What Happened to Limited Government?

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE DETROIT NEWS, CONSTITUTION DAY 2009

Two hundred twenty-two years ago, the members of the Constitutional Convention signed the federal Constitution and under­took an unparalleled revolution in the forms of government. As the heirs of this grand experi­ment, we too often ignore the work they accom­plished at our peril.

During the past year, our nation has been transfixed by crisis, government and populism: Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, pirates, banking, mort­gages, economic stimulus, health care, energy, auto companies, tea parties and town halls. The tyranny of the urgent is suffocating the eternal.

Our government rests upon the proposition that a well-informed citizenry and political lead­ers will guard the Constitution.

The rule of law, equality, unalienable rights, the social compact, limited government and revolution are the superstructure on which the Constitution and our country are formed.

The idea of limited government has been all but ignored. As the Declaration of Independence declares, the purpose of government is to secure the unalienable rights of individuals. After all, “it is,” Thomas Jefferson explained, “to secure our just rights that we resort to government at all ...”

Although government is necessary, it is to be strictly limited to its proper constitutional pur­poses.

The alternative — unlimited government— allows the government to control every aspect of our lives. The experiments with unlimited govern­ment ran amok in the 20th century — leading to Nazi Germany’s Holocaust, Mao’s starvations in China, the Soviet Union’s totalitarian liquidations and the Khmer Rouge’s genocide in Cambodia.

America chose a different path. The Constitu­tion constrains the federal government to a few key areas, such as war and foreign affairs, in­terstate and international commerce, patents and copyrights, and money and weights.

Federalism provides that the states are su­preme in their own sphere of influence — which is everything not specifically granted to the federal government. The states are supposed to jealously guard their authority, which helps check the pow­er of the federal government.

Yet, with a few notable exceptions, we barely hear a whisper about limited government and federalism in policy debates. That members of Congress and others are too busy to read the bills upon which they vote is bad enough, but that no one bothers to ask whether the proposals to dra­matically expand the federal government and spend trillions of dollars conforms within our system of limited government is alarming.

Reasonable people may disagree about the application of the first principles to policy issues.

However, to brush off our first principles during these tumultuous times only courts disaster.

Michael Warren is an Oakland County Circuit Court judge, a former member of the State Board of Education and a co-founder of Patriot Week. E-mail: letters@detnews.com

Patriot Week

Michael Warren and daughter Leah Warren wanted to promote a better understanding and appreciation of America’s history and civics, so this year they started a weeklong focus (Sept. 11 through today) for schools and other public and private institutions on the nation’s first principles, key historical figures, founding docu­ments and symbols. Each celebration is tied into the state’s social studies grade-level content expectations. One school district, several schools, the University of Michigan and Cooley Law School are participating.

Hats Off to the Suffragists and Gender Equality

Patriot Week yesterday honored the First Principle of gender equality, suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the 1848 Seneca Falls Statement, the 19th Amendment (granting women suffrage), and the Suffragist Flag.


When America declared independence and explained that “all men are created equal,” we left out better half of our people. Not only were women prohibited from voting, they had nearly no legal rights. However, suffragists and women rights’ activists drew upon the principles of equality, unalienable rights, and the Social Compact to point out that unless women were enfranchised and granted equal civil and political rights, that the idea of equality would be mockery.

After decades of struggle, the 19th Amendment was adopted on August 26, 1920. Although the struggle for gender equality has not yet ended, there have been tremendous strides across the economic, political, and cultural arenas.

Unfortunately, the struggle for gender equality has hardly begun in other areas of the world – such as Saudi Arabia and Sudan (where a women was recently imprisoned for wearing pants, and others are lashed for the same offense). Hopefully America’s beacon of light will enlighten the darker realms of the world.

For more on our First Principles and Patriot Week, visit http://www.patriotweek.com/  and http://www.americassurvivalguide.com/.

Patriot Week Continues - the Social Compact and Washington

Yesterday Patriot Week recognized the invaluable contribution of George Washington in American history. Declared the “greatest man of the age” by his nemesis, King George III, today Washington is mostly honored for his role as military commander of the American forces in the Revolutionary War and for being our first President.

However, he also presided over the Constitutional Convention, which was just as an important to our future. His mere presence gave the Convention much needed legitimacy, and his support of the Convention’s work was critical to its ratification. Washington’s role was vital to establishing a true Social Compact between the people and the government – in which for the first time in history a free people determined the outline of their government and established a written Constitution that would bind the government and the people.

Accordingly, Patriot Week also celebrated the act by which Congress forwarded the Constitution to the states for ratification, as well as the current American flag (which signifies the continuation of the Social Compact.

For more, visit http://www.patriotweek.com/ http://www.americassurvivalguide.com/.

Inaugural Patriot Week

This weeks mark the inaugural celebration of Patriot Week.  Anchored by the key dates of September 11 and September 17 (the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution - dubbed Constitution Day), the week celebrates what makes America great.  Each day is dedicated to a founding First Principle (revolution, the rule of law, equality, the social compact, unalienable rights and limited government), certain historical documents embodying those First Principles), founding fathers and other major historical figures that have helped America live up to those First Principles, and certain historical flags that are representative of those principles. 

Over 20 participants, including elementary, middle, and high schools, goverment agencies (the Michigan State Senate, Oakland County Circuit Court, Oakland County Commissioners, Bloomfield Township), colleges and universities (Cooley Law School, Oakland University, the University of Michigan), and others are participating.

To learn more, visit http://www.patriotweek.com/.

Do Not Let History Pass You By

In these most unsettling of times, there is a temptation to sit back and let the course of history pass us by. But then you will regret it. The bard of all time, Mr. Shakespeare, presented us how bitter it might be in his famous St. Crispin’s Day speech in Henry V:


"We few, we happy few,
We band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother . . .
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day."

Don't let history pass you by, and regret you did not join the battles engaged today.

Boris Yeltsin and the Spirit of Liberty

Photo source: minnesota.publicradio.org

On August 20, 1991 Boris Yeltsin stood on the turret of a tank and made history.  In June of that year, he had been elected as the Russia's president in the first free election in Russian history. 

When the old guard of the totalitarian and communist Soviet Union realized that they were losing their grip on power, they reacted by trying to suffocate the nascent democratic government in Russia.  Yeltsin would have none of it, climbed on the tank, and made a booming speech in defense of liberty.  The old guard cracked, and soon would the Soviet Union.

Thankfully Americans are not facing down tanks in the streets.  But that does not mean we can't learn from Yeltsin.  We need to be vigilant too. For far too long Americans have been complacent about the need to defend their liberties and to be engaged in the political process.  Although we may not need to climb a tank, we ought to step up to defend our freedom - we will have no one to blame but ourselves it slips from our grasp.

For more on the importance of defending our liberty, visit AmericasSurvivalGuide.com.

Protests are American - Despite What Pelosi Thinks

The Associated Press reported today that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland have complained about Americans loudly protesting at town meetings organized by congressmen during their summer recess. In particular, they have asserted that the protestors are "simply un-American."

Putting aside the substance of the health care debate, perhaps the Speaker and the Majority Leader ought to refresh themselves on the First Amendment to the Constitution, which states that "Congress shall pass no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech . . . or the right to peacefully assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Just in case they become upset about this post, they should also note that the First Amendment also prohibits abridgment of the freedom of press.

In any event, the Founding Fathers would likely be appalled by the notion that vigorous protests - yes, even those that are rude, obnoxious, and interfere with the orchestrated plans of government officials - is "un-American." Founding Fathers Samuel Adams, John Adams, Joseph Warren, and others of the Boston resistance did much more than disrupt a meeting or two.

Indeed, the Founders fought against British encroachments of the unalienable rights of the people, and explained in the Declaration of Independence that resistance to oppression was not only a right, but a duty, of Americans.

For more on our Founding First Principles and unalienable rights, see www.AmericasSurvivalGuide.com.