The Ongoing Lessons of Liberty

The Declaration of Independence begins with the words “When in the course of human events…”; these are profound and prophetic words that gain more relevance as the world increasingly becomes a smaller and more interconnected place. The recent events in Egypt continue the need to remain vigilant of the intent of the founders when they began what was deemed the ‘grand experiment’ – the democratic institution of American self-rule.

It must be made clear that what people around the world are clamoring for is far more than what is being defined as ‘democracy’, purported to be realized as attaining the right to vote. This past century saw a historic number of dictators and despots hold what were deemed ‘elections’, elections in which they invariably won almost unanimously, sometimes with but token opposition. Declaring that elections will be held is not freedom and it is not what should be heralded as a successful end unto itself. We declared our independence in 1776; it took a war with England and thirteen years hence before we established a functional government. It took much debate and great thought and compromise to establish the Constitution that would bring life to the idea of self-rule. The point cannot be overstated – we are not a democracy. We are a democratic republic.  We do not as individuals decide the course of our country. We choose representatives to act on our behalf within the government. We fought a civil war and won two world wars to protect and preserve those principles, and we should never be dismissive of those realities.

We should encourage American-style self determination  wherever we can; we must avoid choosing ‘democracy’ and ‘elections’ as the terms of a belief that such exportation of the American ideal has been successfully transmitted.

When a society declares its rights to self determination, we should hold ourselves up proudly as a country that has for more than two hundred and twenty years been the defining beacon and role model for free peoples everywhere.

We cannot present ourselves as ‘humbled’ by the actions of a people demonstrating and demanding their inalienable rights; we should stand proud and remind ourselves that we as a country are the first and best example of how self-determination and self-rule can succeed, flourish and prosper.

If we choose to in any way diminish that standing, we shall put into peril the true declaration of those yearning to be free:

“…in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”

These are the lessons we should understand from what has happened in Egypt and what will invariably spread throughout the oppressed people of the world.