3PI Eddie Fontaigne

Why We Will Win

This election is far too important. Too much unchecked power has been given to our federal government and, as was inevitable, it has come to be abused, yes by members of both parties, but this election is not a choice between two wrong parties. It's a choice between those who wish to expand government's power further and further into our lives, and those who at least tell us they are ready to start putting on the breaks and roll it back. The inevitable ends of continuing as we have is slavery to those who govern us.

This has been the case throughout human history. People settle in places away from tyranny and over time due to the needs of security and civility that rise with growing population densities, they gradually give up liberties to governors. One liberty after another is taken away in the name of the greater common good until tyranny becomes the rule rather than the exception. This repeated pattern is a depressing thought.

Very fortunately for us in the United States, our founders anticipated this very pattern and set up the government in such a way as to make it possible to break it. The elements of their design are many. The constitution and its “Bill of Rights” carefully defined the government's power. The government is set up in separate branches that each have the power to stop the others from acting, thus no great thing can be achieved by it without consensus. Further we are empowered to amend the constitution so as to further define government's limits and further ensure the individual rights of liberty and respect for dignity. But most importantly, they established the general governing philosophy of minimal government intended to maximize individual liberty while always respecting individual dignity.

That last part is what is often called “the American ideal”. This ideal is why many of us, including myself, believe America is not a specific nation. It just so happens that the ideal that is America has become part of the very fabric of this nation. If that governing philosophy ever becomes abandoned by a governing majority in this nation then it will cease to be the true America and those of us who remain faithful to the great experiment in self-governance will then be America, wherever we may live.

Many things encourage me about this election. I am encouraged by the apparent momentum for Romney and his apparent large leads amongst independents. The likely electoral count should all states polling within the margin of error split just evenly gives Romney the edge, and historically troubled incumbents lose more than half such races.

If Romney wins, some rightly say the fight has only just begun. Things need rolled back and constitutional amendments need proposed and passed onto the states for approval. But if he loses, I say the fight continues, just in a different context. The United States of America may no longer be the true America at that point, but the American ideal cannot be defeated.

It has existed in one way or another even before the first pilgrim set foot on American soil. Our founders may have put it all together into formal institutions, but the ideal has existed as long as human beings have had time to think and be inspired. Below are the words of Scottish poet Robert Burns describing what he imagined the words of Robert the Bruce as he addressed his men before the Battle of Bannockburn on the 24th of June in 1314.

Scots! wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots! wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victory!

 Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour:
See approach proud Edward's power -
Chains and slavery!

Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha can fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn and flee!
 
What for Scotland's king and law
Freedom's sword will strongly draw?
Freeman stand, or freeman fa'?
Let him on wi' me!
 
By oppression's woes and pains!
By your sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!
 
Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow! -
Let us do or die!

 
The Scots fought that day for freedom and liberty, yes liberty, that crucial part of the ideal that is the true America, long before this nation was born.  How similar is that last line to the words of Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death”. Burns words that he appropriately put into Robert the Bruce's mouth are those of a warrior, “Liberty's in every blow! - Let us do or die!” We aren't to the point of violent action. Today we vote to save this nation for America, but we know if it ever came to it, we would fight. That's because the true America cannot be defeated. We are not immortal, we can die, but that which is the true America cannot be killed.

Let's go vote. – To victory!