Desire of a nation

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" was coined by Wendell Phillips an abolitionist in a speech before the Massachusetts Antislavery Society in 1852. Yet the idea of public watchcare of political life is foundational in American political thought. We the people of the United States are the rightful authority to whom our elected officials are accountable. Why not just trust rightfully elected men? Why keep a watchful eye on those in power? James Madison reasoned "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." (Federalist no. 51.)

This is why our political system is formulated with checks and balances a high watermark of our system. Checks and balance and public accountability are necessary because the idea of intrinsic human goodness is an illusion. There has never been a truly good man (exempting Jesus from my reasoning of course). But for the rest of us, who can stand and say "I am untainted and transcendently good brimming with moral excellence. The only man that can say that today is a lier. We are not good. This is a basic doctrine of scripture. Man is sinful. That is to say, Hubris (pride) runs deep within the human heart and few things nurture it to maturity like unchecked power. The potential for tyranny is in us all.

It is also a truth of scripture that while no good man exist the honest man does exist. If a man (or woman) clams that evil begins within them, that the heart in their chest is flawed with the hubris of original sin. If they humbly confess given unmediated access to divine power and freed from the gracious restraint of common grace, and the limitations of human life -they would gladly rise to the level of demigod then and only then is the way made open to call them honest. Such evil is in us all. It is in us and the honest gladly except the sobering truth and it's implications. we all need accountability for we all have the same problem. Such honesty is important if we we desire to experience any political stability and security. Edmund Burke once wrote “There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men.”

The breeding ground of oppressive governments and tyranny is a lazy populous that believes it's elected officials are good natured altruist serving them with their best interest in mind. Vigilance is required for liberty to exist. such vigilance does not stop at the borders of our biases. we dare not grow lazy and blindly trust those that agree with us. We must maintain a watchful eye on all for no political party is exempt, blue and red alike, for every human heart is black as sin.

If we are to be honest men and women it is incumbent on us to be active me and women. Our 17th President Andrew Jackson after many years in the public eye turned his face to the sunset and marked his final good-bye with a warning. "You must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your States as well as in the Federal Government." (Farewell Address, March 4, 1837). The blessing is political stability and security, the cost is a willingness to be active, to stand up and be counted, while always maintaining the paradoxical truth that honesty about self and a little skeptical about those in power is good for all.

On the eve of the revolutionary war, in a time unlike ours, when men knew there hearts, yet found courage in ideas above the salty air of time. In that soon fading past when the fresh air of political freedom was know clearly for the stench of tyranny was thick, Thomas Paine penned a these words:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated." (“The Crisis”, December 23rd, 1776)

So, are we willing to pay the price anymore? The cynic in me would say, "is it not already lost? Is not the notion of such accountability trite and dated? are we not so caught up with our little lives to care? Is it even possible to have enough of the facts as to make right judgments and hold others accountable in an age of spin and propaganda?" I don't know, but I hope my inner cynic is wrong.

my inner cynic would like to give some advise to our leaders: "just keep taxs low and on occasion say something stirring about God and country. We the people will care only about our little lives because we the people are nothing more than a collection of dishonest hearts with vision that extends as far as the end of our noses. We have no desire to be accountable or hold others accountable, so goes the desire of a nation."

Let us all hold fast to the sobering reality that when a nation no long desires freedom it no longer has it. for freedom and responsibility are joined at the hip, tied fast with unbreakable chains, bound as one. so goes one with it the other. To fling free one, the other slips from our hand. Political vigilance is not a duty of a citizen it is the battle we wage to cling to our freedom.

Do we still believe "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty"? I don't know but I don't think we care and that is our crime. The desire of a nation is that which it cling to, fight for and maintain in the face of adversity.

What is in your hand, good citizen?




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