My White Supremacist neighbor and my Antifa neighbor were created in the image of God and as such are endowed with the inalienable right of free speech. However, if we wish to address their lack of civility we’re going to have an impossible battle attempting to do so through more law.
“Thousands hacking at the branches to the one striking at the root.” – Thoreau
We are witnessing a decline in character and civility and we should. Character and civility are fruits of limited government and robust self, family and church government. State government growth always comes at the expense of the other three — self, family and church as each sphere is pulled out of its natural equilibrium with the others.
In society money and property equal power and influence. Whoever holds property holds power and influence. It’s that simple. Therefore a lawmaker’s power always comes at the expense of the family, the institution we depend for developing character and civility. This is why the U.S. Constitution and our Bill of Rights are so important. They limit government so that the building blocks of society, our families, remain strong and children are given maximum opportunity to become healthy and productive members of society.
When we elect lawmakers who don’t uphold their oath we are not conservative, as our vote undermines these ideas and literally transfers money, power and influence from the individual and the family to the state.
Two thirds of the second table of the Ten Commandments address family and property (influence, power). As the health of our families goes so goes our nation.
This is why I challenge lawmakers to uphold their oath. It is neither pro-family nor patriotic to do otherwise. When we fail to uphold the ideas codified in our founding documents we transfer power from the family to the state. We weaken the institutions responsible for character and civility. The white supremacist and Antifa movements are only the fruit of a nation losing its ability to act civilly not the root problem.
If we wish to see character and civility return we must return to the vision set forth by our Framers. We must treat our self-evident truths as something to be revered not compromised by fear or something to be arbitrarily applied. Is encroaching of First Amendment freedoms the answer?
Law will never reform the heart. Hearts are the jurisdiction of families, churches and family controlled education. Reform will begin when the flow of power, education and money reverses from centralized control to the individual and to the family something neither of our last two Presidents or political parties can boast.
No quick fixes. It has taken a long time to get here. The first battle of this revolution is a battle of ideas. How tenaciously and absolutely we uphold to the ideas that made American exceptional will determine how quickly we regain our civility.
Character and civility are fruits of limited government.