“Neither war, debt, inflation, controls nor corruption are the roots of our greatest concern. They are not causes, they are the effects of an internal social disease…. Our basic disease is that WE HAVE ABANDONED THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.”
John T. Flynn, The Decline of the American Republic and How to Rebuild It, 1955.
Constitutional Governance in America is a system of government in which public officials are granted limited, delegated authority by the American People in exchange for the public trust. Public officials are required to support and defend the National Constitution, the supreme Law of the Land, in the performance of their official duties pursuant to their sworn oaths to said Constitution. Public officials, elected and appointed, must act with the consent of the governed, the American People. Constitutional Governance is a system of separated powers, check and balances, in which the American People have an active, lawful responsibility to hold government accountable for any and all abuses and/or overreach which violate the law and the rights of the American People.
The Restoration of Constitutional Governance is an effort to return America to a nation under God, bound within the limitations and provisions clearly outlined in the Constitution. It is the responsibility of the American People to lawfully stand up and claim their Constitutionally secured rights and return their government back within the confines of the Constitution. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
The existence of government is essential to society. However, powers entrusted to government are all too often abused to exploit the people for private gain. It remains to be true of all governmental systems that ultimately, centralized power in the “state” is the enemy of freedom. It must remain evident that the authority of the government in America, federal, state, and local, is derived from the American People not a centralized government or a ruling elite. To prevent the usurpation of power and the development of a centralized government, the Founding Fathers consciously outlined provisions in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights which protect the inherent, God-given rights of Americans, as a free people.
Article 4, Section 4 of the National Constitution states that the “United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government.” Further, “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people” (National Constitution Amendment 10). The Constitution for the United States of America as amended with the Bill of Rights is a truly egalitarian document by which the governance of this great nation is retained by the American People. As such, America is a truly unique nation which at a pivotal moment in human history chose to acknowledge God, Natural Law, and the Free Will of human beings. A society that denies God and Natural Law, abandoning Free Will, discards freedom and invites tyranny.
Freedom is not a spectator sport. It’s up to the American people to break this vicious, tragic cycle which has nearly destroyed the American Republic. The American People must realize their inherent political and economic power in order to stand lawfully and peacefully against the injustices, immorality, and overreach of government. Americans must hold their public officials accountable to the Constitution and their sworn oaths of office. This applies to all government officials and employees: local school boards, city mayors, governors, senators, law enforcement, the President, etc..
Americans must ask themselves how often they voted for a candidate based on campaign promises and how many of those candidates not only failed to fulfill their promises once elected, but also failed to abide by their Constitutionally mandated oaths. Americans by routine have done nothing to hold their elected or appointed officials accountable; instead, Americans shrug their shoulders in disappointment, complain, and mindlessly tune into their preferred venue of “newsroom entertainment”. Americans never hold the liars accountable. When the next vote comes around, Americans by routine submit themselves to the same pattern of abuse: passionately believing lip-service and then becoming apathetic when inevitably lied to once again. Politicians know they can lie for the vote and Americans will do nothing. Each time this vicious cycle runs its course, Americans surrender and forfeit their freedoms little by little. “The tragic transformation of this civilized system [the American Republic]… has been accomplished without any legal authority and without the American people being aware of the disaster that has overtaken them.” (John T. Flynn, The Decline of the American Republic and How to Rebuild It, 1955) If the American People do not wake up to reality very soon and claim their God-given rights secured in the 1787 Constitution amended with the Bill of Rights in 1791, then Americans will wake up too late and their freedoms will be lost.
The Restoration of Constitutional Governance in America requires real courage and conviction. Courage and conviction akin to the saints in heaven and the American Founders who pledged their lives and fortunes for freedom. This courage to honorably stand up for the truth, both for ourselves and our children, is cultivated through reliance on God’s Will and Our Lady’s promises, strengthened through our prayers, especially the Holy Rosary. But we must also take action. As Saint Augustine informs, “He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.” Both prayer and action are necessary for victory in this brave endeavor. With hope, the American People, with the Rosary in one hand and the Constitution in the other, may yet turn America from the darkness of lawlessness to the light of Divine Truth. That will be the victory.
