A Vote for Your Beliefs May Be a Vote Against Your Freedom

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A Vote for Your Beliefs May Be a Vote

Against Your Freedomby

Barbara L. Minton

(see all articles by

this author)

 

(NaturalNews) It looks like about 66% of Americans will be happy when

January 20, 2009 rolls around and a new president is inaugurated. And you

will be happier still if the new president is the one you voted for. You

know, the one who promised to support the things you believe in. After

all, that's the criteria that should be important when deciding who to

vote for. Or is it?

You've been told that as an educated voter you should study the issues,

decide where you stand on them, and vote for the candidate who most

closely stands where you stand on these issues.

If you believe that gays and minorities have certain collective rights,

you vote Democratic.

If you believe that Christians have certain collective rights, you vote

Republican.

If you believe in the rights of women to choose their reproductive

destinies, you vote Democratic.

If you believe in the rights of the unborn, you vote Republican.

If you believe in spending on

healthcare for

everyone, you vote Democratic.

If you believe in preemptive war and defense spending, you vote

Republican.

It's all fairly simple when the people asking the debate questions decide

what the issues should be, ask their questions, and give you a chance to

align your beliefs with a particular candidate based on his

answers.

There is only one thing wrong with this approach. Voting your beliefs may

ensure that if your candidate follows through with his campaign

commitments and promises, he may be creating a future in which your

beliefs do not matter anymore, because you may have lost your

freedom to hold

those beliefs.

Freedom and the Constitution

Most of us hated history class, or slept through it, and it was in

history class that we were supposed to learn about the Constitution. So

some review may be in order.

Let's start by looking at the last sentence of Article 2, Section 1. It's

what the presidential winner will swear to when he or she is inaugurated

in January:

" I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of

President of the

United

States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and

defend the Constitution of the United States. "

Keep this oath in mind as we explore other aspects of the

Constitution.

Popular belief to the contrary, the Constitution does not grant you

freedom or rights as a citizen of

America. Your

freedom was granted to you by your Creator, or by natural law. If you had

been born in a place where no government existed, you would indeed be

free, but your freedom would not be protected against the freedoms of

another person. It was this concept that our forefathers had in mind when

they wrote the Constitution. It wasn't to give us freedom, which would

imply that we weren't free until the government bestowed freedom upon us.

It was to create a government that not only allowed a person to retain

his natural state of freedom as long as it did not interfere with the

freedom of another person, but in turn protected his freedom against the

interference of another person's exercising of his freedom.

The role of government under the Constitution is clear. The government

established by the Constitution was created solely for the purpose of

protecting the freedom with which we are all born.

The people who created the Constitution pledged their " lives,

fortunes, and sacred honor " to gain this freedom from an oppressive

government. It was critical to them to assure that no such government

could ever exist in the US. Although these were mere men, they had

learned first hand and understood how much freedom costs and how valuable

it is. They wanted to ensure that their hard fought battles did not go to

waste.

When a prosperous ancestor creates a trust with specific rules for the

family he leaves behind, he ensures that if the rules are followed, the

wealth he accumulated will be preserved for generations. But as time goes

by the heirs have less and less appreciation for the sacrifice of the

person who created the wealth for them, and they take what they have for

granted and may squander it all by not following the rules. We are doing

the same thing when we ignore the rules of the trust fund of freedom our

forefathers have left for us.

Freedom is the Underpinning That Allows You to Have Beliefs

It is this freedom that has been entrusted to you by the ancestors of

your country that allows you as an individual to believe what you choose

to believe, and to freely express your beliefs so long as you do not

interfere with another individual's rights to do the same.

The founding fathers were also intelligent enough to know that times and

situations change. This is why the Constitution included instructions on

how to change it should the times demand it. This is the process of

amending the Constitution, or adding amendments. But this is a process

that while simple, is not easy. And that is by design.

Our forefathers knew from their own experiences that the greatest threat

to freedom was the government itself. That is why the power of the

government is so limited under the Constitution. The forefathers realized

that any law passed, regardless of the greatness of the intentions, has

the potential to damage or limit the freedom of the individual, since the

enforcement of that law would require some sacrifice of the people in

money or personal liberty.

And they also knew that some idea or belief would become so compelling

that enough citizens would decide to allow the government to enforce it

as law. This is where

free speech is

so important. Free speech allows a way for these ideas or beliefs to come

forth and be born. If the people discuss it and enough people agree, a

Constitutional amendment can result. It is the power of the people to

allow the government to make such changes to the Constitution as

amendments. It is clearly stated in the Constitution that the government

itself has no power to change or amend the Constitution.

Each time the government takes it upon itself to do something about an

idea or belief in order to solve some perceived problem, the power of the

government grows, and the power of the individual shrinks.

Many Americans don't realize the importance of the Constitution. As a

result, the government has gained incredible power by creating laws to

solve problems or enforce beliefs when they had absolutely no right to do

so under the Constitution.

The Timelessness of the Constitution

There are many people who would like to continue influencing the

government to violate the Constitution and add amendments to support

their beliefs. These people are quite adept at trying to make you think

that the Constitution has grown mold on it and should be thrown out or

replaced. What many Americans have not taken the time to think about is

that the Constitution is not a stale archaic document that has outlasted

its usefulness.

The

Constitution is the ultimate contract between we the people and our

government. We the people dictated the terms. Every time the government

goes ahead and does what it wants to do, that it isn't allowed to do

under the Constitution, it violates that contract.

When who you vote for is based on your beliefs instead of being based on

selecting the candidate most capable of doing the job they swear to do,

you are saying in essence that it is okay with you that the government

violates its contract with the people as long as it is violating it to

promote what you believe in.

If it is okay for the government to violate its contract with the people

to promote the beliefs you hold, what happens when government leaders

change (as they always do), and the new group holds beliefs that are

contrary to yours? Will it be okay with you then for the leaders of this

new regime to violate its contract with the people to promote its own

beliefs?

Maybe it will be okay with you if your candidate loses. Then you can

blame the party that voted on their beliefs for ruining the country. If

you are a Republican, you can blame the Democrats if their universal

healthcare scheme bankrupts the country and reduces the quality of care

available. If you are a Democrat, you can blame the Republicans if their

war drags on and on, bankrupts the country and results in continued loss

of lives. The thing about both of these results of

voting for beliefs

is that there is nothing in the Constitution that allows them to do this

to begin with. But you won't know that if you haven't read the

Constitution.

Of course, neither party wants you to realize what's going on, because if

you did understand, when the out-of-power party regained power, it

wouldn't be able to violate this contract themselves. And this is why the

people asking the questions at the debates focus on the beliefs of the

candidates, so you will continue to vote your beliefs rather than voting

based on the only thing that should really matter: the person with the

best ability to do the job they are being sworn to do, preserve, protect

and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Reference:

This article is based on the column Ron Paul Rolls On Despite Super

Tuesday Primary Results by John Armstrong

 

About the

authorBarbara is a school

psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a

breast cancer survivor using " alternative " treatments, a born

existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.

 

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