Narrowing the Discussion
It would be very easy to approach this subject by saying what America is NOT! So many people– and the bias, subjective media–think that it is imperative to define America in new, progressive, and more radical ways. That is not historical America. Nor is it a thriving future America. As a Journalist, I once claimed to be part of an honorable, proud, and vital profession! Today, the once dynamic source of public information has spiraled into a den of conflicted finger pointing loons. This is one of the few areas where we absolutely need to stick to the old, authentic facts.
That does not mean we express and live America in the same historical ways, but freedom, opportunity, equality, patriotism do not morph into something different, “new and modern”. This amounts to a seditious attempt to totally redefine these terms and squeeze them under completely different, subversive ideologies. But there I go, saying what America is NOT!
America has always been a melting pot of people from around the world, who held close a common belief in a higher power, and primarily because of that, believed in the yearning of the heart toward greater prospects for human beings. Humans have a soul that seeks and deserves the right to reach for greater individual and societal achievements and pursues that end. It’s a yearning that throughout mankind’s existence dictatorial rulers have sought to quelch.
It is the unquenchable pursuit toward this end that births a high degree of respect for the individual. It means establishing and maintaining by law the environment where the individual can thrive and strive and achieve all that they can be. Limited only by what they self impose on their potential.
These rights and opportunities are given to us directly by God, not by a flawed human government. This government can NEVER be better than the individual human because it is made up of only humans. Humans with their natural flaws.
Government’s Role
The important reality here is that government acts to accentuate all of these flaws, not diminish them. Government is the accumulated sum of all its human component’s flaws, not its virtues. You can argue this point (guaranteed unsuccessfully) or you can realize its validity and figure out how to deal with it.
America in its birthing had to find a delicate balance. Give opportunity for the very best of human expression while also providing guard rails for all the flaws that comprise who we inevitably are.
America as it was being molded by its Founders, looked at all the significant steps in human history: the Magna Carta, English common law, the ten Commandments, the Bible, the code of Ur-Nammu, King Hammurabi’s Rule of Law, and the roots of modern jurisprudence in early Egyptian, Greek and Roman law. The most significant revelation they had was of the relationship between citizenry, the necessity of Government, and a Higher Power. This is not a new concept, it was foundational in the code of Ur-Nammu, early Greek and Roman law, and, of course, in the Bible.
The writings of these Founding Fathers clearly indicates that a Divine Hand played a large role in shaping the substance of these founding documents. Far divergent to those who today attempt to seek credibility for redirecting American culture and ideology by implying self serving, potentially evil , motives to these early colonists.
To have a deeper understanding of what it means to be an American, careful read the first ten Amendments to the Constitution and critiques on what they imply. Skim over the Federalist Papers to better understand the thoughts and motivations of these founding jurist. Yes, this would take some time and effort. Actually, very little in the scheme of being a responsible, good citizen. But for now, I would like to look just at a few words: “…Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness…”
From a perspective rooted in the principles of the American Founding, the phrase “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness“ is understood not as a promise of material outcomes, but as a declaration of natural rights that “government” has as a principle reason for its very existence. Government is created to protect these rights. This exact phrase appears in the United States Declaration of Independence and the principles are reinforced throughout the Federalist Papers and the debates surrounding the United States Constitution.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
The Declaration of Independence proclaims that all people “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” among which are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Our Founders generally understood these rights as God-given, inherent, and beyond the legitimate power of government to create or abolish. Government exists not to grant these rights, but to secure them.
- Life is the foundational natural right. Every individual possesses an inherent right to exist, to enjoy the protection of the law, and to live free from unjust violence or arbitrary deprivation of life. Because life is the first right, government bears the solemn responsibility to protect innocent human life through equal justice under the law.
- Liberty is the condition of being FREE! Free to think, speak, worship, work, own property, associate with others, and govern one’s own affairs without unnecessary government interference. Liberty is not a license to do anything one desires; it is freedom exerted within the framework of moral responsibility and providing for the equal rights of others. The Founders consistently understood liberty to be inseparable from virtue and self-governance.
- The pursuit of Happiness does not guarantee happiness itself. Rather, it protects every citizen’s freedom to pursue a meaningful, productive, and fulfilling life according to an individual’s conscience and the exercise of personal responsibility. Happiness, as understood by many of the Founders, referred less to a person enjoying pleasure than to allowing for a person to flourish—living a life of virtue, industry, family, faith, and civic responsibility. Government’s role is to protect the opportunity to pursue happiness, not to provide happiness itself.
This understanding is substantially reinforced throughout the Federalist Papers. James Madison argued in Federalist No. 10 that one of government’s principal duties is to secure the diverse rights of each citizen while preventing factions or identity groups from oppressing others. In Federalist No. 51, Madison emphasized that constitutional checks and balances exist because human nature is imperfect—we are all flawed human beings. That is why at least limited government is essential to preserve liberty. Alexander Hamilton likewise argued that energetic but constitutionally limited government was necessary to protect the rights and security of the people. The fear was that as government grew beyond that limited size, it presented grave prospects of becoming oppressively tyrannical. (the swamp?)
From this perspective, the Founders envisioned a constitutional republic in which government protects individual rights, enforces the rule of law, safeguards property, and preserves the conditions under which a free people can pursue their own goals. The role of government is therefore protective rather than paternalistic—to defend the natural rights of citizens while leaving individuals free to exercise personal responsibility, develop virtue, support their families, contribute to their communities, and seek their own determined definition of a good life.
In this tradition, Life is protected, Liberty is preserved, and the pursuit of Happiness remains an opportunity that is to be secured by limited constitutional government rather than an outcome that is guaranteed by it. It this basic pledge of America to me that forms the foundation of all that I enjoy and embrace about America. As a veteran, it is why I choose to actively defend those rights; for me, for my family, for my community, and for my country of like-minded Americans.
It is in the full flourishing of these “rights” that all the promises and dreams of America are fulfilled for me, and for anyone else that embraces, secures, and capitalizes on these rights. It is as beautiful—and as delicate—as a dew-covered Rose: Embrace its beauty but guard its care!
- Jim Buschkamp
Links to First Ten Amendments and the Federalist Papers
