In a speech given by Supreme Court Justice Alito on November 12th, he concluded with the statement,
“Standing up for the Constitution and freedom is work that lies ahead for all Americans.”
Freedom carries with it the responsibility to exercise it – to the very edge of all the things it protects, and all the things you have the freedom to say.
On this, Oliver Wendell Holmes made this point perfectly, when he said, “If a man neglects to enforce his rights, he cannot complain if, after a while, the law follows his example.”
You – as an American – own the government; not the other way around. That is the only possible foundation for the freedom Americans enjoy. There is no other basis for freedom.
If, alternatively, the government grants you freedom, then the government can also take it away, and does. The EU is slowly learning this.
Abdicate your responsibility – through lack of attention, or from any kind of peer or political pressure – and that government will chip away at the constraints that keep it in check, until finally it will shrug off totally the chains that bind it. A government is, after all, only the people who run it, and by definition those people are interested in having power over others. It is not “abuse of power” if you let loose your control over your government.
We have the best Supreme Court I have seen in my lifetime, and possibly the best Court since Chief Justice Marshall’s Supreme Court of 1801-1835, which established the power of the Court. Today’s Court has a solid majority who support the U.S. Constitution as it is written – vs. the many people today who would like to “reinterpret” the Constitution as they think it ought to be in these “modern” times – a euphemism for tossing it aside, as the those espousing social democracy would like to do. Social democracy is itself a façade for those who wish to take power, and relegate the rest of us to second-class citizenship (again, as is painfully apparent in the EU). And that great Supreme Court does not stand alone: more than 300 appointments to the lower Courts over the last four years were made from the same strategic thinking.
“Standing up for the Constitution and freedom” means standing up to its detractors – putting them on the defensive and scuttling back into their holes – wherever you encounter them. Be vocal; stand proud and firm and adamant. It has always been true, and always will, that each of us must do the “work that lies ahead for all Americans.”
Every generation must win the battle anew if Americans are to keep their freedom, and enjoy it, and enjoy the tremendous economic success that goes with it. That economic well-being is no coincidence, although people often do not realize the connection. America’s economic achievement is only due to the freedom you enjoy, and rises or declines with that freedom. America’s economic level is the best in the world, because Americans enjoy the most freedom of anyone in the world.
Every generation must win the battle anew – but it is a much easier battle, if each generation does their part – if each generation and each one of us does the “work that lies ahead for all Americans.”■
Scott Crosby
scott@scottschoice.com
www.scottschoice.com
