American Exceptionalism 2

In my last blog I stated that I believe that American exceptionalism is not a characteristic of personal morality or even personal power, or personal wealth or even national morality, power, or wealth, but this exceptionalism is a result of our Declaration and Constitution and the governmental structure these documents give to us.  The difference is that our government is not based on an individual or group of individuals, but upon certain principles that do not change even though the officials in our government do change regularly.  Our government is not a monarchy, based on one person who hands over the power to a person of his choice and who creates rules and laws at his/her whim.  President Obama is getting very close to this with his czars and his blatant contempt of the legislative and judiciary branches.  He blatantly states that he will do what he thinks is right no matter what any one else says.

Our government is also not a oligarchy, a group of people who controls all the power and hands that power over to whomever they choose.  Our politicians are getting very close to that form with the attitude of a ruling class (inside the DC beltway) as opposed to the country class (the rest of us).  They treat themselves as special by exempting themselves from many, if not all, of the laws they pass for the rest of us.

Nor is our government a democracy where the majority rules and gets to dictate to the minority.  Our government is getting very close to this with ruling by polls.  Our politicians make their decisions by what the latest polls show.  That is very dangerous, especially when we see how fickle popular opinion is.

So what does our Declaration and Constitution give us?  It gives us a very small federal government that has very few responsibilities, the most important of which are protection from external dangers and protection of our individual God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Our Declaration and Constitution gives us protection FROM our government.  Our Revolution was a rebellion against a government that was threatening its very own citizens/subjects.

So how do we get back to our original form of government?  Our government has gotten way out of control.  Eminent domain is one example.  Another is full-time politicians with benefits for life.  Elected positions are supposed to be positions of temporary service/sacrifice, not positions of life-time influential power/gain.  General income tax is another example of the federal government using its legal force to redistribute wealth.   

So what must we do since our government has gotten so out of control?  There is only one thing we can do.  We the individual citizens must get involved and through the ballot box and through communicating with the people we send to Washington, DC, start repealing many of the laws that have made our government so burdensome.  More on this in another blog.