Checklist of Tools for Freedom

I’ve been rereading Alexis de Toqueville’s Democracy in America. It’s as powerful the second time as it was the first. I can only read a few pages at a time—the information is so powerful that I have to think a good bit on what I read. It’s like constitution vitamins on steroids!

Alexis de Tocqueville

		Democracy in America
Born	29 July 1805 Paris, France
Died	16 April 1859 (aged 53) Cannes, France
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
Religion	Roman Catholicism
School	Liberalism
Main interests	History, Political philosophy

Richard Heffner, in his introduction to the work, identifies tools that free men can create to strengthen their “ancient freedoms”. His list is sobering. We can turn it into a check list.

 First, we need an independent press—a voice to appeal to the whole nation. Ours isn’t telling us the truth and twists the facts to favor the left. We come close to flunking this one, with only a few exceptions.

Second, we need decentralization to diminish authority—or divide it, as the founders stated it.  Not doing too well on this one, either. The federal government has become obese.

Third, we need local self-government. We still have some of that. We need to strengthen it and get involved.

Fourth, we need a sense of responsibility and self-importance—the good kind, that keeps us from drifting into the faceless crowd of apathy. We have a lot of apathy, but more people are waking up. I’m hopeful.

Fifth, we need a forthright legal profession and judiciary to uphold our other tools. We flunk that one hard, although there are honest men left in the judiciary.

Sixth, we need groups of citizens to guard always our freedoms and rights; who understand that their freedoms mean nothing if all of us don’t have those freedoms. I’m aware of many of those groups. We need to connect and unify our message. There are enough of us, but we are isolated and duplicating each other.

We can create these tools. There is a natural tendency to drift toward tyranny, but we don’t have to submit to that drift. We can fight, we can hold the line, we can regain ground we lost. We have lots of freedoms still left—enough to set us to work.

Let’s get on with it! Pick an area and lend your efforts. Many hands make light work………..  Pam