Fundamental Principles

                    The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the importance of remembering the fundamentals upon which the United States was founded.  Our political leaders seem to lead us in circles and too often leave us in need of returning to first principles.  We currently have this need. 

                    President George Washington understood the importance of fundamental principles and was very concerned that our nation would move away from them.   In his Farewell Address given on September 17, 1796, President Washington stated, "Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations.  Cultivate peace and harmony with all.  -- Religion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?  -- It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a People always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.  … Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue?"

                    Other Founders understood the importance of standing on fundamental principles.  "No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles."  (Documents of American History, [Henry S. Commager, Editor], 1:104) (Ezra Taft Benson, An Enemy Hath Done This, p. 149)

                    "We mistake the object of our government, if we hope or wish that it is to make us respectable abroad.  Conquest or superiority among other powers is not or ought not ever to be the object of republican systems.  If they are sufficiently active and energetic to rescue us from contempt and preserve our domestic happiness and security, it is all we can expect from them, -- it is more than almost any other government ensures to its citizens.  (From a famous speech given by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina on June 25, 1787, while the Constitution was being framed in Philadelphia)  (The Records of the Federal Convention [Max Farrand, Editor], 1:402) (Enemy, p. 150)

                    The events taking place in the Middle East at the present time show that the foreign policies of the Obama Administration have failed.  Our Ambassador and three other people were killed in a well-planned attack in Libya.  Our embassy in Egypt was attacked.  Other violence has taken place against Americans and American property in the Middle East.  The events taking place in our day are very similar to those that happened in prior years under incompetent administrations as shown in the following quotes.          "The paramount need today is for the United States to clear the air by emphasizing fundamental principles.   Until there are acts that implement those principles - not just words - diplomacy will accomplish nothing and the world will remain continually on the brink of war."  (David Lawrence, U.S. News and World Report, January 27 1964)  (Enemy, p. 149)

                    "We cannot clean up the mess in Washington, balance the budget, reduce taxes, check creeping Socialism, tell what is muscle or fat in our sprawling rearmament programs, purge subversives from our State Department, unless we come to grips with our foreign policy, upon which all other policies depend."  (Senator Robert A. Taft, quoted by Phyllis Schlafly, A Choice Not An Echo, p. 26) (Enemy, p. 149-150)

                    "No one can think intelligently on the many complicated problems of American foreign policy unless he decides first what he considers the real purpose and object of the policy….  There has been no consistent purpose in our foreign policy for a good many years past.  … Fundamentally, I believe the ultimate purpose of our foreign policy must be to protect the liberty of the people of the United States."  (Senator Robert A. Taft, A Foreign Policy for Americans, p. 11)  (Enemy, pp. 150-151)

                    Our forefathers fought World War I in an effort to end all wars.  We supposedly went to war "to make the world safe for democracy."  Since that time our political leaders have acted as though they were elected to lead our nation and the entire world towards a one-world government.  Our leaders appear to be more concerned with their image or the opinion of the world that they are with the security of our nation.  They appear willing to sacrifice American interests for the benefits of the "citizens of the world."  Our State Department lists many American patriots on their black list.  Members of the Tea Party have been noted as "terrorists."  Hans von Slpakovsky, a legal expert at The Heritage Foundation, has been singled out for attack by the Department of Justice's public affairs team as an enemy.

                    "There is one and only one legitimate goal of United States foreign policy.  It is a narrow goal, a nationalistic goal:  the preservation of our national independence.  Nothing in the Constitution grants that the President shall have the privilege of offering himself as a world leader.  He's our executive; he's on our payroll, if necessary; he's supposed to put our best interests in front of those of other nations.  Nothing in the Constitution nor in logic grants to the President of the United States or to Congress the power to influence the political life of other countries, to `uplift' their cultures, to bolster their economies, to feed their peoples or even to defend them against their enemies….

                    "The preservation of American's political, economic and military independence - the three cornerstones of sovereignty - is the sum and total prerogative of our government in dealing with the affairs of the world.  Beyond that point, any humanitarian or charitable activities are the responsibility of individual citizens voluntarily without coercion of others to participate.

                    "The proper function of government must be limited to a defensive role - the defense of individual citizens against bodily harm, theft and involuntary servitude at the hands of either domestic or foreign criminals.  But, to protect our people from bodily harm at the hands of foreign aggressors, we must maintain a military force which is not only capable of crushing an invasion, but of striking a sufficiently powerful counterblow as to make it unattractive for would-be conquerors to try their luck with us."  (Ezra Taft Benson, An Enemy Hath Done This, pp. 151-152)

                    The foreign policies of the Obama Administration have weakened our nation - just as those of the Jimmy Carter Administration did.  During the Carter Administration, Iran took many Americans captive and held them hostage until the day that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.  Obama has done nothing except apologize to our enemies and set terrorists free to attack once again.  We must elect another President - one who will keep our nation strong in the three cornerstones of sovereignty - political, economic, and military independence.  Obama cannot or will not do this; therefore, he must be fired and replaced!  Vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket and help to bring our nation back to fundamental principles.

                    More information on first principles as explained by The Heritage Foundation can be found at this site.