Thomas Jefferson stated, “An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight. It is therefore imperative that the nation see to it that a suitable education be provided for all its citizens.” I add to that, “We the People” must become an enlightened citizenry to America’s just purpose and noble cause or there is no other way forward if we are to defeat the propaganda of our enemy’s perverse ideologies.
President-elect Trump is about to place his hand on his family bible and take the oath of office to the highest and most prestigious elected seat in the world. He will utter the words that will be the cornerstone of his administration as he swears to uphold and protect The Constitution from enemies, both foreign and domestic.
While the world will focus on the pomp and circumstance surrounding this pivotal moment, filled with entertainment, parades, speeches and ballroom galas, nothing will be as compelling or as historic as those words he pronounces “to protect the Constitution.”
Why? Because it is not just the recitation of a script or posing for the front cover of a national magazine. It is his pledge to Washington, his redress to King George, it is his battle for America and the one thread that weaves together every President from George Washington forward. For years I thought about this act of swearing in the new President. What exactly is the President pledging to? Isn’t it a relatively symbolic ritual?
The answer came to me one day and everything suddenly made sense. He was pledging, not just to uphold the Constitution, but to protect its rule of law that is America’s firm stance against tyranny and what gives America her just and noble cause.
It is so profound, yet so simple. Our laws are guided by the moral principles within that Bible, and perfected by our unwavering stance against absolute power. Without getting into an extended religious discussion of the Bible, we are first introduced to the destruction that ensues through tyranny when Man, instead of honoring the sovereignty of God, uses his mortal power to repress other Men, demanding allegiance to him instead of to God. These dehumanizing manifestations are revealed here on Earth by nations whose Constitutions honor tyranny as their rule of law.
Our Constitution and its rule of law protects our freedoms from those corrupt rulers, those totalitarian religious zealots or secular tyrants who would suppress all people’s inalienable rights. That, in summary, is our rule of law and the reason we guard our Constitution with our lives.
Deviating, in any amount from that stance, opens the door to all sorts of complications and confuses our reason for being.
How did it happen that this young nation attained such prominence as the leader of the world in only 240 years? We sit at the head of countries and governments with thousands of years of history, empires, upheavals, overthrows, battles, yet we sit as equals at these tables. Why are we so unique and either so universally loved or loathed?
Here is my answer and what I solemnly believe is the unifying answer to almost every question that has ever plagued our government.
George Washington confirmed this when he said, “The Constitution is the guideline I will never abandon.” It is our Constitution’s unwavering stance against tyranny and its rule of law that makes America sacred among the nations, that secures our freedoms and provides us with our mission in the world order. It is not just a piece of historical parchment; but the yardstick by which the President, and all US leaders, must use to weigh every decision, every enactment, and every discussion made in Washington’s prestigious halls.
In the most simplest of terms, if every motion made in the halls of justice included the words, “does this meet the benchmark of our rule of law and our stance against absolute power?” our leaders could never veer off the path intended by our Founding Fathers.
Just as Einstein had a unifying principle that brought clarity to the laws that govern the universe, likewise the Constitution and the rule of law declaring war on tyranny is the unifying principle that provides clarity to the laws that govern and protect liberty’s domain.
In American History 101, we learned about King George’s taxation of the American colonies that lead to the American Revolution. But what is not made explicitly clear in those lessons, is how that battle, seemingly over taxation without representation, was really their revolt against absolute power and religious persecution. It was under British rule, in the name of God (The Church of England) and State, that our Founders suffered the greatest of all losses; their inalienable rights. In their subsequent stance against absolute power, they gained their independence and freedoms; the greatest victory of all. Therefore, when creating the foundation for the new government it would be essential to ensure that those freedoms would be forever protected, as much in 1776 as in 2017. Protection in perpetuity.
The fact is that the American Revolution was not just a war of Independence from Britain, but provided the new country called America with its first victory from the religious tyranny embraced by the Church of England. With the advent of the Constitution in 1776, the transformation from a people pursuing the right of religious freedom to a nation embracing a universal doctrine that calls for freedom from religious and secular tyranny, would finally actualize our founding fathers vision of a universal doctrine of governance that was designed to protect the inalienable rights of all against the advancement of a government of tyranny either in the name of God or State or both.
In a new America, theoretically, citizens were now able to choose their house of worship without retribution. It was the beginnings of the concept of tolerance. That evolved into greater tolerances for people’s choices to what today we see in tolerance of races, cultures, and lifestyles. As we see through our short history, tolerance is dynamic, always changing as our country evolves. America is proud to be a very tolerant and open society, but that should not be mistaken to mean that we tolerate any one or any nation that threatens or violates our unifying principle; that rule of law and its resolute stance against tyranny.
What is often overlooked is the very fact that all these freedoms and embracing positions of the diversity of our nation evolved from our stance against those who would deny people these freedoms in the name of absolute power. It is only through the freedom from the corruption of tyranny that all these tolerances bear fruit.
There is a saying that goes “A small piece of fodder turns a sumptuous soup into a vile concoction” so it follows, when the principles of liberty on which our free republic stands are violated, in order to accommodate people's’ cultural, religious or political differences, only a vile concoction of tyranny will remain.
Simply put, promoting and embracing religious tyranny, such as that of Sharia law or Islamo-fascism, is not a right guaranteed by our Constitution. In fact, it is a threat to our Constitution. However, freedom from religious tyranny, secured by the blood of our patriots, is our birthright that must be honored and defended at all costs.
Our Founders had no tolerance for those governments and rulers who embraced tyranny because it was diametrically opposed to the rights and freedoms on which they built this country. It is this alone that would make us exceptional among the nations then, just as it does today and would be the spark that set the engines of liberty in motion.
It is this rule of law that secures the boundaries that separate reason from irrationality, democracy from tyranny, and free-market economies from global controlled collectives. Today, these boundaries are being erased by those who embrace tyranny as their rule of law. Once you allow a minor infraction of tyranny to influence a decision, you lose the right to retract it. It’s too late. It reasons that once we wobble on that fact, we break it. You can’t unring a bell.
But most importantly, this rule of law functions as the benchmark to clarify all the amendments that were implemented to protect our freedoms from the tyranny of the state. Just think about it. Freedom of the press protects us from tyranny. Redress of grievances protects us from tyranny. The right to gather protects us from tyranny. The right to bear arms protects us from tyranny. But it is much more than that.
It also identifies our mission, our purpose in the world and our reason for existence and structures our foreign and domestic policies. In an era of growing global instability, there does not exist a unifying consensus to clarify our foreign policy. Yet the guideline for a strong and resolute foreign policy has always been right under our noses. While our domestic policy is designed to keep us free from the forces of tyranny from within, our foreign policy alerts the nations of the world who we are and what we stand for as we protect our freedoms from those who promote oppression around the globe.
Therefore our foreign policy must reflect America’s protocol, which is defined by our Constitution’s stance against tyranny. This resolute rule not only secures our freedoms, but defines America’s quest which is to keep the lamp of liberty lit from those who are determined to bring darkness into the world.
I want to ask President elect Trump, “What kind of foreign policy are you embracing? One where we are forever freed from world conflict through compromise with tyrannical dictates or one where we are forever freed from the chains of tyranny by confronting it at its source."
Mr. Trump, you are promising to Make America Great Again. And it is only through the commitment against tyranny and enforcement of our Constitution that our country thrives with capitalism and free markets.
As one of the most successful businessmen in our country, you know the importance of a good business plan. The Constitution is the preeminent business plan for a free nation. The business of America is to establish, support, and defend the contents of its Constitution, at all costs. Negotiating with religious fanatical terrorists and its supporting cast that consistently promotes its hatred of our freedoms is only aiding and abetting that tyranny, completely violating our rule of law. Either you stand with the Constitution’s sacred covenant of freedom, the basis upon which this Republic rests or our very foundation faces collapse.
In the simplicity of this self evident decree, this rule of law functions to provides our citizenry the ability to judge for themselves whether the policies our leaders make would lead to our victory over the constraints that tyranny would deny us.
Understanding this thoroughly eliminates the “Wait and See” attitude, in hopes for the best from our politicians. This is the beauty and the great benefit of using the rule of law as the sole benchmark and guideline. “We the People” will know, without doubt or uncertainty, whether or not each decision and every strategy conforms to the set and clear standard that would bring predictability to their policies.
Understanding this rule of law should be the core tool used to teach every student, every citizen, every new immigrant to our land. It is what makes and keeps America great.
Once we lose sight of the purpose of our nation's existence, we lose our identity and our grip on victory over global tyranny. We are the defenders of liberty. We do not bow down to kings or take our marching orders from the United Nations. We are here to rid the world of tyrannical enterprises, not prop them up and make them our partners in peace.
Once we stand strong against Iran, China, Russia and the rest of these thugs with a clear no-nonsense response to their tyranny, then the rest of the world will know that America is back. Along with that will come the respect and credibility we once owned. What will follow will be prosperity, growth, strength and confidence for our nation. There is no other way for a free people to exist.
As the leader of the free world and the caretaker of those freedoms we hold dear, Trump and America face the difficult decision to confront these conflicts head on, even if that means placing our troops and equipment on foreign soil to keep fascism and terrorism at bay. No one wants that. No one goes to sleep at night dreaming of another World War. But that is the reality as this threat continues to grow closer to our shores, our allies shores and invade our once safe spaces. We’ve done it before, conquered these world-altering powers and it was followed by alternating economies of prosperity and sacrifice.
Presently we have been led to believe we don’t have the money and resources to fight against our enemies. They say we are out numbered so we should just get our house in order first. I say, we cannot be afraid of the sacrifice if the larger picture is a free world and peace. Trump knows that if we face these conflicts, the chances are that for that moment in time, our nation will be called upon to suffer the sacrifices and therefore, there will be none of the prosperity and growth he is promising. But if he stops to get off of the world roller coaster for a moment, while we may be able to bring home those promises of growth, we will ultimately be broken. As they say, win the battle, but lose the war.
President Elect Trump wants to renegotiate the treasonous Iranian Deal. Not only is this deal or negotiating with terrorists stand diametrically opposed to everything our Constitution and its rule of law stand for, it is placing a target on the backs of our own troops as the swelling money that lines the terrorist coffers will be used to purchase equipment to destroy our military and American installations around the world.
Granting the status of legitimate business partner to Iran and her partnered thug nations gave the green light to dealing with terrorist nations who operate without morals and ethics, and only serves to strengthen their suppressive regimes.
General Mattus is wrong about having to honor the Iranian deal. We gave our word to a dishonorable deal. An illegitimate deal. A deal that goes against our rule of law and our mission. We don’t have to worry about how we will look reneging on a bad deal. It is more evident that America will more than make up for that perceived imperfection with the destruction of the Iranian nuclear war machine that will strike a fatal blow in the heart of Iran's Terrorist Empire.
With the threat of a nuclear Iran gone, Iran’s influence in the region will disintegrate. Like pins in a bowling alley, one after another — Syria , Hamas, Hezbollah, and all the rest of the criminal terrorist enterprises — will falter because Iran 's influence in the region will have been severed.
Economies will rise and fall. Infrastructures will be erected and crumble. The dollar will get weak and then rise again. But the one thing that can never falter is the stance against tyranny. Nothing should ever be allowed to trump Liberty’s decrees. This is not just a foreign policy, it is America’s mission. It is not something we do in the meantime while we build America back up, it is who we are.
We are the defenders of freedom in the world. Always. We don’t get to walk away when it is inconvenient to focus on other areas of our country. It is not an option. The ramifications of losing sight of this will be detrimental, not just to America, but to the world.