Delve into this week’s must-read articles:

“An Unconstitutional Killing: Obama’s Killing of Awlaki Violates American Principles” by Ron Paul

“Awlaki was a U.S. citizen. Under our Constitution, American citizens, even those living abroad, must be charged with a crime before being sentenced.”

Makes you wonder how, exactly, Obama’s foreign policy differs from Bush’s and how in the world he ever won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Alexander Hamilton, in the Federalist Papers warned of this precise thing:

“Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.”

“The Forever Recession (and the Coming Revolution)” by Seth Godin

“Job creation is a false idol. The future is about gigs and assets and art and an ever-shifting series of partnerships and projects. It will change the fabric of our society along the way. No one is demanding that we like the change, but the sooner we see it and set out to become an irreplaceable linchpin, the faster the pain will fade, as we get down to the work that needs to be (and now can be) done.”

“The Lost Decade?” by David Brooks

“…the ideologues who dominate the political conversation are unable to think in holistic, emergent ways. They pick out the one factor that best conforms to their preformed prejudices and, like blind men grabbing a piece of the elephant, they persuade themselves they understand the whole thing.”

I’m a little late finding out about Hillsdale College’s “Introduction to the Constitution” lecture series, but fortunately all classes are recorded so you can catch up.

Register now and you can snag the recordings of the past two classes, and catch the remaining three classes.

Click here for a course schedule.

Here’s a brief intro to the course from Hillsdale president Dr. Larry Arnn:

Included in what we will discuss is:

• What the framers of the Constitution understood about the document they were writing, especially its fundamental principles true of human beings at all times and in all places;
• Why the fundamental features of the American Constitution are representation and separation of powers;
• Why the key to a republican form of government is the vibrancy, size and independence of this private society.

This program will serve as the basis for future educational programs on Constitution and related topics, including a more complete Online Constitution Class, of which this series will serve as a basis. We will be asking for your participation and feedback along the way to help us improve our efforts.

If you have not already, please take a few minutes to register for this program, the Constitution Day Celebration and the “Introduction to the Constitution” series. And please share this information with others – your friends, family, and colleagues who, like you, understand the vital need for restoring an understanding and love of the Constitution in our great nation.

Click Here to Register Now

Tomorrow marks the 224th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.

A study titled “How Well Do Americans Understand the Constitution,” which was released today by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, showcases how little most Americans know about our system of government.

A few highlights:

• Just 38% of the poll’s respondents can name all three branches of the U.S. government (executive, legislative and judicial). One-third are unable to correctly name any of the branches.

• 15% correctly say John Roberts is chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, but almost twice as many respondents (27%) correctly named Randy Jackson as a judge on TV’s American Idol.

• A majority of people (55%) incorrectly believe the Constitution was signed in 1776. That’s the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Constitution was signed Sept. 17, 1787.

That data is appalling.

But what concerns me more is the following two ironic comments about it from people who should know better:

In this Philadelphia Inquirer column about the survey, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote:

“These failings threaten the future of our democracy. If we don’t know what makes this country special and worth saving, how will we know how to safeguard its promise of freedom and opportunity?”

Well, Sandra, one of the things that makes this country special and worth saving is that it’s not a democracy.

We’re a constitutional republic — a distinction that matters profoundly, as I detail in chapter 18 of my book, Uncommon Sense.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC), said,

“Since knowing how democracy works predicts civic participation and support for protecting our system of government, these results are worrisome. The nation should be troubled by the extent to which civic education is downplayed in its schools.”

Yes, Kathleen, we should be very troubled by the lack of understanding regarding our forms of government — starting with the lack of understanding regarding the differences between republics and democracies.

Suppose you had the power to change five things to make America better and more free. What would those five things be?

Your answers can range from government and politics to media and culture, and everything in between.

My Answers:

1. 1. Repeal the 16th Amendment. (This would eliminate the IRS and reinstitute a much-needed check on the federal government.)
2. Repeal the 17th Amendment. (This would reverse the trend toward destructive democratic socialism by taking power from the federal government and giving more to the states, where it belongs.)
3. Repeal the Federal Reserve Act. (To prevent the federal government from robbing the people through inflation.)
4. Get off foreign oil by investing in renewable energy. (This would do more to solve terrorism than anything else. Not to mention the environmental impact.)
5. Revive private and public virtue through classical liberal education. (This would significantly reduce dependency, apathy, and degeneracy, all of which are killing our Republic.)

What are your top 5?

The following is my updated version of The Declaration of Independence. It adds and highlights political philosophy of the Founders that was a given to them, but has been lost over time.

In the course of human events, it has become necessary for our People to resurrect the Political Bands once established through Divine Inspiration, because we the People failed in our Duties to God and our fellowman, and assumed among the powers of earth rights without understanding corresponding Duties, and have believed that we were entitled to the fruits of another man’s labor, and have ignored the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.

Now, a decent respect for Those Who Have Gone Before requires that we Repent and repair our failing Union.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created Equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain Unalienable Rights that require the fulfillment of corresponding Duties and Responsibilities, that among these are Life, Liberty, Property, and the Pursuit of Happiness — that to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles and organizing its powers in such Form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and Happiness.

We also recognize that whenever any people fail in their Duties as Citizens and Children of God, it is the Responsibility of the People to alter themselves or face the danger of being abolished, and to revive, embrace, and strictly adhere to those Eternal Principles upon which all Happiness is based.

Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.

Yet while good Constitutional Forms are necessary, the People must continually reform their minds and hearts if the proper Forms are to endure. Government Forms are only as effective as the People are Virtuous and Accountable to their Creator.

But when a long train of neglect and apathy by the People, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to increase among the People a false sense of Security at the cost of true Freedom, and a blatant and destructive disregard for the Principles of Virtue and Liberty, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such self-inflicted abuses and to Repent. Such is now the Responsibility of this People to resurrect the Principles of Liberty upon which our Nation was based and to conform our lives to them.

We, therefore, the People of the United States of America, in Humility and a spirit of Dedication, do solemnly Publish and Declare, that we are DEPENDENT UPON GOD if we wish to remain Free and prosperous, and to shine the Beacon of Liberty to our Prosperity and to the world. To this end we pledge our Lives, our Liberty, and our Sacred Honor.

I was once teaching a class on the Constitution where I witnessed a sad phenomenon.

To give context, this was a room full of people wholly dedicated to the cause of liberty—the people who “get it.”

I asked the class, “How many of you agree with William Gladstone‘s quote that the Constitution is ‘…the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the mind and purpose of man’?”

Every attendee raised their hand. I told them to keep their hands raised, then asked, “How many of you have actually read it?” A few hands dropped.

“Of you who have actually read it from beginning to end,” I continued, “how many have read it within the last six months?”

Still more hands dropped. I persisted. “Of those who still have their hands raised, how many of you can tell us what Article III talks about?”

More hands dropped. By this time only about half of the room had their hands raised.

By the time I asked who knew what habeas corpus means and what bills of attainder are, not a single person in the room had their hand raised.

Mind you, these are the same people who had just said that they agreed with Gladstone’s quote, yet very few of them could answer the most basic questions about the Constitution.

What would you guess is the most recurring criticism I’ve received from my readers? Contrary to what you might think, it’s not from people who take polar opposite positions from my views.

It’s from freedom-loving patriots who believe my recommended action steps are “benign.” For example, they tell me that reading classics will do little to solve our looming problems.

I respect these devoted people. And I have a different perspective on what needs to happen for our Republic to be restored.

America is primed for a French Revolution scenario. To take it even further, we exhibit many of the qualities of German civilization prior to World War II. We’re a highly-trained, yet poorly-educated populace. We’ve lost our understanding of true education.

Furthermore, we have staggering discrepancies in wealth distribution. We’re headed toward a lot of chaos and pain.

Plainly put, we don’t have enough widespread education to sustain an anger-driven revolution. The People trying to fight Washington and other power interests right now is like replacing a strip club with a flea market.

“Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.” -Horace

There’s no use in fighting unless we have quality replacement options. It’s not enough to just be mad; we must also be wise. And turning inward is the beginning of wisdom.

Confucius said it best in his classic essay The Great Learning:

“The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons.

“Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

“Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated.

“Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.”

Not only does turning inward lead to wisdom, but it also leads to power. This is my core message: Fixing ourselves as individuals is what fixes the world.

If this sounds “benign” to you, I probably can’t convince you otherwise. But I would point out that the most influential leaders, from Jesus Christ to Gandhi, have taken this approach. And they seemed to have done a pretty good job of improving the world.

There are others who say, “Yeah, we get it. But what do we actually do about it?” To those I humbly repeat, “Continue working on yourself and your education.”

If our education were deep and broad enough we wouldn’t have to ask that question.

I accept that this message may disappoint many. It may seem too simplistic. It may seem to be too little, too late. To those familiar with my writing, I may sound like a broken record.

But it’s the light that animates everything that I do and everything I aspire to. It’s the spiritual beating of my heart, the passion blood flowing through my veins, the mission muscles that give me strength to endure.

I’m fed up with the Federal Reserve. But I also don’t have a complete grasp on how our monetary system should operate in the 21st Century, nor do I have a solid plan for making a transition.

So I don’t march on Washington to scream at the Federal Reserve; I stay at home and study everything I can find on monetary policy.

I’m sick and tired of weaseling, compromising, ignorant, money-and-power-grubbing politicians. So I prepare myself to be a political leader with integrity, knowledge and wisdom.

I’m dismayed by the decay of the family. But I’m further dismayed by the times when I’m angry and impatient with my wife and children. So I focus my dismay on doing all I can to improve as a husband and father.

This is what I stand for. This is the message you’ll hear for as long as I have breath.

And when you see me march on Washington, it won’t be because I’m “mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” It will be because I actually have real, sustainable solutions and the ability to carry them out.

Until then, I’m working on myself. Care to join me?

America faces serious economic challenges. We all know that socialism means to take from the rich to give to the poor.

But our nation is faced with a more complex problem than this customary type of wealth redistribution. Our problem is what I refer to as reverse socialism. If we wish our nation to be free for future generations then We the People must fix this problem.

Free enterprise is, among other things, a legal structure that treats all individuals and business entities equally before the law. The proper role of a free enterprise-promoting government is to simply protect unalienable rights — not to favor one man over another through benefits and entitlements.

Our national political debate has become convoluted between two sides with equally flawed premises and goals.

The liberals want social programs to benefit the poor, while most mainstream conservatives want the government to serve and protect “big” business, even if it means to favor a large corporation over a small start-up.

What neither side seems to recognize is that both are equally as dangerous and detrimental to freedom and prosperity. They both lead to the exact same result, and that is the concentration of too much power in the hands of too few.

Favoring the “Haves”

Most people who believe that wealth redistribution programs are wrong see only the government taking from the “haves” to give to the “have-nots.”

But what has been lost in the shuffle of “progressive” social policy is the fact that our legal structure has also has evolved into favoring those with capital over those with little or none.

Those who recognize the problem of taxing the wealthy to give to the poor seem to be virtually unaware of the dangers of favoring large corporations over small businesses.

Here are two examples of this reverse socialism:

1) In Cedar City, Utah, when Wal-Mart decided that they wanted to open a store here, the city council waived most of the fees and gave them about 5 acres of land. But the individual citizen who wishes to open a small retail store is subject to all of the mandated regulation and fees, and a land grant to them wouldn’t even be considered.

2) A friend of mine is an owner/operator of his own tractor-trailer. He told me that the biggest trucking companies in the country pay almost half as much for fuel as do the small companies or individual truckers because the government gives discounts to the large companies.

Whether you take from the rich to give to the poor, or if you favor the rich over the poor, the effect is the same. In both scenarios you wind up with an unnatural and inequitable economic system with the majority of the wealth concentrated in the hands of a few people.

Here are some statistics to illustrate the state of the American economic system:

1. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2001 the bottom quarter of families in the United States had zero net worth.
2. The bottom 90% of families had less than 20% of the net wealth, and the top 10% owned 80.7% of all the net wealth.
3. Federal Reserve research in 1995 found that the wealth of the top one percent of Americans was greater than that of the bottom 95% and that the net worth of the top one percent was 2.4 times the combined wealth of the poorest 80%.

It hasn’t always been this way. In 1800, census information showed that over 90% of our population were owners of the means of production — mostly small business owners and farmers. In 1900 that statistic was the same — over 90% of us were owners. In 2000, those numbers were exactly reversed — less than 10% of our population are now owners.

Economic power in many cases equates political power. So what we have arrived at is precisely the same thing that has caused all nations throughout history to fall, and that is too much power in the hands of too few.

Aristotle wrote that, “The only stable state is the one in which all men are treated equally before the law.” Our nation is unstable because our forms of law have been corrupted.

The Solutions

The first step to solve the problem of these large discrepancies in wealth distribution is to identify the cause of the inequity. The cause is two-fold, but both aspects of the cause spring from the same root.

One reason is that the majority of our citizens have bought into the dependence model of employeeship and government entitlements.

The other cause is that we have changed the forms of our Constitution to allow for illegitimate wealth redistribution. This redistribution is allowed by our legal structure in two ways: Taxing the rich to give to the poor, and also by favoring those with capital over those with little or none.

Both of these causes spring from the same root, and that is that we as individual citizens have failed to take personal responsibility both in our individual financial lives and in our public duty to maintain a strong and free Democratic Republic.

Identifying the cause of the problem now leads us to the solution. First of all, we as individuals must take the responsibility to start being a “have,” as opposed to a “have-not.”

Taking from the rich and distributing down will simply mean that we all lose, because no wealth is being created; it simply leads to an impoverished mediocrity.

But if the 80% of us that were mentioned in those Census Bureau statistics would simply create wealth from the bottom up, then everyone rises together.

Those of us who have little capital must employ our mental resources to create wealth. The problem of economic inequity can only be solved from the bottom up — not the top down.

There is one other thing that must be fixed in our political structure if we wish America to remain free. We must renovate our Constitutional forms so that our legal structure will again — as it was created by the Founders in the original Constitution — treat all individuals and entities equally before the law.

It is an improper and dangerous use of government to take from one person to give to another, or to favor one business over another.

The proper role of government is to treat everyone equally in the defense of their unalienable rights. When the government steps out of that realm it concentrates too much power in the hands of too few.

Conclusion

We are at a critical point in our nation’s history. History has shown repeatedly that the 200-year mark is where nations must either reinvent and reform themselves, or fall because of their inability to check and balance power.

Our chance for an American renaissance is now or never, and We the People have the inescapable responsibility for that rebirth.

We must all, individually, create our own financial freedom and become owners of the means of production. And we must educate ourselves to gain the power to fix our bent governmental forms.

Our government must treat all individuals and businesses equally before the law and stop all forms of unnatural, forced redistribution.

Dr. Frank Luntz is a “language architect and public opinion guru” who has written, supervised, and conducted more than 1,500 surveys, focus groups and dial sessions in more than two dozen countries and four continents over the past decade.

In 1998, his firm, Luntz Research, surveyed American teenagers aged thirteen through seventeen on their knowledge of U.S. history. What they found would make the Founders roll over in their graves:

• Only 23 percent of American teenagers know that there are one hundred Senators.
• Only 40 percent know that the first three words of the Constitution are “We the People.”
• Twenty-four percent cannot name even one of the three branches of government. Only 42 percent of teens can name all three.
• Fewer than 10 percent know that the Supreme Court case that found separate but equal treatment of blacks and whites in public schools unconstitutional was Brown v. Board of Education
• Only 25 percent know even one provision of the Fifth Amendment
• Only 26 percent know that the Constitution was written in Philadelphia.

“As bad as kids are with simple historic facts,” writes Luntz, “their parents aren’t much better. On election night in 2004, many adult voters found themselves woefully uninformed. Ten percent of voters — VOTERS — didn’t know that the vice president for the past four years was Dick Cheney. Twelve percent didn’t know that John Kerry’s running mate was John Edwards.

“As for what they did know — only 18 percent could name the majority leader of the U.S. Senate (Bill Frist)…Remember, this was not a poll of teenagers or American adults as a whole — these were voters on election night.”

What’s the Point?

There are many points to be made within such a dismal survey, but there’s one in particular that jumps out: How can we hold our politicians to standards that we don’t come remotely close to keeping ourselves?

How can we expect Washington to stick to the Constitution when we don’t even know what it says and means ourselves?

The most critical battleground in the fight to restore the Constitution and the Republic is not Washington. It’s not in the halls of government.

The battleground of freedom is in our homes.

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” -James Madison

On March 26, 2007, Terence Jeffrey, the editor of Human Events magazine, interviewed Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

During the interview, Mr. Jeffrey asked Spellings point-blank “if she could point to language in the Constitution that authorized the federal government to have a Department of Education or be involved in primary and secondary education.”

Her initial response?

“I think we had come to an understanding, at least, of the reality of Washington and the flat world, if you will, that the Department of Education was not going to be abolished, and we were going to invest in our nation’s neediest students.”

In other words, we gave up. We caved to the demands of expediency. And note that she side-stepped the direct question entirely.

Mr. Jeffrey persisted. “It is one thing to say that the political reality is we are not going to abolish the federal Department of Education, but can you seriously point to where the Framers actually intended the Constitution to authorize a Department of Education?”

“I can’t point to it one way or the other,” Secretary Spellings responded. “I’m not a constitutional scholar, but I’ll look into it for you, Terry.”

After follow-up inquiries, the department did not answer the question.

Secretary Spellings holds an office that requires her to swear to uphold the Constitution, yet she can’t even answer if the very department over which she presides is constitutional or not.

Thomas Jefferson wrote, “In questions of power…let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”

He spoke at a time when the Constitution actually meant something, when referring to their limitations as “chains” was accurate. This concept is laughable now that constitutional limits are metaphorical strings at best.

Now, a more appropriate quote would be, “In questions of complicated problems, let no more be heard of strict adherence to an outdated document, but let us solve our problems by concentrating power in Washington and trusting individuals with unprecedented power.”

The chains meant to bind the government have been turned against us. We’re being shackled because we’ve ignored the Constitution. The original chainers — We the People — are quickly becoming the chained.

How do we reverse this awful trend and restore the proper relationships?

Well, let me ask you this: When was the last time you read the Constitution?

When was the last time you checked the voting record of the people you’ve voted for to see if they uphold the Constitution?

10. “America used to have sweet skills, like manufacturing and production skills, freedom skills, virtue skills…but now we have like a boatload of problems and that’s why our dollar isn’t hardly worth anything. Investors only want countries with sweet skills. We’re freakin’ IDIOTS!”

9. “Neo-cons have pretty much the worst foreign policy EVER. Those guys are retarded!”

8. “Pretty much all anyone has to do to get elected anymore is to tell the people that if they vote for them all of their wildest dreams will come true. The people don’t want to do flipping anything for themselves!”

7. “What the heck are judges and legislators doing to homeschoolers — trying to ruin everyone’s lives and make them look like freakin’ idiots?”

6. “I turned out so good ’cause I have a sweet family. Everyone would have more of a killer time if we took better care of the family.”

5. “Can you ask my grandma to bring me some money? My bank account hurts real bad from all this flippin’ inflation! I asked the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve for help but they don’t know anything.”

4. “The day we passed the 17th Amendment was pretty much the worst day of America’s life, what do you think?! GOSH! Where were all the smart legislators that day — staying home and eating all the flippin’ chips?”

3. “My favorite form of government is a constitutional republic. It’s like a monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy mixed…bred for its skills and checks and balances. Democracy is the worst form of government EVER!”

2. “I would have voted for Pedro before any of the decroded piece of crap candidates we had in the 2008 election.”

1. “The People just called and said the Federal Reserve should go back to where it came from. They say they don’t want it here when they get back because it’s been ruining everybody’s lives and eating all their steak!”