Principle #4

NOTE: I will post another blog next week to explain why only four principles can tie into every aspect of conservatism.

When I was a kid, my Momma always said, “Say what ya mean and mean what ya say”. That is so true. Now, times change and people change. I have changed my stance on politics from an unknowing Democrat to a Republican voting, educated Conservative. I understand that sometimes things change, but facts do not. If you educate yourself in facts and not partisan rhetoric from a mainstream media that are determined to undermine anything not liberal, then the majority of the time you can make a clear decision and create a stance.

What about our Constitution? Our Constitution was to set the framework for a government unlike what they had just fought to be freed from. One that was for the people and by the people. One that was limited. It was not a document that framed what gov’t could do, but rather what it could not do. It was very basic. It had seven articles that outlined a free and limited government.

Article One: Legislative power

This is where bills – to become laws - are created. The idea was that if you had a House of Representatives and a Senate, each having multiple, elected members from each state could come together as a microcosm of the United States and best represent its constituents’ will. Great idea in theory. But it allowed for career politicians who allowed corruption to bleed in.

Article Two: Executive power

This set the conditions of the Presidency of the United States. This is the first level of check. The President is who signs these bills into laws. Another people elected position.

Article Three: Judicial power

The Judicial branch, which interprets and applies the law in the name of the sovereign or state, is the third step in checks and balances. The court is not where laws are created, but interpreted. This is another branch that has had a breakdown and we have since lost that check. When the court system can write law by officiating on personal belief rather than Constitutional interpretation, we lose that check.

Now there are 4 more articles…

Article Four: States' powers and limits
Article Five: Amendments
Article Six: Federal power
Article Seven: Ratification

…but I don’t have the space to get into those. My point being is that gov’t is meant to be limited. The Constitution means what it says and should be interpreted as it means and not what a Supreme Justice or a Congressman or a President or some rogue Governor who wants to bypass the will of the people for his own will.

I love Thomas Jefferson’s ideas on government. He said:

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

And "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have”.

and let’s sum it up with “A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.”

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Amen.

Fourth and last Conservative Principle:

Constitution. Leave it alone.