- by Alan Adaschik

Of late we have witnessed a celebration of Thomas Jefferson in the media as this Nation’s founding philosopher. Predictably, this orgy of adulation by the media ignored the implications of his beliefs and the fact that this nation as it exists today falls far short of the governing principles expounded by him. According to Thomas Jefferson, the essence of freedom and liberty is self-government and the essence of self-government is democracy. However, if democracy as government is truly going to be a depository of freedom and liberty, it must be in the guise of a Republic where the rule of law protects minority rights and more important, protects the people from the excesses of government.

According to Thomas Jefferson:

• Every man possesses the right of self-government.

• The law of the majority is the natural law of the society of man.

• The will of the majority, to be rightful, must be reasonable and not infringe upon the rights of the minority.

• The rights of all must be protected by laws inviolate to the will of the majority.

• The people of the nation are the source of all authority in that nation.

There you have it; five fundamental principals of governing subscribe to by Thomas Jefferson that, for the most part, are held to be true and sacred by a majority of the people of this Nation. The question that should be asked by us as citizens is how close does the United States of today come to these ideals?

• Our present government ignores our Constitution and decides for itself how it will govern us. We no longer have any say in the process and as a result, we are denied our right of self-government.

• The majority no longer rules in this nation. We have opinion poles that supposedly tell us what the majority is thinking, but how trust worthy are the pollsters, how accurate are the polls, who decides what questions will be asked, and who ensures that the our government defers to the wishes of the people?

• The rights of individuals in America today are routinely and flagrantly violated on a wholesale basis for the “so called” common good. A multitude of laws exist at all levels of government that violate our fundamental rights as citizens.

• The authority of the government of the United States of America no longer comes from it citizens, but instead from the barrel of a gun. It is this kind of authority that is being used to impose our kind of government on the people of Iraq.

Like all great men of vision who pointed the way for the rest of us to follow, Thomas Jefferson also warned us about things detrimental to sound and responsible government.

• Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone.

• Whenever power in government is independent, it is absolute.

• The destroyer of liberty and the rights of man in government is the concentration of all cares and powers into one body of government.

• If this country (the United States) is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption.

To be sure, in the United States today, we trust those who rule us to decide how they will rule us and acting independent of us, they have concentrated the power of this Nation into one Federal Government, free to act independent of not only our state governments but independent of “we the people” as well. Therefore, if Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he would view our present government as corrupt, out of control, and embodying the very essence of tyranny.

My only regret in all of this is that, apparently, Thomas Jefferson has stolen all my material.