Unmaking the Leviathan Part VII: The Final Choice: Decline or Greatness

We are not owed a republic.  We must choose it. We must decide it is what we want and fight for it.

When Benjamin Franklin walked out of the room after signing the Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17th, 1787, he was asked: “Well, Doctor, what have we got: a republic or a monarchy?” He famously replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” 

Progressives of course rejected our republic, sought to dismantle it, destroy it. The Progressive Left has made it very clear what they want: the elite over the electorate, bureaucracy over democracy. Now we must choose too: will we accept this status quo? Or will we fight for restoration? Will we accept our decline, or will we rise to become the first people in history to defeat the bureaucratic state?

The great question before us today really is, “Where do we go from here?” What does the Constitution mean? The Bill of Rights? The machinery of the republic and the diffusion of power? But more importantly, who are the people that make a constitutional republic work?

There used to be in this country a common set of beliefs about human nature, the role of government, the belief in a transcendent Creator and the transcendent truths and rights that emanate from Him. Those beliefs were the framework for the foundations of this country. To be clear: our republic, our system of government as framed out in the Declaration and codified in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, simply institutionalized what people already believed. And the beliefs encapsulated in those documents were from a Judeo-Christian, Anglo-American belief system. 

But those documents aren’t magically self-perpetuating. They will only continue on if the belief systems behind them are still believed in and acted upon.

So the restoration of the free American Republic begins with the restoration of self-government. And by self-government, it really is about the individual governing himself or herself and society and culture deciding that we will return to a common set of values and principles that are in alignment with the principles of the Founding: we must renew our moral compass in the 21st century, one that is grounded in higher law. 

We must remember that the morality of a government is really just a reflection of individual morality. So when we say decline is a choice, in much the same way that greatness is a choice, it’s the choices of individuals writ large on what they choose to accept, that leads to either greatness or decline: a self-governing republic is built upon and is a reflection of a society of self-governing people. 

So what will we choose? We have been given a great legacy that in some ways has been stolen from us. We have an obligation to those who came before to restore what once was and at the same time what we choose today will determine if future generations live as citizens or as subjects. 

The path ahead is not easy. But neither was 1776. In the words of John Adams, “I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means.”

The fight is on. Let us imagine the Golden Age of the free American Republic being restored and then do everything in our power to make it a reality.