How will posterity judge you, citizen?

The apologists for U.S. government anti-constitutionalism that’s rampant in current execution of American government need countering, if only in celebration of our nation’s birth. You’ve heard the rhetoric from these apologists. They defend ideas like:

• protection of the American people supersedes defense of liberty regardless of the human imperfections of government officials tasked to protect;

• generalized government invasion of citizen privacy and restriction of their freedom of movement doesn’t matter if they’ve done nothing wrong;

• government speculations and allegations make people sufficiently guilty to act against them without needing impartial fact verification or the due process of real justice;

• the checks and balances of due process and respect of constitutional power takes too long for “practical “ law enforcement or national security action;

• “benevolent” warrantless surveillance of citizens by government is noble protection; while citizen surveillance of government conduct — naturally all classified secret — is criminal;

• the Constitution is a “living document”, interpreted by an elite within the U.S. government for its convenience when “protecting our best interests” — making the constitutional amendment process obsolete.

Now the legitimacy of actually wielded government power has a very specific and natural genesis, whether that government is a slave society, dictatorship, monarchy, aristocracy, democracy or a republic such as ours.

Let’s hear from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Founding Americans constructed a government whose methods are restricted by the U.S. Constitution, its amendments and its amendment process for an unknown future. Pledges of allegiance and government oaths of office are supposed to bind every generation of Americans to this supreme law. But over time, human imperfection in the form of laziness, complaisance and selfishness compromises the effectiveness of these ethical instruments. Ethics always needs continuous cultivation.

So at the heart of this controversy over abuse of power is whether enough Americans in and out of government have confidence that self-government by the people really works (in spite of the unavoidable — and sometimes deadly — risks that liberty and post-abuse justice entail). Citizen and public official tolerance, or support for, devices and methods of slave masters, aristocracies, monarchies or dictatorships to solve our country’s problems, will demonstrate a general lack of confidence in the workability of our constitutional form of government. Consider these possibilities:

• Continuous government surveillance for your protection is a foundation method of slave-masters.

• Warrantless intrusion into the privacy of colonial citizens by quartering his soldiers in their homes was British King George III’s low-tech version of the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program.

• The intelligence upon which all American foreign policy decisions are made is classified, so it is accessible and verifiable only by a self-chosen elite. This is the character of history’s oldest form of conspiracy — called aristocracy.

• The Executive Branch has gained power to detain any human being and interrogate (read “torture”) them for ex-post facto confirmation of government allegations of terrorism. This is the age-old method of dictators and tyrants. Such power repudiates Western civilization’s successful devices of justice (habeas corpus, due process, the anti-torture Fifth Amendment, etc.), and will eventually run amok. Example: Queen Isabella’s priestly confessor Torquemada was placed at the head of the Spanish Inquisition, in hopes of avoiding atrocities. The reverse happened.

Patrick Henry framed this problem for today’s Americans quite eloquently: “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

If not enough Americans today are willing and courageous enough to bear the burdens and risks of liberty for its rewards, our republic’s demise is a foregone conclusion. History testifies that no national enemy is ultimately more destructive than population cowardice. How will posterity judge you, citizen?

Stuart Thompson lives in Wasilla.