I was recently accused of ‘having a lot of good ideas that are impossible to get done’.
I’m glad that at least some people think they’re good ideas. But I’m sad that those people so often dismiss the ideas as being impossible.
I agree that they’re impossible to get done if we don’t even try. And if we get distracted, putting all our efforts into fighting over things like ‘a parental bill of rights’ — as if parents have a right to make other people pay to educate their children.
As Thoreau said, there are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. We have to reverse that ratio. And that’s a cultural problem, not a political one.
For example, every minute of time, every dollar in contributions that goes into fighting
for a parental bill of rights;
or to get certain books out of school libraries;
or to control who uses what bathrooms, who plays on what sports teams, or who provides a supplemental course in financial literacy;
or to get this board member elected instead of that one;
and so on, is time and money that could be going towards evangelizing the fundamental issues regarding education: That it’s a responsibility, not an entitlement, and that its purpose is to ensure the preservation of a free government, not to provide children with ‘good jobs’ or ‘bright futures.’
If culturally, we reclaim the idea that the government is just a tool for protecting rights and that it gets its power from consent (which means your government can’t have more power than you do), then politically, everything can change, and quickly.
If culturally, we reject those ideas, then politically, nothing significant can change. If that’s really the case, then the ship is going down, and all you can do is build a lifeboat and get the people you love into it.
As long as the conversation is about regulations, or statutes, or elections, or even constitutions, then we’re screwed. The conversation has to be about the heart of the Declaration of Independence,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
and whether we as a people still believe that. Or if, indeed, we ever did.
That is, by the way, also the heart of the GOP platform, at least on paper; and has been since the party was formed. For example, here is the platform from 1856:
Resolved: That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Constitution are essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions.
Here is the platform from 1860:
[Resolved:] That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution, “That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” is essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions.
You get the idea. The same idea runs through every platform from then until now.
The GOP is the party that is supposed to be pruning back government to the point where it is consistent with these ideals (which are themselves inconsistent with almost everything done by modern government — even when under the control of the GOP).
But it’s the party members who have to see this, and push for it, not the party ‘leadership’, which is interested mainly in winning elections, and accumulating power (to pursue its current agenda) rather than dispersing it (so future generations will be free to pursue happiness in their own ways).
And for those who say that something can’t be done, I usually offer two words: constitutional carry. That’s the canonical example of Milton Friedman’s observation that what at one time seems politically impossible can come to seem politically inevitable, once people start asking the right questions — if the right ideas are already sitting around, waiting to be picked up. Which is why it’s crucial to start talking about those ideas, even if you can’t imagine when or how they could possibly be implemented.
My dream is that one day government by consent will be seen the same way.
