Okay, I’m going to try to do more with this blog. I’d like to devote this blog to anti-war thoughts from the Christian tradition of Tertullian. I’ll be focusing on civil liberty and anti-war. Enjoy! (And comment!)
Crazy Like Thomas Jefferson
Let me say from the outset: Politics is not ultimate.
I almost don’t want to write about politics, but my sanity has been questioned by my family whom I love, so I feel the need for vindication. To say that my sanity was questioned is a bit of an understatement. What should have been a civil discussion turned into a verbal fight with two family members to whom I am extremely close. I said things I shouldn’t have said. I’ve since confessed my sins and asked for forgiveness.
But these dear family members are neoconservatives who think that the Republican Party as of the RNC convention (today, September 2, 2008) is the only remnant of the Founding Fathers, politically speaking. Though I am registered as a Republican, various recent events have convinced me to beomce a civil libertarian. M.G. Kline’s books and lectures dealing with Common Grace and Intrusion Ethics, D.G. Hart’s biography of J. Gresham Machen, Misty Irons’ arguments about the Reformed doctrine of original sin and homosexuality, and the common, constitutional sense of Ron Paul all contributed to my political shift.
One caveat before I get to the substance of this post: I do not idolize the Founding Fathers. They were unbelievers of various flavors, in the main. I labor under no delusions that they were devoted Christians who based our government’s polity on the Bible and the Christian religion. In a word: hogwash. I do, however, believe that men like Thomas Jefferson had a great deal of insight into the principles that ought to govern and guide the State. I attribute that to Common Grace; friends like D.G. Hart, John Muether and Ken Myers attribute that to Creation. But that’s another topic for another post.
Am I certifiably insane — worthy of being put to death (as one family member implied) — for believing:
1) Aggressive, interventionist war is insane, immoral and contrary to freedom.
2) The Federal Reserve is unconstitutional and is robbing us of the fruit of our labor: it ought to be abolished.
Well, if that makes me a wacko then I guess I’m in good company because here’s some of what some of our liberty-loving founders had to say on these subjects:
1) On the topic of foreign policy (i.e., how the U.S. government ought to relate to foreign governments, when to go to war, etc.)…
Thomas Jefferson said,
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“Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations–entangling alliances with none, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration.” –Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural Address, 1801. ME 3:321
James Madison said,
“Of all the enemies to public liberty war, is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded…” — James Madison: Political Observations, April 20 1795, (Madison, IV, page 491)
and
“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended from abroad.” — James Madison: Letter to Thomas Jefferson, May 13, 1798 (Madison, II, page 141)
In other words: whether the threat of “terrorist” (“pirate,” to the founders) danger is real or fabricated, such danger gives the State the perfect opportunity to steal your liberty. Madison also said,
“It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.” — James Madison: Letter to the Dey of Algiers, August, 1816 (Madison, III, page 17)
(“Tribute” is kind of like what the I.R.S. requires of us.)
2) Should the President of the United States be able to make the decision to go to war?
Thomas Jefferson said,
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“We have already given… one effectual check to the dog of war, by transferring the power of letting him loose from the Executive to the Legislative body, from those who are to spend to those who are to pay.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789. ME 7:461, Papers 15:397
The “dog of war” comment would earn the fierce condemnation of those like Rush Limbaugh (who, ironically, instilled in me the political principles which I still hold so dear and, which principles are the reason why I can no longer listen to him and vote for most Establishmentarians Demoplicans Republicrats). Rush would carry on about how this statement sounds like a hippie and/or a Democrat (not to mention the previous statements: Rush and Heir McCain would call them “isolationist”) — as if that’s an effective, not to mention definitive argument against an idea. But that “@#!$%&! piece of paper”, as Heir Bush so cleverly referred to the Constitution of the United States (which he swore an oath to protect and uphold), defines the LEGAL path to war as that which CONGRESS leads us down. Yes, that makes all of the wars since World War II illegal.
These neoconservatives would also claim that September 11, 2001 changed everything. Now, they claim, we must police the world, wage preventative war and give up as many of our personal liberties as possible in order to be “safe.” In other words, the terrorists won, ironically, because we must stop being and doing all of the things that defined American greatness in order to pretend to defeat a tactic or stragtegy (is that even possible?) called terrorism. But another wise unbeliever named Benjamin Franklin with profound insight into civil government rebutted this when he said,
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” (Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Kessinger Publishing, 2007)
3) Is the idea of a central bank possible for those who love liberty and are committed to free markets?
Jefferson said,
“I sincerely believe… that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” –Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME 15:23
Note well that not only are standing armies “dangerous,” but that banks that can print/counterfeit/inflate (“the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding”) — those banks are MORE dangerous than standing armies!
On the subject of money, Thomas Jefferson also said,
“Paper is poverty,… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.” –Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1788. ME 7:36
and
“I now deny [the Federal Government's] power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender.” –Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1798. ME 10:65
In other words: only gold and silver are legal tender (at least according to that “@#!$%&! piece of paper”). When something else can be willy-nilly “declared” to be money by governmental fiat, the State can spend you and me into debt.Crazy? You decide.
