Tomorrow, November 7, Americans go to the polls. But by the time they get there,
they have been bombarded by massive campaigns of self-interested obfuscation,
misrepresentation and outright lies by those seeking political power. To
combat the intentional confusion that results, and the liberties such
confusion erodes, we must frequently be reminded of the need “to maintain and
expose the glorious principles of liberty, and to expose the arts of those who
would darken or destroy them.”
One useful place to turn is that quote’s source — Cato’s Letters. Cato, pseudonym
for John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, wrote in the London Journal in the 1720s, reflecting
the ideas of John Locke. According to Ronald Hamowy, “Its arguments
against oppressive government and in support of the splendors of freedom were
quoted constantly … [and] frequently served as the basis of the American
response to the whole range of depradations under which the colonies
suffered.” And at election time, the letter where that quote appears
(#38, The Right and Capacity of the People
to judge of Government) is of particular importance to
revisit. Consider the following excerpt (spelling and punctuation
modernized):
“The world
has, from time to time, been led into such a long maze of mistakes, by those
who gained by deceiving, that whoever would instruct mankind must begin with
removing their errors…”“[Liberty
is] but little encouraged…there being, in all places, many engaged, through
interest, in a perpetual conspiracy against them…oppressors and deceivers
mutually aiding and paying constant court to each other. Wherever truth is
dangerous, liberty is precarious.”“[The
science of] government concerns us most, and is the easiest to be known, and
yet is the least understood. Most of those who manage it would make the lower
world believe that there is…difficulty and mystery in it, far above vulgar
understandings; which…is direct craft and imposture: Every ploughman knows a
good government from a bad one, from the effects of it: he knows whether the
fruits of his labor be his own, and whether he enjoy them in peace and
security: And if he does not know the principles of government, it is for want
of thinking and enquiry, for they lie open to common sense; but people are
generally taught not to think of them at all, or to think wrong of
them.”“What is
government, but a trust committed…to [those] who are to attend upon the
affairs of all, that every one may, with the more security, attend upon his
own? A great and honorable trust; but too seldom honorably executed; those who
possess it having it often more at heart to increase their power, than to make
it useful; and to be terrible, rather than beneficent. It is therefore a
trust, which ought to be bounded with many and strong restraints, because
power renders men wanton, insolent to others, and fond of themselves. Every
violation therefore of this trust…ought to meet with proportional punishment;
and the smallest violation of it ought to meet with some, because indulgence
to the least faults of magistrates may be cruelty to a whole people…”“Honesty,
diligence, and plain sense, are the only talents necessary for the executing
of this trust; and the public good is its only end: As to refinements and
finesses, they are often only the false appearances of wisdom…and oftener
tricks to hide guilt and emptiness; and they are generally mean and dishonest:
they are the arts of jobbers in politics…playing their own game under the
public cover…small wicked statesmen, who make a private market of the public,
and deceive it, in order to sell it.”” … public
ministers and public enemies have been the same individual
men.”“Public
truths ought never to be kept secrets … Every man ought to know what it
concerns all to know … every private man upon earth has a concern in
[government], because in it is concerned, and nearly and immediately
concerned, his virtue, his property, and the security of his person: And where
all these are best preserved and advanced, the government is best
administered … ““Ill
governments…are jealous of private virtue, and enemies to private
property…There will be but little industry where property is
precarious…”“Good
government does, on the contrary, produce great virtue, much happiness … And
to say that private men have nothing to do with government is to say that
private men have nothing to do with their own happiness and
misery.”“What is
the public, but the collective body of private men…And as the whole ought to
be concerned for the preservation of every private individual, it is the duty
of every individual to be concerned for the whole, in which he is
included.”“In truth,
our whole worldly happiness and misery (abating for accidents and diseases)
are owing to the order or mismanagement of government … he who says that
private men have no concern with government, does…tell us, that men have no
concern in that which concerns them most; it is saying that people ought not
to concern themselves whether they be naked or clothed, fed or starved,
deceived or instructed, and whether they be protected or destroyed: What
nonsense and servitude in a free and wise nation!”“It is the
eternal interest of every nation that their government should be good; but
they who direct it frequently reason a contrary way and find their own account
in plunder and oppression…”
The insights of Cato’s Letters
were widely echoed
by our founding fathers in seeking to defend their liberty. But under
the repeated onslaught of the vast cornucopia of political proposals that
erode liberty, especially during campaign season, we need to be reminded of
what separates a good government from a bad one — “whether the fruits of his
labor be his own, and whether he enjoy them in peace and security.” How
have incumbents done on that score? Is there reason to believe that
current challengers would do better? Or is the only real hope to prevent
government from those actions which violate that standard, so that no
politician from any party can abuse
us?
{ 1 comment }
There is something to be said for the notion of not voting at all, and were it not for our city elections going on, I might consider it.
Fortunately, I live in a small enough town were an ordinary citizen actually has a rat’s chance of influencing policy. Many of you do not. Unfortunately, I don’t even have the opportunity to vote Libertarian in any of the races. Well, there is a Libertarian candidate running for governor in Florida, but not under the party label and I have yet to see any sign of life in his campaign. Both the Republican and Democrat nominees for governor of Florida are vowing a statist takeover of the insurance industry in Florida. Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Proposals such as voting against all incumbents are not worthwhile, since many of the challengers are worse twits than the ones already in office.
Republicans look like they just might be able to save the Senate by the skin of their asses. But we will certainly have two years to watch a true moonbat wield the office of Speaker of the House. But if that is the price of hobbling the neo-conservatives, so be it.
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