In the civil society, the individual has a duty to respect the unalienable rights of others. The individual also has a responsibility to respect the values, customs, and traditions, tried and tested over time and passed from one generation to the next, that establish society’s cultural identity. Citizens are responsible for taking ownership of their own well-being and that of their family, and they have a duty to contribute to the welfare of the community.
In the civil society, the rule of law provides the governing framework for and restraints on the political system, thereby both empowering the civil society and serving as a check against the abuse of power by the government.
The founders understood that the greatest threat to liberty is an all-powerful central government, where the few dictate to the many. They also knew that “the rule of the mob” would lead to anarchy and, in the end, despotism. Once again, they recognized the need for virtuous citizens + ordered liberty. To put it another way, a civil society requires people of character + a limited government based on timeless principles.
Here is what James Madison said in the Federalist 51. “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
For much of American history, the balance between governmental authority and individual liberty was understood and accepted. Federal power was confined to that which was specifically enumerated in the Constitution. That power was limited further by being distributed among three federal branches—the legislative, executive, and judicial. Beyond that, the power remained with the states and ultimately the people.
Sadly, the federal government has become a massive, inefficient, out-of-control bureaucracy: It is the nation’s largest creditor, debtor, lender, employer, consumer, contractor, grantor, property owner, tenant, insurer, health-care provider, and pension guarantor.
As the federal government continues to grow in size and operate beyond the boundaries laid out in the Constitution, it continues to erode the liberty of the individual and move ever closer to socialism and further away from the liberty of a constitutional republic.
Those who advocate for more government have been called “statists,” and it is an accurate term. The statist rejects the existence of Natural Law, and believes rights are granted by the state, not bestowed by the Creator.
They acknowledge only those laws and rights which the state puts in place. The statist claims to be the enlightened voice of reason, the beholder of knowledge, and the architect of modernity—but recent history has shown them to be unenlightened in their understanding of moral order, liberty, and equality.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
