The only statement of conservative principles we need
In advance of the annual CPAC gathering this week, many groups are coming out with new “statements” of conservative principles and legislative agendas.
There’s the “Contract from America” from the Tea Party Patriots.
And the “Mount Vernon” statement from various leaders of the Right.
All well and good, but if the signers of all these new documents support political candidates who brazenly undermine the grand principles they put forth, what’s the point?
Anyway, isn’t the document featured here the only statement of guiding principles we need:
(Photoshop: W.E. Messamore)
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“Anyway, isn’t the document featured here the only statement of guiding principles we need?”
NO.
Excellent document to stand above all others oyu mention, but I use a classical music analogy:
Variations on a Theme.
Agreed, one does not want to become “diverted,” but I see these other works moreso as a confirmation and reinforcement of the brilliance of the U.S. Constitution.
How about this one, Michelle:
No (and I’m not a truther or a birther, though I agree with your current post and am grateful for your voice on the public debate).
I am hopeful that the American public is finally not only getting off their collective rears and standing up for the Constitution but that being actively involved becomes the “norm” rather than the “exception” from this day forward …
We need to stop having “career” politicians and return to “citizen representation” …
We need to closely monitor our elected officials, hold them responsible for their actions and “fire” them if they don’t represent the wishes of the people that “hired” them …
We need to see a lot more “one term” representatives and senators to eliminate the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups …
If they won’t give us “Term Limits” then we must impose those limits at the polls …
Just heard two talking heads on “Morning Joe” say that the public is mad at everyone and that the Democrats are receiving all the blame because they are in power. I don’t think these people get it yet. I think Bayh gets it as do the other flat leavers. Maybe it is just that noone has the nerve to say it out loud. “The Emperor has no clothes!!!!”
I like W. but, this is a much better reminder.
Well said! I recently attended a precinct meeting where the Mayor of Chandler openly backed John McCain, and the Republican Women’s group of Chandler had a guest speaker who was a lobbyist who supported medica marijuana, (her mom was a city council member…nepotism anyone?) It sickens me to see the republican party so full of scum and that’s why conservatives who would uphold the Constitution need to infiltrate these gatherings and make them ours. We can’t make a third party, but we can take back the republican party because the moderates because they are all pu$$ies anyway.
Yup! This and the Bible cannot be improved upon. The arrogance of the poinyoins who think they can.
I agree completely MM. All this rhetoric is exactly what America DOESN’T need. They need plain spoken truths that don’t come from talking points.
The ‘Tea Party’ movement really isn’t defined. Anyone can go to an election official and attempt to register as a ‘tea party’ candidate. Most people like ‘tea party’ because they project their own desires onto what they think ‘tea party’ is and that’s what they like about it. The most important thing about the ‘tea party’ is that it isn’t either R or D.
All this talk of ‘banning’ people from the party because of their thoughts is getting scary. It makes me think the movement is about to implode from infighting (or more likely split into a thousand points of light).
It’s like there is a ‘purity test’ for the non-existent tea party for no reason. I guess people think the best way to solidify a movement is to declare people banned from that movement.
Basically if you believe that government is as often the problem as the solution, you are in. If you believe that it’s not the government’s job to save you from failure, you are in. If you believe in personal responsibility and limited government, you are in.
Birthers, Truthers, Abortion Rights, Gay Marriage, Legalization, anti-capital punishment, anti foreign entanglements (a la George Washington), how you stand on any of those issues shouldn’t matter.
But apparently to Hot Air, if you think Ron Paul has done a good job of recommending limited government, you don’t belong to the ‘tea party’. Ron Paul doesn’t need the ‘tea party’, he has plenty of people who appreciate his limited government stance and wish others would be just like him.
If this tea party wants to survive, it needs to stay as simple as possible and not start kicking people out because you disagree with them. But condemning is the new favorite American past-time which is why I think the ‘tea party’ as a single entity is destined to fail miserably as people try to grab and define it.
The harder they grab to define, the worse off the ‘tea party’ will be.
This is well overdue. Heritage Foundation’s Leadership for America has
Ten Transformational Initiatives – good reading too.
Does anyone really care what the Constitution says anymore? Article II sec.1, clearly states that the President must be a “natural born citizen”. Those words have a specific meaning, born in this country by two citizen parents. The men who wrote that document chose their words carefully, they specifically rejected native born as being insufficient.
The current occupant of the office in ineligible by his own admission, his father was a foreign national.
And no one cares…………………..
Not one of our elected representatives, not one Supreme Court Justice.
In typical fashion, much of the American populace was led around by the nose, listening to the propaganda spewed during the elections. They cast their ballots based upon the tripe served up without much thought to the aftermath.
Well, my hat is off to the people who are waking up to discover that “Hope and Change” may sound dreamy but its practical implementation is nightmarish. The time is now to keep America as the world’s leader and something other true democracies can aspire to.
Anyway, isn’t the document featured here the only statement of guiding principles we need:
No.
The Constitution does not speak to morality and the conduct of the human condition, which is fraught with peril and self interest.
Yes, as a secular document the Constitution serves as an excellant guiding principle. However, there must also be a guiding principle that speaks to our morality, providing us with other elements that make us a better people and country.
I can’t believe I said that, but the answer is, ‘No, the Constitution is not the only guiding principle we need. We need more.’
Yes, and I would add our Pledge of Allegiance. I like the part “Liberty and Justice for all”.
These groups and individuals are bypassing the clear words of the Constitution to create their own re-worded little constitutions. The purpose of their statements and documents are to bring attention to themselves. How many churches out there have broken away and new ones started, many of them barely teaching from the Bible. They try to bring their own messages, create their own preacher stars, collect power and money. These political groups and individuals could NOT tell you 1/5th of the contents in the Constitution! Use the original document. It explains everything. Need more information? Then read about the founding fathers, their writings and debates. Michelle has an excellent point.
Hi zyzzyg!
We need more, like the Bible?
My statement of conservative principles is this: The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Period.
The Bible worked for us, and is a fine choice, though it has also been an abusive tool. The point remains, secularism alone is not enough and more is needed.
See #11
The Constitution is dead.
The “living” Constitution is so much easier, it means whatever we say it means at the time.
zyzzyg said:
No we do not need more – if you mean in the way of laws, we have enough of those that if each page of those laws were set end to end – that would stretch to Pluto. In fact I read somewhere that there is not a single day that goes by that every single American is breaking some law that they actually know nothing about. Having read the Constitution, that piece of paper spells out all that is needed to guide this country.
You have an excellent point there too AmericaFirst. Reading the papers-Federalist & Anti-Federalist gives an honest insight into the Constitution and gives lie to the Evolving Standards crap so prevalent in the Progressive camp.
Second Amendment: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,
the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
Out of no where the Progressives and prohibitionist are telling us that militia means the National Guard.
George Washington: “A free people ought to be armed.” (Jan 14 1790, Boston Independent Chronicle.)
George Mason: “I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.” (Elliott, Debates, 425-426)
WHAT THE FOUNDING FATHERS THOUGHT ABOUT
“GUN CONTROL”
The polymorphic Republican life forms still don’t get it. It’s not what those weasels say that bothers us, it’s what they do. They don’t stand for anything so we would like them to do the right thing and just go away. We’ve got work to do.
I agree, the ultimate insult to the Constitution has occured and those who overtly object are “crazy”.
I think we are done.
Christianity defines the individual; individuals defined by Christianity wrote the Constitution (in a way that non-Christians never could). That said, religion remains an individual choice under the Constitution. Anyone that argues that we need any additional documents to run a country…other than the Constitution…is defining themselves as non-conservative.
Just as Hobbes was terrified of the English Bible, which allowed everyone their own personal and frequently error-prone interpretation of scripture, we should all be suspect of anyone, left or right, who thinks that there there are clarifications that need to be made to the Constitution, or that it only works in concert with their own religious documents.
A society functions within an ethos dictated by common understanding and by its founding principles. There is none finer than our Constitution, which, if assiduously followed, begets the most ethical and principled human freedom the world has ever known. We far surpass ancient Athens in full enfranchisement of our freedom, and we continue to provide a beacon of freedom and human conscience that beguiles and bedevils the rest of the planet.
Lighthearted analogy: Just like a good tennis game, always play against someone better than you and you’ll eventually get better.
All this fighting back against this administration’s policies is making us stronger.
The sad part is that it means whatever the 9 members of the Supreme Court say it means and the constructionists are hanging on by a thread.
Agreed completely. But I’m sure you don’t want Washington DC (say, a far right protestant think tank, or the Pope via one of his followers, or perhaps CAIR) administering your/our morality. It would be much better to be able to choose this day whom you will serve, right?
Agreed again. Man does not live by bread (or government, or any other physical thing) alone…. But courtesy of the only statement of conservative (governing) principles we need for the limited government which has been established in Washington DC:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”
So you really can’t be looking to the federal government for your religion. Or would you rather that the DC crowd dictate (say) Christianity for all, so as to “change” men’s hearts that way?
Courtesy of Wikipedia:
“Christianity eventually won support from Constantine I and in 391 it became the state religion under Theodosius I, to the exclusion of all other cults…. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 as Romulus Augustus was forced to abdicate by Odoacer.”
I would guess that not only did Rome take a hit from that, but Christianity suffered too… Acts 1:6-11. Yes, we want and pray for the Kingdom to come (it’s already in our midst, Luke 17:20,21), but I think it’s clear it will not be coming the way the pre-Pentecost disciples (and Constantine) had hoped, at least not as dictated by man’s timing, or man’s politicking.
Ok, dumb question. Couldn’t the National Guard be considered professional soldiers???
“The eyes of our citizens are not sufficiently open to the true cause of our distress. They ascribe them to everything but their true cause, the banking system; a system which if it could do good in any form is yet so certain of leading to abuse as to be utterly incompatible with the public safety and prosperity. The Central Bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition. The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill [chartering the first Bank of the United States] have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially enumerated.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution – taking from the Federal government their power of borrowing (from privately-owned corporate banks).”
- Thomas Jefferson
“We are undone, my dear sir, if legislation is still permitted which makes our money, much or little, real or imaginary, as the moneyed interests shall choose to make it.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“We, the People, are the rightful masters of both the Congress and the Courts. Not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who have perverted it.”
- Abraham Lincoln
I still think Mrs. Malkin was a little hard on GWB. Heaven knows he made mistakes, but he meant well, and tried his best, as he understood it, for this country. I’m not excusing amnesty or the Medicare Prescription entitlement, he made mistakes, but he is, after all, only human.
Our current Oval Office occupant, I am not at all sure he even loves the United States, and he has expressed his dissaproval of a “Constitution of Negative Liberties” that protects citizens from over-reaching government, and would prefer instead a guarantee of “positive liberties”, like a “right” to free housing and free medical care paid for by the productive members of society.
Now all we need is a Congress who can read and understand it rather than producing 2000 page bills no one including them can read or understand…
As they are a subset of the Federal Government- yes.
Pre-Pentecost?
Didn’t the Pentecost happen 50 days after Pascal Sunday, per Christian theology?
There were only 7 weeks between the Resurrection and Pentecost to be a Pre-Pentecostal Christian.
BTW, there was a Jewish religious festival happening, that drew pilgrims from all around the Mediterranean, such that when the Holy Spirit gave the gift of tongues to the disciples gathered, people who spoke many different native languages could hear the (mostly) Galilean disciples speak in their own native tongue.
BTW, even when I lived as a pagan, I opposed abortion because it denied one of the basic liberties guaranteed by the document that preceded the Constitution, and allowed the Constitution to exist, the Declaration of Independence. I can’t be certain human life exists at conception, but in matters of life and death, I think it is best to always err on the side of life.
BTW, “Easter” is a Germanic word of pagan origin, I know it’ll never gain acceptance in the US, but the Romantic languages use of a word similar to “Pascal” better represents Jesus as the Lamb of God, in Christian theology, the new Passover.
You’re kidding, right?
I said exactly what I meant.
You have created a strawman argument to knock it down. No. No. Nope. I was not speaking about laws.
The poster in #16 got it. Why do you want to take a tangent, mis-characterize, and mis-represent what was actually said?
The Constitution is a ‘guiding principle’ for secular activity, and . . . we need a ‘guiding principle’ for morality. What don’t you understand about that?
I will agree that we have plenty of laws that very well may reach to Pluto and back again.
Ed Mahmoud abu al-Kahoul, the “pre-Pentecost” qualifier was supposed to be referring to Acts 1:6-11 where the disciples had questions for the risen Lord about the coming Kingdom. (And yes, you are right about the 50 days.)
In one of my Sunday School classes, we were studying the history of Acts, and the following spread of Christianity.
The fall of the Roman Empire pushed Christians out into the rest of the world, and greatly increased the spread of Christianity over a much shorter time.
Without the Fall, Christianity wouldn’t have spread nearly as fast. Something to think about…
It’s worse than that. Those who overtly demand a strict adherence to it are also condemned as crazy.
People who demand that America first actually meant that American lives, prosperity and freedoms should be the only goal of the country. I think the “American exceptionalism” doctrine is a proven and absolute failure. We should be taking care of domestic problems.
Bush’s wild spending wasn’t the primary issue that drove people to Obama.
If you want to mess with them a little, have them read the liberal Illinois constitution, where militia is clearly defined as all able-bodied citizens.
“The Constitution is a ‘guiding principle’ for secular activity, and . . . we need a ‘guiding principle’ for morality. What don’t you understand about that?”
Well, maybe I am missing your point but, Knowing the difference between right and wrong in any civilized society is a starter and also Ethics.
MM, Your photoshop billboard should not be a photoshop, and be actually put up as you show it…all else is just rhetorical flourishes.
I think it’s helpful to have a concise statement of guiding principles based on the foundational documents. Much of the present chaos stems from the misunderstanding and misapplication of the Declaration and Constitution – and the intent of the authors. Thad McCotter’s tenets reflect the intent well:
1. Our liberty is from God, not the government.
2. Our sovereignty is in our souls, not the soil.
3. Our security is in strength, not surrender.
4. Prosperity is from the private sector, not the public sector.
5. Our truths are self evident, not relative.
If the GOP would hold this line they could regain control of Congress this year. Don’t hold your breath.
Thank you for meeting me and the poster of #16 half way.
Right, wrong and ethics are not that far from morality.
Yeah, you got the point.
They are also trying to make them selves “hip”.
CPAC Organizers Try to Turn Up Hip Quotient With Video Games, Rap
Stuck. On. Stupid.
Anything that promotes, aherance to the constitution,less government regulation of peoples lives, lower taxes, and more transparency is a good thing.
But the Tea Party Patriots choose your top ten issues list does not have “secure our borders,enforce our immigration laws, and eliminate magnets for illegal immigration.” as a choice.
That one is definately in my top ten issues that need to be addressed.
Speaking of the Constitution, the average elementary student in the middle to late 19th century knew more about the Constitution than the average adult today.
Follow the links and read the catechism. I also recommend you read the comments in the post, as it relates to what Virginia Patriot and BOB said above.
A person who is a subject of some other country is not eligible to hold office under our Constitution.
Both the age requirement and the citizenship requirement increase from Representative to Senator and again from Senator to President and Vice-President.
In order to be a member of the House of Representatives, you must have been a U.S. citizen (and not a citizen or subject of a foreign country) for at least 7 years.
In order to be a Senator, you must have been a U.S. citizen (and not a citizen or subject of a foreign country) for at least 9 years.
In order to be President or Vice-President, you must have been a U.S. citizen (and not a citizen or subject of a foreign country) since birth.
It’s a matter of national security. The Commander-in-Chief of our military must never be someone who has ever been a subject of a foreign country.
Obama’s own “Fight the Smears” web site admitted he had “Kenyan citizenship” preceeded by his British subjecthood!
That disqualifies him from being eligible to hold the office of President and Commander in Chief.
RedPill#49
Simply for the fact ‘Bambi refuses to allow any documents be released has further stoked the conspiracy theories.
I don’t know that much about the whole issue, but it does make me mad as hades when a prez refuses to provide the same documents I do every day without question…whether it’s a driver license, passport or a mere job. He is going to have the slimmest library evah.
Mr. Beck:
You will never guess what I heard on the Jon-David Wells program on my drive home today. J.D. played a clip from an interview you conducted in February 2009 with the Jersey Girls. It was very interesting. It was amazing to hear you say the same things that Debra Medina said to you last week! That’s right, you were saying what she said to you last week! It begs the question why have you now changed your tune? Further why have you taken to slandering Debra Medina because of what she said on your radio show? You espoused the exact same concerns she did?
Why Glenn? Why are you such a staunch supporter of Sarah Palin who is campaigning in Texas for the corrupt RINO Rick Perry? Why did you slander Ms. Medina after saying the same things she said on your show? I think you need to beg Ms. Medina to come back on your show, and you have a lot of explaining to do to her.
Paul Surratt
Our friend Glenn Beck says, “question with boldness”….but if you question why Obama hides everything in his past that is possible to hide, you are “crazy”.
Beck, O’Reilly, and pretty much every other talking-head, conservative or otherwise, treat this stange behavior by Obama as if it didn’t exist, while insulting those who do “question with boldness”.
It’s a very strange world we live it.
This is from CNN, a classic MSM, devoted to Obama and the left. Now, if I was Obama, I would figure that the country isn’t happy with me.
Who is John Galt? … Show me someone who is not working toward his own long term self interest and I’ll show you someone who is unhappy, who is unsuccessful, and who will eventually lose interest or go insane. Yes, morality is important. But you can’t sell morality to anyone unless you can convince them that it is in their long term self interest to be moral.
The Constitution will only work with a moral people. But it is not the job of government to define morality for the people. It’s the people’s job to define morality for the government. And the constitution works just fine for that. The government’s job is to protect our rights and liberty so we are free to seek our moral code from whatever church or association we deem proper.
You can go to the Church of Global Warming, the Church of Gaia, the Church of Holy Diversity, the Church of Social Justice and Community Organizing, or wherever place you choose. Just don’t use the government to force your church down the throats of everyone else. If you can’t persuade me to your beliefs, you have no right to use the government to force them upon me even if you believe it would be good for me.
This sums up the main problem I have with today’s liberals/progressives. They seek to enlarge the role of government to include the enforcement of their moral code on everyone else. The whole idea is insane because their moral code is built upon shifting sand. It is relative, capricious, and never based on proven science but on the false consensus of whatever fad is currently popular.
Obama has already admitted (via his campaign’s Fight The Smears web site) that his “birth narrative” (born in Hawaii on Aug. 4,1961 to Barack Obama Sr.) made him “a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948″.
There is no conspiracy involved in recognizing that Obama’s own web site admitted he was a British subject at birth.
The only way Obama could qualify as a natural born citizen of the United States is if he was born on U.S. soil to two U.S. Citizen parents. But for that to be true, then his “birth narrative” is a lie, and his “Certification of Live Birth” is a forgery. If Obama actually were born on U.S. soil to two U.S. Citizen parents, he would be eligible under Article II Section 1, but he would at the same time be disqualified under Article II Section 4 because he would be guilty of the high crimes of perjury and forgery, and should be summarily impeached by the House and tried by the Senate.
Red Pill… there are so many uncertainies about Obama’s past, including his eligibilty…and these are lies that can easily be proven as such, that it boggles the mind that both “conservative” media oulets and, of course, the Obama echo outlets, refuse to discuss any of it. Sunlight will reveal the truth, and open discussion is a friend of the truth.
Keep them in the dark and quiet by whatever means is required is the name of the game, while the charade goes on.
BOB:
What is truly astonishing is the way they have been able to co-opt everyone to do their bidding in joining in the Alinsky tactic of ridiculing ANYONE who dares “question with boldness” the eligibilty of The One.
And that includes Glenn Beck, he suggeted we do our homework, I did and came to the conclusion that Obama is ineligible, now Beck calls me names for “questioning with boldness” and “holding to the truth”.
If there is a conspiracy, I’d say it is on the side of those who wish to hide the truth about Obama, not those who question why American citizens have no standing to know the truth about the man masquerading as our President.
We only know what he wants us to know about him, everything else has been sealed, destroyed, lost or scrubbed.
Virginia Patriot…send Beck, O’Reilly, Hannity and the others an e-mail saying basically what you said in your last post. I send them often. I doubt my e-mails get anywhere near being actually read by them…and for sure they aren’t going to research the issue, but I send them anyway.
Makes me feel a tiny bit better……
+100 Excellent!
This needs to be made into print, TV, radio and internet ads!
As an antifederalist, the constitution is a worthless document. What makes a piece of paper give me freedoms? It entrust freedom into a paper is more like idol worship. The LORD does NOT enshrine freedom in paper; He give it freely or takes it freely with a breath. Never enshrine “rocks and sticks” to protect freedom.