Countdown to Independence Day; #9 Return America’s exceptionalism to the schools

Over the next several days leading up to Independence Day I will be posting the 10 steps that must be taken to preserve our great nation and the principles it was established on.  Each day will cover one of the steps as they appear in my book Liberty Inherited.  It is my hope that, in some small way, I can get Americans to start thinking of what they are on the verge of throwing away.  Today's posting covers step number #9.  I recommend reading the previous posts for step #1 through 8.  Please note that any additional comments that I add to the original text will be in italics.

9. Return America’s exceptionalism to the schools

As exposed, America’s exceptionalism has been slowly removed from our schools. Although most Americans sense that there is something special about our country, very few know what makes it so. This is because they were never taught it.  It is truly the history lesson that all Americans should have had but never received. Instead of educating our students on European political philosophies we need to be teaching first and foremost the philosophy that was at the heart of this country until the progressive movement began its campaign to erase it. Americans of all ages need to have well-founded pride in their country but instead our children are being educated to loathe it. By focusing on America’s imperfections, rather than comparing it to its contemporaries, American children are receiving a biased and unjustified view of the nation and its history. It is time that our children are given a more realistic and balanced view of America and her role in the world.  This is not indoctrination for it is based on historical fact, which makes it education.

As I have always stated, I will put America (and for that matter the British Empire) up against any of its contemporaries.  What I will not do is put it up against some ideal of perfection.  Yet, by focusing on what America has done wrong, this is exactly what many schools across the country do.  They focus on America's history of slavery or the oppression of the Native-Americans.  It is true that both of these events (as well as others) are black spots on America's legacy.  But it must be remembered that all societies are comprised of people...imperfect people.  Therefore, any society that has any history at all will have black marks on its record.  As I explained in my book, many bad and horrible actions were done by and in the name of the British Empire.  By today's standards it was barbaric, racists, and oppressive.  But compared to its contemporaries it was very enlightened and civilized.  This is the same for the United States.  While not perfect, it has been the best system man has ever devised.  By removing the chains of bondage it has allowed man to use his creativity and intelligence to their full potential.  And, overall, the world has benefited from its example.  

What many fail to recognize is that before the United States there was no such thing as human rights.  In fact, the Human Rights many take for granted originated with the rights of Englishmen that the original patriots fought for.  This is the lesson schools need to be teaching.  Not only is it accurate but it is also more realistic since it does not compare America to some impossible standard of perfection.  

Countdown to Independence Day: #8 Understand America's Classical Liberal philosophy

Over the next several days leading up to Independence Day I will be posting the 10 steps that must be taken to preserve our great nation and the principles it was established on.  Each day will cover one of the steps as they appear in my book Liberty Inherited.  It is my hope that, in some small way, I can get Americans to start thinking of what they are on the verge of throwing away.  Today's posting covers step number #8.  I recommend reading the previous posts for step #1 through 7.  Please note that any additional comments that I add to the original text will be in italics.

8. Understand America’s classical liberal philosophy

As mentioned previously, classical liberalism was the basic philosophy of this country until the turn of the 20th century when progressivism started to pervert the term “liberal” for its own agenda. It is essential that every American understand what true classical liberalism is and why it was so important in the development of the United States of America. The truth is that classical liberalism has been completely removed from modern America’s political discourse. Most people have never heard of it and are unfamiliar with how it led to America’s exceptionalism. As a result of this ignorance and unfamiliarity, most Americans  continue to allow themselves to have to choose between faux liberalism or conservatism, neither one of which truly fits the American character.

This is a topic that I discuss throughout Liberty Inherited and, as I explain in the introduction to these posts, the above is copied directly from the book.  Thus, being taken out of context, I feel it helpful to explain its meaning.   

It is clear from its founding documents that America is based on a philosophy and principles that evolved in England.  That philosophy is called Classical Liberalism and I believe it to be the apex of the enlightenment that started with the Renaissance.  Lacking an aristocracy, the United States was able to take this philosophy and its principles of limited government, individual rights, private property, and free-market economics to a level not possible in 18th century Britain.  

It may come as a surprise to many Americans that Classical Liberalism not only guided the founding of this incredible nation, but was the the nation's basic political philosophy up to the late 1800s/early 1900s.  Since then it has slowly been erased from America's political conscientiousness to the point that most Americans are completely ignorant of it and its significance for the country.  But I believe that, at heart, the majority of Americans are still Classical Liberals.  After all, it is in their political genes and remains part of America's psyche.  This is why so many are not comfortable with what both political parties have been doing over the last 100 years.

This is what the Progressives understood when, after years of failed policies, the Progressive title became unpopular and they rebranded themselves as 'Liberals.'  But, as I explain in the book, their policies had and still have nothing to do with the principles of Classical Liberalism.  In fact, they envision the opposite.  They are, in reality, wolves in sheep's clothing.  That is why I call their version of  Liberalism 'FAUX LIBERALISM.'  It is nothing but a fraud....a very dangerous fraud.

Now, 236 years after the Declaration of Independence, America is on the verge of losing its political identity, its political soul.  I strongly believe that only by reconnecting to our political roots can this country be saved and that is why I wrote "Liberty Inherited: The untold story of America's exceptionalism."  It is my attempt to play my part in saving this great, and ,yes, exceptional country.

American liberty? Think again!

The Cause

If the American Revolution was not about independence, what was it about?

The Greatest Myth about the American Revolution

Most people accept as fact that the goal of the American Revolution was to achieve independence from Britain. While this myth may have some truth to it, and the ultimate outcome of the conflict was independence, it was not the motivation for starting the war. Independence did not even become a stated goal of the patriots until the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776: more than a year after the initial battles of Lexington and Concord.  A review of these 14 crucial months demonstrates that the American Revolution was more than a war for independence.

  

While it is true that men like Samuel Adams actively pursued independence from the beginning, they were a small minority. The fact is that there was considerable opposition to independence.  In early sessions of the 2nd Continental Congress delegates voted 2 to 1 against resolutions for independence. Even King George III declaring treason to be a crime punishable by death was not enough to persuade congress to pass a resolution for independence.  In the summer of 1776, independence was still far from being a certainty.  Only after intense days of heated debate, political arm-twisting, and behind the scenes dealings did a resolution pass on July 2, 1776. It is telling that, at this late juncture of the conflict, the New York delegation abstained rather than vote for independence.  This clearly shows that at the start of the revolution independence was not the intention.

Nevertheless, during that pre- Declaration of Independence period there were 19 military engagements, including the siege of Boston, the battle of Bunker Hill, and the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. The engagements occurred on land and at sea. Battles raged in several of the colonies and as far north as Canada and as far south as Barbados.  Altogether they involved tens of thousands of combatants and caused over 2500 casualties.  

This begs the question, if it was not independence, then what was it that drove the early patriots to take up arms against the mightiest power the world had seen to date; against people who they had previously regarded as fellow countrymen; against a sovereign to whom they had, until recently, considered themselves loyal subjects of?

The reply to that question is more complex and profound than the superficial “independence” answer most students learn. As John Adams and his nemesis Mr. Dickinson would both say, it was their “natural rights as Englishmen" that they were fighting for. Whether they were for or against independence, it is the one point that most colonists could agree. Only the staunchest Tory or loyalist did not believe that the government of King George III was no longer respecting and protecting those rights. It was the violation of these rights and their restoration that filled the petitions that the 2nd Continental Congress sent to King George III and Parliament. It was the King’s and his government’s refusal to address these grievances that raised the question of what to do next.  This would be resolved in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence.

In the meantime, men were dying to defend their rights as Englishmen. Even though it is more complex and profound than just the simple goal of independence the "rights of Englishmen" is an extremely natural concept to understand.  They are the very same rights that we take for granted today. In fact, they are the basis of what we commonly refer to as fundamental human rights.  However, back in the 17^th and 18^th centuries they were unique to England (Britain after the unification of 1707). Thus, in a world where the common people were nothing more than chattel these rights were exceptionally uncommon. In fact, they were so contrary to the way of the world that the English believed that the rights they enjoyed could only have originated from one source; God. Hence, we have the origins of our "God-given rights."

At the foundation of these rights, is the supremacy and sovereignty of the individual over that of the state. It is this supremacy that is the basis of the four fundamental principles of limited government, individual rights, private property, and free market economics.  The first two represents political freedom. This freedom limits the power of government while maximizing the rights of the individual. Since they realized that true freedom can never be achieved without economic freedom, the last two principles became an integral part of the "rights of Englishmen." Only when there is respect for private property and people are able to deal with each other openly and without government interference, are they truly free.

These principles can be seen throughout the founding documents of this nation. With its emphasis on “unalienable rights” and references to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” the Declaration of Independence is a restatement of the rights that each Englishman, whether in London or Boston, assumed he had.  Thomas Jefferson provided additional evidence of this when he included:

He (King George III) combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution… 

Since he penned this eleven years before the drafting of the Constitution of the United States, Jefferson must have been referring to another constitution: one that every colonist residing in British America would have recognized.  This leaves only one possible choice: the English constitution.  Unlike the Constitution of the United States, the English constitution was not a written document.  Instead, like English common law, it evolved over 1200 years of precedence, tradition, customs, and a series of charters that included the Magna Carta. It was this constitution and the principles of liberty that would allow England, which is the size of Alabama, to become a superpower that would dominate three quarters of the world.

It is not by chance that Britain would become the defender of the free-world; to be the only nation in the world to standalone against the tyrannies of Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler; to lead the fight against slavery; to end piracy and open the sea lanes to all. It is also no coincidence that as the power of Britain waned the United States rose to take its place. For it would be "the rights of Englishmen" that would be the basis of the classical liberal ideas that would make the United States, like Britain before it, an extraordinary and exceptional nation. It would be these principles that would guide men like Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and even Lincoln into prominence.

There are various reasons why this aspect of the founding of our nation has been ignored, untaught. Initially it was due to the anti-British sentiment that was prevalent in this country and the desire to establish a national identity that is distinctly American. This was so successful that Americans came to believe that these principles are uniquely American. Unfortunately, this has had a decidedly undesirable impact on our nation. The lack of understanding of the true origins of the principles that established this nation has led us to be blinded to the erosion of those principles. 

This is the reason I wrote Liberty Inherited: the Untold Story of America's Exceptionalism. The book tells the story of the roots of our liberty. By reading the book, you will gain a clarity and understanding of the founding of this nation that you have never had before. This awareness will provide you with a new and profound perception of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other founding documents of this nation.  I challenge you to read the book. It will change your view of this nation, its place in the world, and the threats, both internal and external, to its existence.

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Liberty Inherited

Generations: What a Difference a Century Makes!

I am currently reading “Doughboy War: The American Expeditionary Force in World War I” by James Hallas.  The book, which covers the war years of 1917-1918, is a collection of passages taken from journals, diaries, letters, personal narratives and unit histories.   I was struck by differences in attitudes of Americans then as compared to now. 

 

The following two passages are prime examples.

The first was written by a young American who was killed in the battle for the Ourcq River, fought in France late July 1918.  

America shall win the war.

Therefore I will work,

I will save,

I will sacrifice,

I will endure,

I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost,

As if the whole issue of the struggle

depended on me alone.

While I know that this does not represent the sentiment of every American, I do believe that it is indicative of the American people at the time.  Is it any wonder the people of this generation would start what would be called the “American Century?”  Or that they would go on to produce the generation of Americans that would come of age during the Great Depression and then go on to defeat the Marxist ideologies of Nazism, fascism, and communism?

It is striking when one compares this to the young people currently taking part in the Occupy Wall Street protest.  To them the above words are so foreign, the concepts so alien, that they might as well have been written by a Martian.  Unfortunately, a half century of entitlement propaganda, has ensured that these people will never be able to produce more than ever increasing demands.

The second passage highlights the difference in how we defined ourselves as Americans. It was taken from a German intelligence report in 1917.  This report was written shortly after the initial engagements were fought between the untested Americans and the veterans of the Imperial German Army. 

Only a few of the troops are of pure American origin; the majority is of German, Dutch, and Italian parentage, but these semi-Americans, almost all of whom were born in America and never have been to Europe before, fully feel themselves to be true born sons of their country. [Emphasis added by author of post]

 After decades of multiculturalism this too has become something of a lost sentiment or attitude.  Today first generation Americans are more likely to identify themselves by their heritage than as “true born sons of their country.”  

This forces me to ask, “Do we even know what it is to be American or has the concept become so diluted by hyphens that we that first generation Americans can no longer fully feel themselves to be true born sons of their country?”  

Oh, what a difference a century makes!                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

We are all Classical Liberals Now

In 2008 elections the Democratic Party, lead by its leftist members, swept into the White House and took control of both chambers of congress.  The MSM eagerly and giddily pronounced Conservatism dead.  Shortly after Obama’s inauguration Newsweek went so far as to do a cover proclaiming, “We are all Socialists now.”

In the mid-term elections of 2010 Conservative Republicans returned to congress in-force.  They took back control of the House of Representatives and all but eliminated the Democrat majority in the Senate.  The American people had put the brakes on the Socialist schemes of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi.

This swift shifting of the pendulum left the liberal elites confused and dazed.  I can recall one commentator observing that, “In 2008, they elected Liberals.  Now they elected Conservatives.  This just shows that the American people do not know what they want.” 

At the time, I remember thinking, “No, the American people know what they want.  The problem is that neither party is offering it to them.”  

It has been my experience that the majority of Americans are neither 100% Conservative nor 100% Liberal.  But we tend to take these titles because they are the only two of three options from which we have to choose.  Or we go with the third option of being an independent.  

This does not mean that the American people do not have a political foundation.  They do. It is the uniquely American form of Classical Liberalism.   Although we may argue over implementation, most Americans support the classical liberal principles of: 

·         Limited Government

·         Individual Rights

·         Private Property

·         Free-market Economics

The first two guarantees political freedom while the latter two provide the opportunity for economic freedom.

This was the “Great American” experiment.  It was these principles of classical liberalism on which this nation was founded and remained its basic political philosophy for over 100 years.  Millions of immigrants from all corners of the globe, seeking freedom, were drawn by the hope that classical liberalism offered.   More significantly, it resulted in America becoming the most prosperous and powerful country in history.  A country that, when true to these principles, is truly the “shining light on the hill.” 

Unfortunately, since the early 1900s, there has been an aggressive campaign to eradicate this nation’s Classical Liberal roots.  This campaign has been so successful that most people have never heard of Classical Liberalism.  It is no longer taught in school.  Even political science or history classes, if it is taught, it is done so as a long lost political philosophy from the Enlightenment Age of Europe. 

It is remarkable that its principles still exist.  But they do.  They are in the heart of every American who believes that America is an exceptional country, which, I believe, is the majority of us.

No, Newsweek, the American people are not Socialist. They are not even Liberal or Conservative.  They are what they always have been; Classical Liberals!