Well-known for their flight from religious persecution in England, the group we now know as America’s Pilgrims first went to Holland.
After nearly a dozen years there—having attracted English investors who sought profit, not prophetic fulfillment—they embarked on the famous Mayflower to America and landed in what became known as the Plymouth Colony.
The plan was for all settlers to work a common plantation. Resources and production would be communal, and from the common bounty each individual or family would receive their share.
But this socialistic model quickly followed a now familiar path: common economic hardship resulting from low productivity.
Plymouth Governor William Bradford wrote, “…community of property…was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment which would have been to the general benefit and comfort.”
After much debate, communal arrangements were ended and each family assigned their own plot of land.
“This was very successful," Bradford wrote. "It made all hands very industrious, so that much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could devise, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better satisfaction.”
Centralized decision-making and redistribution of wealth did not work in the early Plymouth Colony, nor is it working now. The Constitution’s Commerce Clause and General Welfare Clause, (conveniently misinterpreted by federal politicians, judges, and bureaucrats), are used relentlessly to expand federal micromanagement of individuals’ lives and the businesses they strive to profitably operate.
Federal politicians have amassed a $20 trillion debt, which grows about $1.3 million with every passing minute. Around 70 percent is spent on social welfare/social security, medical expenses, or interest on past debt.
As these costs balloon with aging Baby Boomers, politicians seeking a lifetime in power dump the expense on future generations rather than face the music of squeezed voters. Seemingly ‘free’ goods and services we can’t afford ultimately undermine our creditworthiness and our currency’s value.
But if all you care about is your next election, these are not your concerns.
The Framers—attuned to the lessons from Plymouth Bay—established a limited form of national government designed to protect us from arrogant, corrupt, self-interested federal authorities.
But they also knew a day could come when the federal government rides roughshod over its carefully enumerated powers, ceaselessly incurs unsustainable debt, and cripples individual industriousness.
So they wrote into Article V of the Constitution a means for We the People, working through our state legislators, to propose amendments that contain Washington’s swamp rats within their constitutional cage.
As you reflect on all you have to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, please resolve to contact your state legislators. Let them know you want a Convention of States so that the nation can be re-set upon a sustainable path.
