Introduction: I made the decision to register Republican in 1979 and as a Young Republican at University I worked to help elect Ronald Reagan as President. While at University I read the works of Hume, Locke, Montesquieu, Hobbs, Plato, Cicero, and others. I made the personal decision that I wanted to live under a Republican form of government, because I believe it is the most humane. Now that I am running for 2nd Vice Chair of Georgia's 7th District, Republican Party, I want to share a series of articles that clearly define my understanding of republicanism and the principles of the Republican Party.
The easiest way to explain my understanding of Republican government is to offer it to you in a story to include coconuts.
Imagine that all the citizens of Georgia's 7th District (Gwinnett and Forsyth) decided to move to an uninhabited island in the Caribbean replete with white sandy beaches, blue water coves, and coconut trees. We decide to form a government in order to protect our lives and property. We form a government that protects us from foreign invaders and to make laws that prevent others from stealing our coconuts. What will be the form of this government we decided to create?
Do we appoint one person to make all these laws and decisions? That would be a King, Dictator, or Monarch? Probably not, that has been tried in the past and it always leads to tyranny.
Do we want democracy whereby 50.1 percent of the population can vote away the coconuts of 49.9 percent of the people? Probably not, that has been tried before and it leads to a collapse of the civil society and tyranny.
Do we want to segment the island into equally populated districts, whereby we elect a neighbor to represent our interests in a legislature? This form of government is republicanism and has been tried in the past and works rather well; especially if it is a Constitutional Republic.
Now we must decide whether we want to give the legislature the power to do whatever they please? Probably not a good idea. The citizens select neighbors to gather together and write a Constitution. This document will empower the legislature to do certain things and restrain them from doing other things. We give the power of taxation and spending directly to the legislature, because this is the most dangerous power impacting our financial freedom. This form of government allows us to hold accountable the representatives elected by the people in the districts.
To protect our individual liberties we determine what we don't want the legislature to be involved with; 1. Speech, 2. Religion, 3. Due Process, 4. Guns, 5. Habeas Corpus, etc. We will call this portion our Bill of Rights. This document is presented to the citizens of the island to determine whether this Constitution should be made law. If the people agree with this Constitution, it is ratified and becomes the law of the island.
The Constitution protects all the islanders from those that would try to take your coconuts. If the Constitution is not adhered to, we find that the legislature takes more-an-more of the coconuts from those on the east side, and gives them to those on the west side. The coconut farms on the east side are much more prosperous due to climate and environment. This was not authorized in the Constitution, but more islanders are moving to the west side where they get coconuts for free. The balance of political power is shifting to take from the prosperous and give to the those who have fewer coconuts. The neighbors elected to serve in the legislature reject their first principles.
The legislature regulates the means of transportation, telling us it is for our safety, making it more expensive for the east producers to transport and sell their coconuts to islanders in the North and South. Unfortunately this puts several coconut farmers out of business and they move to the west for free coconuts. With more islanders demanding free coconuts, the legislature must raise taxes and take more coconuts from the producers in the east for re distribution to those in the west. It turns out to be a never-ending process until one or two big coconut farmers remain and they in turn give coconuts to members of the legislature for favors.
Eventually the majority of the island's population is dependent on coconut handouts and an oligarchy results with the same neighbors returning to the legislature over-and-over again. Eventually the neighbors elected to the legislature become rich and the majority of the islanders become poorer.
Does this sound familiar? This is exactly where we are as a nation. We have not held our legislators accountable to the Constitution at the state and federal level. The only way to fix this is a return to first principles. These first principles are incorporated into the Republican Party Platform; financial freedom and individual liberty. I would like to address these first principles in my next article.
Bill Evelyn is running for 7th District, 2nd Vice Chair for the Republican Party.
Editor's Note: Patch is not affiliated with nor endorses any political party, organization or candidate running for public office.
MK - (tongue in cheek font on) no I don't think the founding fathers had any unforseen circumstances, No sir....only wars, slavery (which didn't fit within the document by the way, so had to be dealt with), and I guess storms and fires that devastated the crops they grew for the food that kept them alive weren't around back then either. Seems their troubles were much worse than ours. These are "first principles" - a foundation. No country or republic ever lasted when it veered away from its foundation. If the foundation crumbles, so does everything that it holds up.
The coconut lobby on the fantasy island would see to it that corporate welfare (subsidies) gets about twice as much as human welfare, as is the case now with corporate welfare being approximately 5% of the federal budget and human welfare receiving approximately 3% of the federal budget. This post is dedicated to any commenters who have been begging for attention to this blog. Your chiding comes off as just wanting validation, not opposing discussion.
Because the uneducated right didn't understand the meaning of the word plague, they used the poisonous coconuts to make cream and flakes, which is now their only source of food. Also, the transportation infrastructure is devastated so they're cut off from educated lefties who might have warned them of the danger of food poisoning. While the left is able to recover from the storm quickly due to historical investment in public infrastructure and contribution to the common good, the right breaks down into an apocalyptic wasteland. Lack of food and proliferation of guns encourage lawlessness. Stand your ground laws allow the ever more paranoid righties to shoot first, at times with weapons stolen from lawful citizens. The lefties try to help but the someone takes a comment about public infrastructure made by the leader of the left out of context, something about "you didn't build that" and the right tells them to pound sand.
Also, while it is true a righty shot the lefties it wasn't because they were there to steal the coconuts. They'd only pulled into the wrong driveway because of a mistake reading their GPS. Unfortunately the paranoid righty didn't like the fact that too many of those people were moving into the neighborhood and decided to come out guns-a-blazin'.
And so, you've taken to comparing a blogger, whose views you favor, with Jesus Christ. I think that's some kind of of stretch, not to mention a big no-no to His followers, including myself. All that foundation stuff is just a convoluted explanation for your glee over this simpleton train of "thought". I don't understand why you're so excited over this piece, but you are the one calling attention to it so you shouldn't be dismissive of opposing opinions. You said: "there's not a lot new under the sun except that it's been modernized, renamed or skewed in some sort of way." - all those centuries of advancement reduced to a poo-poo.
I did want conversation for both sides. But I have seen in the past that pieces like this get glossed over and have no opposing views. But if the other side posts something, conservatives are brave enough to take a look and reply. Look at it again. Don't mind that you differ, but not to the point that you can't agree with anything at all. Beleive it or not, I really would like for us all to find the common ground as to what our government is truly about and be able to identify what went wrong and be able to fix it. Wouldn't that be novel? Those who refuse to take a look at histoyr and learn from it, deserve what they get when it repeats itself. The wise examine history and learn from it. Convoluted train of thought? "simpleton?" "poo poo? OKaaaay.
You said, "Don't mind that you differ, but not to the point that you can't agree with anything at all." So, I must agree with something you say? Then say something I can agree with :)
Our issues today with immigration and Islamic terrorist are being treated with the same mentality. It is evidenced by the Fort Hood massacre, the Islamic terrorist attack, being labeled "workplace violence". Bill and Tammy, you are launching a battle of wits with unarmed people. Remember, only expect a reasonable/rational argument from the sane. Take pride in your victory and allow these rabble rousers to vent because it is their 1st amendment right, but it doesn't make them right nor will it ever. Sadly, they don't appreciate the tremendous freedoms The Founders created to protect even the fool. I would not justify their irrationality with further comments.
Without shared sacrifice and sharing of expenses by all Americans, those ideas by individuals would not have seen reality. Without government funding help everything would be more expensive and limited to the very wealthy. America was created on shared sacrifice. I bet the Chinese people struggling to breathe would love them some EPA-style government advocate. But they can buy canned air at 80 cents a pop, so guess they'll be okay. Thank you, though, for making me realize even more how grateful I am not to be so cynical about America and government's role in keeping it moving forward.
Thank you, too, for making me grateful for my world view. I would feel sorry for you guys, but you're very unsympathetic to anyone who disagrees with you, so you're not worthy.
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on the rest.
He was unfairly demagogued and subjected to unsubstantiated public ridicule. No wait.... that's what he did to others. I get confused all the time whether he was an American hero or a paranoid alcoholic that was condemned by his Republican Senate colleagues. I'm just curious if there are still communists behind every bush, or illegal immigrants, or Islamic jihadists, or homosexuals, or union members, or .......
Michael, it must be all of those.
And ggy, if I wasn't agraid of liberals posting, I just wondered "WHY NOT" (since you guys usually swoop down on anything political as soon as it posts)". I then voiced my opinion that maybe it made too much sense. My point was kind of proven in the fact that it turned quickly into a circus once they did. Bill, keep up the good work. OUr foundations are crumbling daily and it's because people want to crack it in order to create chaos. Our founding fathers didn't get their wisdom from a carnal source, that's for sure. That's why it has kept us throughout the years.
You call opposing views as a "circus", while claiming to want debate. That's judgmental arrogance. If you get a circus, could it be because of your own statements declaring all others to be wrong and then preaching to them?
How did you know you were lost when you didn't know where you were to begin with? Get a grip on reality. I did not see you at the Capitol on Monday defending Georgia citizens first amendment rights. Did you even know there was attempted legislation to censure your right to petition your representative?
How do you know where I was Monday? How do I know where you were Monday?
Some joking aside, but seriously this article does represent a lot of the mistakes in reasoning republicans tend to mistake. They confuse the local with the global, thinking that the most powerful nation in the would's economy will run just like a personal budget. Or it is just "so simple" to have a traditional family, and those who don't are sinners, undeserving of American recognition and inclusion. Also, the republican party will continue to decline because they think perspectives from much simpler times (taxes, gun control, the ever-so-tire moralisms) should be carried forward in our modern world. Give it up, dude. The republican thing is over.