will stand in the hallways of the Capitol and tell Members of Congress that one more tax loophole for a big company, one more mandate on small business, one more trillion dollars in spending, or one more trade off of opportunity for security, might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

Our next candidate for President should call Americans to rediscover their commitment to core American values and stand up for what is right, rather than what is comfortable.

The System Needs Repair

The core concepts behind our three branches of government are sound.  The construct forged by our Founders is brilliant and will continue to work.  But corrosion is beginning to undermine the soundness of our system, and reform is critically needed.

The other day, after a few small business leaders voiced their support for my campaign for Congress, they apologized for the fact that their political action committee (PAC) in Washington would most likely be donating the maximum amount allowed by law to my opponent, the incumbent congressman, over their objections.  This is only one such “incumbent protection plan” that has grown up like weeds choking out our citizen-driven political system.  We should eliminate or reform political action committees immediately and place their power back in the hands of their members.

Another is the cynical practice of “gerrymandering” legislative districts to insure that only a handful of legislators or members of Congress across the nation ever face competition or accountability.  We should once and forever end the great political disconnect in our democratic process called gerrymandering.  And, we can start by getting the process of drawing legislative districts out of the hands of the legislators who benefit by it.  The fox is guarding the hen house.

And above all, we should limit the terms of members of Congress.  A legislative body, especially the US House of Representatives, should reflect the contemporary views of farmers, teachers, business owners and other citizen legislators.  Congress is not a House of Lords or a home for the permanent governing class.

The Constitution May Need a Fix

I approach the notion of constitutional matters with great reservation.  However, I interpret the Constitution as giving the federal government only limited powers, all of which reside first and foremost with the masses.  This is unique to our American system.  What we give, so may we take back.  It may be time to strengthen the Constitution’s limits on the size and role of our federal government.  Let us start with stronger limits on taxation, spending, mandates, and intrusions into personal liberties, freedoms and rights.

 As Benjamin Franklin exited the Constitutional Convention on September 18, 1787, he was approached by a citizen who said “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”  Old Ben’s answer was: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

June 16, 2009

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