By Dennis Linthicum, Oregon State Senator
October 6, 2023
My last newsletter caused several people to write me with their thoughts. The subject was Initiative Petition – 3 (IP-3), which aims to criminalize the killing of animals for food or any other purpose in Oregon. Letters came in, both both pro and con, yet those defending IP-3 were the most surprising.
The typical claim was, “I’m a vegan so this wouldn’t bother me,” or, “I support this because I’m vegan.”
This assertion is terribly ill-considered even if you are a vegan. It misses the beauty of our system of self-governance by demanding absolute control by state actors. The issue is not whether it might be an idea that you personally support or a lifestyle you might prefer.
The issue is dictatorial power. It is about a group of activists running other peoples’ lives through an emotional appeal to the most powerful instrument of domination – state power.
Our representative system was designed around maximum liberty, where you are supposed to be concerned about your own life and your own choices. It’s supposed to be about you minding your own business and caring for yourself. It protects your life, liberty, and your life’s just pursuits by preventing unwarranted interference from others.
Although government derives power from the consent of the majority that does not mean that all of those powers are “just” or appropriate. Does government exist to aggrandize power, propaganda or wealth? Everyone should learn to scream, “No!”
Our Constitution was created to provide the architecture and design for a community of people to live in close proximity to others, while exercising their private concerns and just rights without hurting others.
These rights are ones that Americans should be able to quote:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Why does our government exist?
As our Founder’s historic Declaration of Independence clarifies, governments are instituted to “secure” our pre-existing, God-given rights, or natural rights. Our American form of government was never designed to be a fairy godmother. First, because it can’t possibly; second, because once a “rewards” program gets started everyone will want to figure-out how they too can qualify.
The Democrat majority, along with the fiscally naïve, view our constitutional form of governance in this manner. They, along with thousands of NGO perjurers, bureaucratic renegades and quill-pushers, have adopted the view that their job is to “bring home the bacon” and then set about heartily consuming it.
With just days until the next federal shutdown, House Speaker McCarthy (R, CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) have agreed to bring about another Continuing Resolution. This is a common gimmick to allow the eventual passage of an omnibus spending bill that will be the well-greased vehicle for growing government and ladling patronage across multiple administration special interests.
In Oregon’s state legislature this sort of rhetoric has become a cult-like incantation. The justification is, “it is part of the federal budget,” which subtly implies we all wanted it and thought it was appropriate. In state legislatures this gets repeated and excused with language about “leveraging federal money.” In reality this is just another dirty sock coming out of Congress’ disheveled debt-drawer.
None of this has ever been government’s job. It is not your representative’s job or senator’s job. Their duty has always been to protect your life, your liberty, and your property.
The media outlets squabble about the possible shut-down because it is divisive. Regardless of which political party will face the hard facts of our nation’s fiscal future, the other party will continue to advance their programs. The threat of a government shut-down just adds repetitive rhetorical resonance to the meme-machines and allows the shouting to continue. What becomes clear is that without constitutional integrity it’s time to get a bigger manure-spreader for Congressmen and women.
This is why returning to the constitution is so very important. The purpose of the U.S. Constitution is stated in the preamble of the document itself:
We the People of the United States,
1 in Order to form a more perfect Union,
2 establish Justice,
3 insure domestic Tranquility,
4 provide for the common defense,
5 promote the general Welfare, and
6 secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
7 ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The progressives have trouble with the straight-forward nature of each of these.
To illustrate, the Biden administration’s open border policy does not help us form a more perfect union; it does not establish Justice but hinders it; it upsets community harmony; it weakens our nation’s defenses; and it thwarts the general welfare by diverting resources away from more appropriate choices.
Progressive policy solutions always entail more government, not less, and thus in a mocking bit of irony become destructive rather than beneficial. When the collective comes first, the individual must come last. Individuals get routinely ignored unless through cunning they can create an acceptable class or category of oppression. Once the state formally recognizes this new group, speculators, subsidy-hunters, and the wiliest wreckers, cheaters and swindlers learn how to take advantage of the State’s paternalism and slop up the gruel.
This problem becomes more critical as more and more people lose what little knowledge they have about our fundamental rights. Our K-12 educational system rarely mentions our Constitutional freedoms as codified in the Bill of Rights. Yet, if one fails to defend the first, the other will also fall by the wayside.
To this end a citizenry must be educated on “their rights, interests, and duties,” and must be prevented from disparaging the rights of others. Thomas Jefferson reminds us, “In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
Like a four-year-old with a set of markers, a healthy, representative government must work hard at staying within the lines otherwise they could mess up the whole house. The citizenry must be properly informed about the issues and understand their rights. Once educated about how the government operates, they must be taught to be skeptical of any grandiose claims that the profligate and greedy politicians may present.
The American recipe for success has been spoiled by government over-reach. Most Americans and Oregonians don’t know that we ourselves bungled our very own recipe. The leftists in our state legislatures, backed by union rent-seekers, neo-Marxist academics, a corrupt judiciary, political blow-hards and anyone else wanting to exert power over their neighbor lost sight of our founding ideals.
In essence, we have become constitutionally illiterate.
September 17th has been designated as Constitution Day. It was set aside to celebrate one of the greatest political and legal documents ever drafted. Yet, those precious liberties are now under attack.
Today is another day to voice our support for the freedoms and liberties our Constitution protects. It should not require a date on the calendar. Consider how we can stop the globalists, Democrats, Progressives, Socialists, Marxists and their allies from imposing a tyranny like no other.
Americans are blessed to live in what has been the greatest and freest country in the world. But progressives are slowly corrupting our institutional and constitutional freedoms. We must stop these authoritarians from establishing a dystopian scene straight out of Orwell’s 1984.
Our Founder’s created our limited, constitutionally-federated form of Republican government for a reason. We must continue to stand firm and fight for freedom and disarm those who aim at our state’s destruction!
© 2023 Dennis Linthicum – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Dennis Linthicum: d4linthicum@gmail.com
