Freedom Frontier

8 Principles of Freedom

Inspired by Glenn Beck's "9/12" campaign, here is a set of concepts for defending America. This collection moves us closer to having specific plans. Do you agree with most or all of these items? How might you improve this list?

1. Personal Liberty: I have the right to make my own decisions. I do not have the right to be given what I need or want, even if we vote on it.

2. Limited Government: Our government has certain powers set out in the Constitution, and no others. If it breaks those limits, its actions are criminal.

3. The Rule of Law: Politicians and judges may not break the laws, or twist them to give government more power. Past abuses do not justify present ones.

4. Property Rights: The wealth I create belongs only to me. Charity by choice is admirable; charity at gunpoint is theft.

5. Capitalism: To be free, I must be able to make my own decisions about what to buy, who to hire, and how to run a business. That includes the freedom to try and fail.

6. Federalism: The federal government has a few lawful powers. All others belong to the states or to the people.

7. Tolerance: We should seek to work together in peace despite our differences. Government's lawful role in this task is only to protect everyone's rights against force and fraud.

8. Government by Consent: Our government's legal and moral authority comes from our consent and its respect for our rights. If our government ignores our rights and our Constitution, it loses this authority.

Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, says that America is "a nation of cowards" on racial matters. That is, we "simply do not talk enough with each other about race." Or more simply, we don't obsess over it, or we insist on judging people by the content of their character. There's more to this story than race, though.

Here we have the nation's chief lawman calling us cowards. Cowards are people who will not stand up for what's right. Combine that fact with our government's belief that we have no rights it must respect, and its limitless ambition, and what do you get? Consider:

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. -Frederick Douglass

Given our economic situation, we should expect to be fed more warnings of doom by this President. Obama has already said we're in dire, doomful woe, where only government can save us. Make people scared enough and convince them they're weak and timid, and you have a fine opportunity to expand your own power, don't you? The fear can be about race, money, or (almost literally, with global warming) the sky falling -- or all of these at once. Don't be a coward -- talk about freedom and where it rightly belongs.