Every once in a while it’s good to take a step back, look around and put things in perspective.
Currently, there are crowds in the streets of some major cities who the media calls “protesters.” They are not. They are Marxist, anarchist, criminals! But for the sake of this piece, let’s concede……..they are protesters.
What, exactly, are they protesting? As far as I can tell, it is systemic racism and police brutality (neither of which exist on a national scale). These resulted from a racist Constitution created by rich, white, slave owning bigots to justify their lifestyle. OK. Now that I’ve set the stage, let’s have a GMN history lesson.
As we all know, it was actually a group of brave, forward thinking, creative founders who invented this wonderful political, economic experiment called the United States. They put pen to paper and wrote the “Constitution.” Hmmm, really?
It may surprise you to know their ideas were not original. In 1690, an Englishman named John Locke authored a political tract called “Two Treatises of Government.” There had recently been a revolution in England to move power away from the monarchy and place it in the hands of the people. Locke proposed three basic tenets: 1- all men are created equal; 2- basic rights exist independent of the government; 3- government exists to protect those rights. During a time of monarchies and Divine Right, radical to say the least.
The founders figured what better way to justify an American revolution against England than to use the same arguments that we’re used to justify an English one. They proceeded to copy those principles to create our Constitution. They framed the arguments more eloquently.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights…”
A government does not grant personal freedoms. It exists to protect them. Indeed, our Bill of Rights restricts the government, not the people. Paraphrasing, Congress shall make no law restricting freedom of religion, speech, press, or assembly.
But today, Locke’s ideas are under assault. Those who call themselves protestors are blind to the fundamental elements of its own history and tradition. Locke was not an old, rich, white, slave owner. He was an Oxford trained physician. I find it interesting that those protesting the Constitution have the right to protest because it is guaranteed by that Constitution! Hmmm! Like all those uneducated and unaware, the always uninformed but never in doubt!
“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.” -H.L Menken
