What Happened to Government “Of”, “By” and “For the People”?

March 31, 2021

“…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

– Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address delivered on November 19, 1863

This famous statement, made by President Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address during a pivotal time in our nation’s history, the Civil War, reaffirmed the fundamental nature of our country’s governing system as formed by our Founding Fathers. 

Our Founding Fathers created a unique governing system that is truly brilliant and special, and one which maximizes the human potential more than any other governing system ever created. They recognized that each individual has certain rights which come from God, not from earthly kings or rulers, and that these rights are “unalienable” or “inalienable” (i.e., natural rights which cannot be given away or taken away, and which are so fundamental that they supersede and are not dependent upon any governmental laws or cultural norms). 

They also created the unique and grand experiment called the United States of America…a country with a governing system established (and ratified by the people of the respective member States) under “The Constitution of the United States of America”, where those who govern serve at the consent of the governed.  For the first time in human history, a government was created that was subordinate to the people.

The United States government was set up as a Constitutional representative republic, not a democracy.  The Founders chose to prioritize protection for the rights of the individual (including those rights documented and ratified in the first ten Amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights), as opposed to a democracy where the majority rules.  No doubt the people of States with lesser populations such as Montana and Wyoming are glad that the Founders chose to create a Constitutional representative republic for America instead of a democracy, so that they are not subject to the will of States with much greater populations like New York and California.  While larger population States have more representatives than smaller population States in the U.S. House of Representatives (the membership of which is apportioned between the States based on each State’s population), every single State has two senators in the U.S. Senate, which provides a deliberative check and balance against majority rule.

The Founders actually hated democracies…they viewed democracies as unstable, subject to the emotions of the moment and to mob rule.  They opted instead for a representative republic, the initial concept of which goes all the way back to the days of Moses in the Bible (see Exodus 18:13-24, and in particular verse 21).  In the Constitutional representative republic created by the Founders, the power is with the individual American citizens, and the rights are held by the individual and the citizenry, who elect representatives to govern according to the will of the people they represent.  And those elected representatives are all subject to the Constitution.  As the second President of the United States John Adams once said, our republic is “a government of laws, and not of men.”  Consequently, our elected representatives are required to swear under oath before taking office to support and defend the Constitution (i.e., the President as required under Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 of the Constitution, and members of Congress and the Judiciary as required under Article VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution).

John Adams, second President of the United States

The United States government under the Constitution was intended to govern on behalf of, and to protect, the citizenry.   And certain enumerated rights and powers are delegated under the Constitution to the United States government entity that consists of three separate and distinct branches…1) the Legislative branch (i.e., Congress, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate), as described under Article I of the Constitution; 2) the Executive branch (i.e., the President, his Cabinet and administrative agencies), as described under Article II of the Constitution; and 3) the Judicial branch (i.e., the Supreme Court and lower federal courts), as described under Article III of the Constitution.  At its most basic level, the Legislative branch’s job was to make the laws, the Executive branch’s job was to carry out and enforce the laws (and the President is also the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces), and the Judicial branch’s job was to interpret the laws in light of the Constitution.  

The members of two of the three branches (i.e., the Legislative and Executive) are to be elected by the citizens of America.  There are specific enumerated powers delegated to each branch, and those powers not delegated to the United States government under the Constitution are reserved to the States and to the American people under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.  There is a system of checks and balances in place between the three branches under the Constitution to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful and authoritarian/dictatorial. 

The government was set up to serve at the will of the American citizens, and the members of the government are to represent and work for the citizenry.  In other words, essentially the American people were designed to be the “employer”, and those members of government were intended to be the “employees”, working on behalf of the American people.  Those elected members of the Legislative or Executive branches of government who were not adequately representing the will of the American citizens who elected them could effectively be “fired” (i.e., by voting in a replacement).  

This is the essence of what our system of government looked like as created by our Founding Fathers…a government that was “of the people” (i.e., there is no aristocracy or royalty, and nobody in this country is born to govern…those who are elected to govern the people come from the very same pool of citizenry as those who elected them); “by the people” (i.e., the American people made our government, and our government is run by the people through representatives elected to act on behalf of the people); and “for the people” (i.e., the purpose of the government is to act for the collective benefit of the American people, in light of the individual rights and protections reserved to the people under the Constitution).

So what has happened to this brilliant and wonderful system created by our Founding Fathers?  Well, unfortunately, over time, it has become redefined, authoritative, corrupted and broken.

• Redefined – government has now become viewed by far too many people (both by those in elected office as well as by the citizenry in general) as the source of all power, and that the people are subservient to, and subject to, the power and authority of the almighty government.  Government is now seen by most in this country as the entity that grants certain limited rights to the people…instead of rights and power being held by the people, with specific enumerated powers delegated by the people to the government under the Constitution. 
• Authoritative – government has grabbed more and more power, and stripped more and more rights, from the American people. Current President Joe Biden is signing a record number of executive orders, and with a stroke of a pen is essentially ruling by fiat almost as a monarch or dictator…and in the process is shredding the separation of powers and system of checks and balances under the Constitution, as well as eliminating even more rights and freedoms of the American people.
• Corrupted – the two major political parties have changed fundraising and election rules in ways that overwhelmingly favor incumbents, resulting in an enhancement and entrenchment of political power.  In addition, there are procedural measures for elections being deliberately pushed through and implemented (such as eliminating voter ID and signature verification requirements, expansion of mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, etc.) which are resulting in increased levels of voter fraud and vote count manipulation.
• Broken – we no longer have a government that serves the interests and will of the American people, but instead is now a government which rules in a manner to serve those in power and their own personal interests.  The vast majority of our elected officials are now primarily concerned not with representing their constituencies, but instead with continually getting re-elected and entrenching their own power.  They are influenced by big money special interest groups and organizations, not to mention often times foreign influences as well, which financially stuff the pockets of those in power with huge money…not only for their re-election campaigns, but also for increasing their own personal wealth.  It’s no coincidence that many of these career politicians end their political careers as multi-millionaires, when there is no possible way they could get to that point on their government salaries alone.

The ruling elite in Washington, D.C. is appropriately named the “establishment” or the “swamp”…they have “established” and entrenched their own power, and the corruption has risen to the level of the murky, dirty and filthy bilge of a “swamp”. 

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi…classic examples of the “swamp”

And those who are newly elected members of Congress are informed very early on by party leadership that they either need to follow along and become one of them…that is, a member of the party establishment…or they will be ostracized and cut off (e.g., no committee positions, no financial backing or support by the party come re-election time, etc.).

So how can we fix this broken and corrupt system?  Here are a few suggested ideas:

1. One ideal approach would be to impose term limits on members of Congress…unfortunately, the only way that happens is if those very people currently in power (many for several decades now) vote to pass a bill or constitutional amendment which effectively would impose a term limit on themselves.  Highly unlikely for a group of politicians who love power and who have spent years changing the rules to further entrench their own power.
2. Education – there is a desperate need to educate the American people, and especially our young generation of students, on our Founding Fathers and what they believed, how they sacrificed and why they did what they did for the sake of individual liberty and freedom…as well as to educate them on the Constitution and the proper (and originally intended) role of government.  For the last couple of generations now, students in our public education system (from kindergarten all the way through college) have not been properly taught about the founding and history of this country, and what separates our system of government from all others over the course of human history.  Instead, students have been and are currently being taught in our public schools that America is unjust and racist as founded, and that America has an imperialist history. They are also being indoctrinated with elements of Critical Race Theory, social justice propaganda and a hatred for America.  The curriculum contains an anti-American, anti-capitalist, as well as a globalist and socialist perspective.  Is it any wonder, then, that the members of radical militant groups like Antifa and the Marxist Black Lives Matter movement are largely young, “highly-educated” millennials.  There needs to be increased support and demand for school choice and voucher programs, for private schools and for home-schooling programs, so that our students have the opportunity to learn the proper history of our Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and our system of government.
3. We need to reassert and once again restore as a citizenry the moral, foundational pillars of this country, including the fundamental principles of individual liberties and freedoms, and that there are certain natural rights which come from God, not government, and which are granted to all people. As stated in our country’s Declaration of Independence, there are in fact certain truths which are “self-evident”…that all men and women are created equal, that we are endowed by God with certain “unalienable” rights, and those rights include “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”  We also need to remind our elected officials that they are in fact elected…they govern only with our consent.  We are governed, we are not ruled.
4. We each need to push back firmly against identity politics and see people as individuals, not as a member of a particular racial, ethnic, gender, economic or other socially-created group.  Identity politics is used by both anti-American organizations as well as establishment politicians (especially those in the leftist Democratic Party) to push policy agendas which are deliberately intended to divide the American people.  Government funding is allocated based on the cancer that is identity politics.  We need to stop putting people in boxes and slapping a label on them, and once again see every single person as a unique individual created by God.  This will also help get the country’s focus back on the rights of the individual, as our Founding Fathers intended.
5. Each of us also needs to push back firmly against “groupthink”, the “cancel culture” and political correctness, and get back to the notion that it is ok for people to disagree, debate and have differing views.  There is a strong push for collectivism and unity of thought, coming not only from leftist politicians (including President “Unity” himself, Joe Biden), but also from the indoctrination occurring in our public schools, and from places like Hollywood and the social elites, as well as from our so-called mainstream media sources (which have really now simply become the propaganda mouthpiece of the leftist establishment government).  Any viewpoint that differs from the collective is labeled as “extreme”, “racist”, “intolerant”, “close-minded”, “ignorant”, “inflammatory”, etc. and therefore needs to be censored, and any people holding those viewpoints need to be “canceled”, threatened or punished (e.g., threatened by Antifa or other violent mobs, fired from their job, sued by well-funded social justice organizations, arrested for so-called “hate speech”, etc.).  We need to push back against this forced collectivism and groupthink, and fight for our First Amendment freedom of speech rights.  We need to get back to a society that openly encourages dialogue and debate,  with an understanding that it is ok to have differing points of view.  Believe it or not, it is actually ok to “agree to disagree.”  Demanding that everyone believes the same on particular issues, and that those who do not will be “canceled” or otherwise suffer the consequences (i.e., either conform or else), resulting in a forced collective viewpoint, is a classic indicator of totalitarianism.
6. We need to support programs which are geared towards helping individuals becoming self-sufficient, instead of those programs which create or incentivize dependency on government.  The more people who become self-sufficient and who no longer need government to support them, but instead want government to simply get out of the way and let them fulfill their God-given potential, the less control government will have on us.  As arguably the greatest President of the twentieth century, Ronald Reagan, said:  “government is not the solution to our problems…government IS the problem!” And, as President Reagan also said, “the nine most dangerous words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
7. We need to vote with our time and wallets – by shifting our support and spending away from media outlets, celebrities and entertainers, organizations and businesses that support things like socialism/Marxism and an increasingly overreaching authoritarian government, social justice programs (which is really an element of Marxism), censorship of free speech (which Big Tech social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, Google and others are currently performing), and anti-religious freedom (or, let’s be honest, more specifically anti-Christianity freedom).  Instead, we need to shift our support and spending over to those media outlets, celebrities and entertainers, organizations and businesses that support America as founded, the Constitution and our Founding Fathers, individual liberty, freedom of speech, religious freedom and other Constitutional rights and freedoms.
8. We all have a role to play if we are going to take our country and freedoms back.  For some, it is educating and getting the message and information out to as many as possible. For others, it may be getting involved in politics, starting at the local level (e.g., running for school board, local city or county elected office position, etc.)…it is critical to have like-minded people running for public office who believe in traditional American values, the fundamental principles of liberty and freedom, upholding our Constitution, and having a less intrusive and limited government.  Still others may get involved by financially supporting like-minded candidates running for office or those organizations which support religious liberty, free speech and other Constitutional rights and freedoms, and other traditional American values.
9. For those career politicians who are part of the Washington, D.C. establishment, the time to replace those politicians with more pro-Constitutional, pro-traditional American values candidates is not during the general election, but during the primary election cycle.  For those of us who are Christian conservatives, for example, we would very likely not vote for a liberal, socialist Democrat candidate over our incumbent career establishment Republican candidate. The time to vote against that incumbent career establishment Republican would be at the primary level, where hopefully a pro-Constitutional, Christian conservative candidate could defeat that incumbent career establishment Republican if we can rally our support for that new primary candidate.  There needs to be very strong grassroots support for new high-quality, pro-Constitutional, Christian conservative candidates who can defeat these incumbent career establishment politicians.  
10. As for voting itself, we must insist on full transparency when it comes to vote counting and our electoral process.  We should push for national Voter Photo ID Cards or some other form of voter photo ID requirement. This single requirement would go a long way towards significantly reducing fraud and corruption in our election results and help to restore the American people’s confidence in our elections.  In addition, we need to push to eliminate mail-in ballots.  The current mail-in ballot process is one that is a recipe for fraud and manipulation of the vote count.  There have traditionally been two methods of voting…either voting in person or requesting an absentee ballot if you are not able to vote in person.  The mail-in ballots, by contrast, are not ballots requested by the voters, but instead are mailed out unsolicited to all voters who are on the voter registration rolls (which in most cases are not up-to-date and frequently include people who have died or moved).  And as we’ve seen, in many cases no identification is required when sending in the mail-in ballot, the signatures on those ballots don’t need to match those on the voter rolls, the ballots are harvested by paid political operatives, and the ballots can even arrive after Election Day. This voting method is tailor made for corruption.  We should go back to the traditional voting methods of either in-person voting or requesting an absentee ballot.  (Note: for more recommended steps that can be taken to re-establish the integrity and trust of the American people in our election process and results, please see the blog article “Can Election Results Ever Be Trusted Again?”)
11. Finally, for those of us who are Christians, we need to lead by example.  We should not respond to anger with anger, or to hate with hate.  Instead, we can break down the walls of fear, anger and hate by responding to people in love and by treating others the way that we would want to be treated. We should see people the way that Jesus sees them…as individual creations who have unique value, not as members of a certain class, category or group.  We should calmly attempt to do our part to once again foster a society of open discussion and dialogue…and be willing to accept that there will be times when people will not agree with us. We also need to practice active listening…and be willing to hear what the other person is actually saying, and trying to understand where they are coming from, instead of just simply dismissing their views and opinions because they differ from our own. Treating each other with respect, dignity and value will go a long way towards opening the door once again to productive conversations and learning opportunities…and to recapturing the country we love.