This is a question President Ronald Reagan asked in the early 1980s. It was meant to be a clarion call to the revived conservative movement in America. We were emerging from a terrible economic recession that was exacerbated by government intrusion. From the late 1970s moving into the 1980s we saw gas rationing, double-digit unemployment, double-digit inflation and 20%+ interest rates. It’s important to note that most economists then thought double-digit unemployment and inflation couldn’t occur simultaneously. It turns out they were wrong.
Ronald Reagan had another applicable quote: “The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.”
Boy, haven’t we seen most of the government's plans fail? The federal government has spent over $20,000,000,000,000 (20 trillion) since 1965 in the “War on Poverty.” Yet, we still have fellow citizens living in squalor. Spending per pupil for government-mandated education has increased from less than $5,000 per student in 1970 to nearly $15,000 per student in 2021. (These numbers are adjusted for inflation, so this is an apples-to-apples comparison.) Yet, test scores in math, reading and writing haven’t changed in the last 50 years. There are hundreds of other examples I could list because our government does hundreds of things it’s not supposed to do. Most, if not all of those things are better performed outside of the public sector.
Beginning in 2020, we were told to stay at least 6 feet apart, to cover our faces whether indoors or out, to isolate from our loved ones, to shut down our businesses (except for the largest ones), and to close our churches. All of this was in the spirit of “following the science.” We’re now told by our institutions that life doesn't begin when biology says it does. We’re told that if we don't have the initiative to work then the government will provide for us. We’re told that gender is fluid and you can become one of 70+ other choices depending on how you identify. We’re told that faith has no place in our schools or government but, we must submit to the secular religion of climate change.
Twenty-five years ago who would have thought we’d be discussing the issues we’re discussing today? There’s a reason supporters of greater government involvement in our lives despise the “slippery slope” argument. It’s because it’s always correct. Criminals rarely commit a bank robbery as their first crime. They start small and often choose to commit larger and bolder crimes later.
The federal government acts the same way. They may start with teaching history based on the textbooks authored by Woodrow Wilson that question the founding principles of America. That may then morph into eliminating recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in schools. After all, who wants to pledge allegiance to a country that’s so fatally flawed? They may move to eliminate prayer from the schools because, why not put your faith in a government you can see as opposed to the God you cannot? They may redefine words like ‘marriage,’ that have definitions going back thousands of years and choose at some point in the future to teach sexually explicit and deviant material to 3rd graders.
We arrive at such outcomes because too many government institutions lack accountability and consequences for their actions. This would come as no surprise to the Founding Fathers and our colonial ancestors. This is how every central government throughout history has behaved. Whether it be Nero who commanded the Apostle Paul to pledge his allegiance to him; Hitler who led his countrymen to commit horrible atrocities in service to the Fatherland, or a government that decrees parents who challenge school curriculum to be domestic terrorists, all governments behave the same way when there’s no accountability or consequences for their actions.
Just as there’s not a majority of people who believe the narratives we’re subjected to daily, it doesn’t take a majority of people to reverse course back to constitutionalism. The Framers of the Constitution did not say, “This is the way governments always act. Let’s hope for the best and hang on for as long as we can.” They provided us a government structure based upon the existence of Absolute Truths, Nature’s Law and God. They knew despite their best intentions the government they established would become despotic if it were not accountable for its actions and faced consequences for its behavior.
This is the reason for checks and balances. This is why in our constitutional republic governing authority resides with We The People. This is why they unanimously adopted the convention of states process to provide oversight of the federal government. If George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and George Mason were here today and witnessed how intrusive the federal government is in our daily lives they would be appalled. They would ask how we arrived at this point when the second mode in Article V exists. Imagine their shock and disappointment when they learned we’ve never used it.
Next January, we’ll have about 60 new legislators who'll be sworn into the Missouri General Assembly. What do your candidates and legislators know about the convention of states process? Are they supporters? Are they going to use constitutional principles to guide how they vote and draft legislation? Just how are they going to be held accountable for their behavior and to face consequences for the actions they take?
I ask again as Ronald Reagan did. “If not us, who? If not now, when?” The time to address this is now.
In liberty,
Brett
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