An Abiding Contract with America
A breach of contract is a failure, without legal excuse, to perform any promise that forms all or part of [a] contract.
On September 27, 1994, The Contract with America was signed. It outlined a legislative agenda pursued by Newt Gingrich and the Republican Party during the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. Most of the agenda items were passed in the house, but you would never know it today. Because the positive results it had in America have all but vanished. It is time for Americans to realize there is a different contract that we need to look to once again, not a fleeting contract whose results have largely faded into history as our nation appears to be in terminal decline.
The Declaration of Independence combined with the Constitution form the contract between the Federal Government, the 50 states, and the people. They are in a voluntary relationship with each other where the states are the primary political entity, and the individual is the primary beneficiary. The purpose of the contract is to guard the rights of the individual under a Constitutional Republic. Because it is a voluntary relationship, the people and the states have the right to alter or abolish it when one party is in clear breach of contract. If this statement seems excessive, let us remember that this right is written into our founding documents as much as is the right to free speech and worship.
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men…. 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...” (Declaration of Independence)
The Declaration of Independence was a legal document that outlined the justification to “dissolve the political bands” connecting the colonies to the British crown. If the drafters of the Declaration witnessed government in America today, they would be shocked and might wonder why we have not already “rebooted” our government. My guess is they would take the American people back to school and start with a simple lesson outlining the fundamentals necessary to the survival of a successful Constitutional Republic.
What else must be understood or acknowledged to ensure this Constitutional Republic survives?
1. Acknowledge there is a divine creator.
When we recognize this fact, we understand that government is not [god]vernment and thus government is not worthy of worship and is itself limited. Too many today replace God with [god]vernment and bow at a crumbling throne.
2. Those unalienable rights come from God not man.
Because securing the unalienable rights of the individual is clearly highlighted as the purpose of government, it is worth ensuring all understand what “unalienable” means. For a right to be unalienable, it cannot be transferred or removed from any individual. It is not the government’s role to grant these rights as if we need beg at the throne of [god]vernment to enjoy them. It is government’s role to secure them from infringement as they are God-guaranteed rights. Government is only legitimate when it recognizes God is supreme.
3. Government exists to protect unalienable rights.
It is not the Government’s contractual purpose in America to do for people what they can and should do for themselves. It is the government’s sole purpose to secure liberty so each citizen can pursue their own life and happiness.
4. A fixed moral law exists.
When right and wrong are defined solely by the whim of society, then there is no limit to tyranny so long as the majority consents. To say there is as an absolute moral law while also denying God is akin to the claim that true north is whichever direction we choose to point at a given time.
5. To be governed in America, one must consent.
When a people recognize the fact that there is a divine creator and that this creator is the author of a fixed moral law, they can largely self-govern. A person capable of self-governing has the right to consent to being governed. Lack of consent means to govern by force. If a person seeks that, there are countries to which they can move.
6. We the People have the right to alter or abolish our government.
The law of primacy matters. In this case, our founding documents take primacy over any perverted laws not in keeping with the contract. Current United States law in 18 U.S.C. §2383/§2384/§2385 provides for punishments for rebellion, insurrection, seditious conspiracy, and advocating the overthrow of Government. I am not advocating for or supporting any of those actions, but I do think it is worth remembering that our government is our servant not our master. We have the right, and in fact the duty, to “provide new Guards.” I submit the following statement from the Declaration of Independence as my closing argument.
“But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”