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Principled Ideas from the Centennial Institute Volume 4, Number 6 June 2012

Publisher, William L. Armstrong Editor, John Andrews

WHAT SHOULD AMERICAS NEXT PRESIDENT STAND FOR?

By Thomas L. Krannawitter
Editor: As a nonpartisan think tank, Centennial Institute cannot say who should win the presidency this year. But we are emphatic about what principles should prevail next year. Here is the inaugural address wed hope to hear when Americas chief executive takes the oath on January 20, 2013. It will be discussed in depth at the Western Conservative Summit, this month in Denver. Fellow Americans, I stand before you honored, and humbled, to take the sacred oath of President of the United States. I stand before you with great hope, but also with grave concerns at the precarious state of our Union.

themwe today can prepare ourselves to make vitally important choices in our personal, as well as our public, capacities and to make them wisely. The foundation for all our freedoms rests upon simple, self-evident truths: That all men are created equal in their natural rights to life, liberty, personal property, and the pursuit of happiness; That the only legitimate form of government derives its authority and power from the consent of those who are governed by it; That the only legitimate purpose of government is to secure those equal rights with which all the governed have been equally endowed by their Creator, not to dispense unequal entitlements and favors to different groups; That the only legitimate way for government to advance its purpose is through laws that are fair, knowable, constitutional, and provide equal protection to all who live under them.

These principles were given political life by our wiselyAs Americans, we live in a designed Constitution. It may not be perfectno human constitutional republic of our own design and direction. constitution ever will be perfect. But it The freedom we enjoy is unmatched in the Inaugural 2013: is a work of political genius, the closest annals of history. We are fortunate; some approximation to a perfect constitution of would say blessed. A standard for liberty the human mind has ever conceived.

But it is nowhere foreordained that America whoever wins A Proud Story will remain free. America places its destiny in Even the sad story of human slavery and its influence on the hands of its citizens who can then make of America the drafting of the Constitution is a monument to liberty: what they will, for better or worse. The future of our Trying to deal with an evil institution which they did not country literally depends on the character and education, create, but had inherited and could not easily or quickly the choices, of our citizens. What to do with America, eradicate, the Americans of our Founding made only those and how to do it, are questions each new generation of concessions to slavery that were utterly necessary to keep Americans must wrestle with and decide for themselves. our Union together, and were therefore the right thing to Principles of Freedom do at that moment, in that situation. They restricted the spread and influence of slavery as much as possible and This does not mean that we are abandoned to making these they paved the way for its eventual total elimination fateful choices blindly or arbitrarily. America was founded perhaps Americas greatest moral achievement, made on distinctive moral, political, and economic principles principles of freedom incorporated in a political regime Thomas L. Krannawitter (Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University) is professor of for the first time ever by the men and women of 1776. political science at Colorado Christian University, a Centennial Institute fellow, As Thomas Jefferson explained, Every species of and the author of Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President. government has its specific principles. Ours are perhaps more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. Centennial Institute sponsors research, events, and publications to enhance By learning these principlesand the logic of individual, public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation. By proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom, teach citizenpolitical, economic, and religious freedom that flows from
ship, and renew the spirit of 1776.

possible by the statesmanship of Americas greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. This is a story of which all Americans should not be ashamed, but proudas is the continuing story of our nations endeavors to ensure equal justice, dignity, and opportunity for all, a record unexcelled in all the world.

Our great challenge today is recovering the full authority of our Constitution of liberty in our political life. There This was the new view of rights suggested by a president are parts of the Constitution we still follow today, who held office for an unprecedented four terms, a view that witnessed by the fact that we continue to hold free and has largely shaped our politics ever since. open elections when the Constitution calls for elections. We respect the Constitution Inaugural 2013: The biggest obstacle for implementing this new view of rights was the Constitution, every time an incumbent who loses an Reaffirm the which nowhere authorizes government to election freely and peacefully leaves public take from some Americans so that it can office, and a challenger who wins an Constitution distribute homes and jobs and insurance election is allowed freely and peacefully to and other material goods to others. Ours is assume the responsibilities and the powers not a constitution of redistribution. delegated to him by the people for his elected term of office. This is a great feat in the violent human history of Worsening Our Lives political controversies over the control of governments. Thus that same president and the many followers after We Americans should applaud ourselves for solving with him suggested that Americans become less vigilant in ballets what most nations historically could solve only with demanding government obedience to the Constitution, bullets. or that we interpret our Constitution as a living, evolving Constitution Violated and Ignored document that can be distorted to permit, rather than prohibit, such expansive reaches of government power. But there are large swaths of the Constitution that are And, in their desperate conditions during the Great violated frequently by government, and ignored by the Depression, many Americans agreed. American people. Government routinely exercises powers and passes policies, often at enormous expense and But today, in 2013, we have overwhelming evidence that all unfunded debt, nowhere authorized by the Constitution. these powers government has exercised beyond the scope And in many instances the American people have of the Constitution have not improved our lives. They have responded with apathetic disinterest and compliance. The made our lives worse. The very unconstitutional policies question that we should always be asking is: If we allow enacted by government to solve the Great Depression government to ignore or violate parts of our Constitution, made it more severe than it needed to be. By extracting on what ground will we stand if government ignores or so much capital from the private sector at precisely the violates all of the Constitution? moment when America needed economic growth and the Three-quarters of a century ago, a new political vision was offered to the American people. That view suggested that there are different kinds of rights that answer different kinds of threats. In the era of our Founding (so the argument went), when political tyranny was the threat against Americans, political rights such as free elections and representation in government, the right to property, the right to religious freedom, the right to free speech and free press, were the solution. Those were the rights for creation of capital, Washington caused the economic crisis to spiral and deepen for almost two decades.

which the Revolutionaries of 1776 fought. But, according to this new view, America in the 1930s now faced a different kind of threat, not political tyranny, but economic tyranny. Against the alleged threats of big corporations, Americans were now in need not of political rights, but economic rights, entitlements to things such as jobs, prices and wages set by government, a house, an education, health insurance, social security, and more.

Even more importantly, those policies have made us far too comfortable with unconstitutional government. Americans have become accustomed to favoring unconstitutional policies from which we expect benefit directly and immediately, while ignoring the ill effects of many other policies that dont immediately seem to affect us.

CENTENNIAL REVIEW is published monthly by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University. The authors views are not necessarily those of CCU. Designer, Danielle Hull. Illustrator, Benjamin Hummel. Subscriptions free upon request. Write to: Centennial Institute, 8787 W. Alameda Ave., Lakewood, CO 80226. Call 800.44.FAITH. Or visit us online at www.CentennialCCU.org. Please join the Centennial Institute today. As a Centennial donor, you can help us restore Americas moral core and prepare tomorrows leaders. Your gift is tax-deductible. Please use the envelope provided. Thank you for your support. - John Andrews, Director
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Time to Stop Almost absent-mindedly, we have allowed all of those bad policies to compound and worsen, right to this day. Today at last, fellow citizens, let us agree that it is time to stop. It is time to become vigilant again in defense of our Constitution. It is time to choose whether we will repeat the same mistakes of old, or move forward to a new era of constitutional freedom, limited government, and economic growth and prosperity. In recent generations we have focused much of our attention on the distribution of wealth between those with much and those with little. But in the meantime, we have forgotten about what precedes any distribution of wealth: the creation of wealth. Government has no wealth. Wealth must be created, and if government follows the processes of the Constitution, it creates no wealth at all, nothing to be bought or sold.

mankind throughout most of history. Only through the implementation of individual rights, limited government, the rule of law, and the protection of property, did we see a sharp, unprecedented explosion in the creation and spread of capital. The free market economy, enshrined in our Constitution, was the greatest anti-poverty program in human history. America went from a nation of poor farmers to the most powerful, wealthiest nation in the world, in only a few generations. We ignore that lesson at our own economic peril. But we can look ahead to a wealthier, healthier, happier future by finding our way back to limited government and economic freedom, and the policies of protecting property that we know work. Paramount Purpose of Government

There is one area which the Constitution grants to government significant, though not unlimited, power: If all Americans stayed home and did not national defense. If there is one purpose the work, government would have nothing. If Inaugural 2013: government must do well, it is to secure the the people do not work, there is nothing for American people against all threats, foreign Restore free government to taxand no one would lend and domestic. If government fails this basic money to the American government because task, it can fulfill none other. But in our markets America would have no way of repaying the appetite for increased domestic spending, debt. Every penny our government might control and our national defense and military resources have been spend comes ultimately from the American people. diminished relative to the growing dangers in the world. Its simple: There is only so much money the government No one is in favor of poverty. All Americans agree it is can raise, and the more we spend on domestic programs, bad. But what is poverty, and what is the solution? There the less we spend on national security. The result is a is no greater question for us, especially in this time of shrinking navy, an army that could easily be stretched persistent high unemployment and stagnant growth. beyond capacity, and a refusal to develop and deploy the Poverty, in short, is the absence of wealth. The solution ablest, most advanced technology possible to defend the is the creation of wealth. But how is wealth created? Not United States. through government policies and programsthose can only confiscate and redistribute wealth. Wealth is created by human laborthe human mind and body working to create and invent and produce and distribute goods and services that other people find valuable enough to purchase, including medicines, better food, and technology of all forms. Enterprise Creates Wealth Unless we resort to stealing, the only way one person can get the goods another has produced is by producing something himself of equal value to trade. That is the principle of free enterprise, and it is what made America the wealthiest, most prosperous country in history. By allowing each person to keep what his labor produces, by protecting personal property rights strictly, we give each person a tremendous incentive to be entrepreneurial, creative, and industrious, because he knows that the more he produces and earns, the more he keeps. This is why there was very little economic growththere was little wealth to be distributedunder feudalism, slavery, and other unjust forms of economic servitude that plagued This has led many who are hostile to America to attack us or threaten us with impunity. We have shown the world that we are willing to confiscate and redistribute the property of our own citizens, to limit their civil liberties, and to watch them with increased suspicion. But we have not shown the world an unwavering resolve to defend ourselves against external enemies. The result has been to embolden those who would challenge or harm us. Today, we cannot stop a single incoming nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile aimed at the American heartland. But we know it can be done. In numerous tests, we have hit a bullet with a bullet. If we have the political will, we can protect ourselves from even the most menacing threats to our security. It is not the American way to not do something because we dont think we can. Americans are brilliant at figuring out technical solutions to technical problems. Fidelity to Friends, Defiance to Enemies It is time to focus the attention of American government
Centennial Review, June 2012 3

Centennial Review
June 2012

Centennial Institute
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What Should Americas Next President Stand For?

CCU Political Scientist Thomas L. Krannawitter, a leading scholar of the American founding and the Lincoln legacy, gives his answer by imagining the presidential address that friends of freedom would hope to hear on Inauguration Day 2013.

help one another study and learn the great features of our on the first and foremost priority: developing every and own constitutional system of government. Let us regain a all means of protecting the American people from all healthy skepticism about government. Let us remember that threats of injury. We must show the rest of the world that each time government acts, it bears the burden of proof that while we appreciate and protect our friends, we will not its action is both beneficial for the people, securing their rights be intimidated by our enemies, and any attempt to harm to liberty and property, and authorized by the Constitution. us will result in pain and destruction. It will then be each For my part, as your president the next four nations choice whether they choose to be a friend or an enemy of the United States. Inaugural 2013: years, I stand today pledged to veto any bill coming from Congress that includes anything That distinction between friends and Reinforce our other than the select powers delegated by enemies ought to be the core of all the people to government through their American foreign policy. For too long we defenses Constitution. have catered to, and in many instances provided material support for, regimes that are openly hostile to us. At the same time, we have treated less than well some of our friends. The little nation of Israel is a beacon of light and freedom in a dark part of the world, where freedom is almost unknown. Let us reaffirm our committed friendship with Israel and help her defend herself against the tyrannical forces that surround her. A free and strong Israel is a powerful sign to potential despots that regardless of size, freedom is stronger than slavery. A New Day for Freedom Fellow citizens, let us once again become vigilant. Let us By recovering the authority of our Constitution, by insisting on limited domestic spending and limited government, combined with a robust national defense and wise foreign policy, we have before us a future of light. This can be a new day for freedom in America. It is time to renew our dedication that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earthbut that it shall protect the God-given rights of the people who formed it, own it, and command it. With His help, we can do this, and we must. God bless all of you, and God bless the United States of America.

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