Can We Govern Ourselves?

The idea of self-governance, which was once self-evident, now seems impossible

If you read what the founders said about self-governance, you will find that the United States no longer qualifies for the privilege. Here’s a sampler, courtesy of Mount Liberty College:

George Washington said: “Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government,”[6] and “Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people.”[7]

Benjamin Franklin said: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” [8]

James Madison stated: “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical [imaginary] idea.”[9]

Thomas Jefferson wrote, “No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and … their minds are to be informed by education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and to be deterred from those of vice … These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure and order of government.”[10]

Samuel Adams said: “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.  He therefore is the truest friend of the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue.”[11]

Patrick Henry stated that: “A vitiated [impure] state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom.”[12]

John Adams stated: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”[13]

Now, I ask you to think about the American people at large, not yourself and your friends and the people you admire. You don’t admire most people. You are not like most people.

Most people are neither virtuous nor well-informed nor moral nor religious. The people you associate with are exceptions, which is why you associate with them. But you don’t associate with most people.

For 200 years, the American people were, by and large, virtuous and, therefore, capable of self-governance. That began to change in the 1960s and 1970s. Virtue experienced a bit of a resurgence in the 1980s, but was wholly replaced by avarice during the Clinton years. The 1990s, not the 1980s, were the decade of conspicuous excess.

For the past 50 years, the institutions that once safeguarded virtue—schools, churches, fraternal associations—lost their virtue. The schools are ruined, and only bad parents send their children to the government schools. (Sorry. There are no exceptions.)

These institutions are now the primary producers of rotten humans—people who want nothing but bread and circuses. And we we are now on our fourth consecutive generation of virtueless citizens. If I were to plot the virtue of high school graduating classes from 1970 to 2020, it would look something like this:

At some point, virtue lost critical mass. There aren’t enough virtuous people to compensate for all the heathens.

I know people who would argue that just a tiny fragment of virtuous people can restore America, that if the good people just join forces and work hard, the rest of society will follow.

Perhaps. But I see no evidence of that. The good people I know have been fighting hard since, at least, the emergence of the Tea Party in February 2009. We had some successes in the past 13 years, but we did not scrape out the rot. We papered over the ulcers. The structure continued to weaken. Worms continued to burrow into the joists. Institutions continued to get “woke.” Schools continued to train the young in vice.

A couple years ago, I leaned against the frame surrounding the back door of my house, and nearly crashed through into the kitchen. I began the dispiriting work of removing each layer of trim and framing, only to find more dry rot until I arrive at the studs. Everything had to be replaced. Yet, until my left elbow put about 10 pounds of pressure on a particular spot on the trim, everything looked fine. I had just painted the whole thing the previous fall and found no sign of decay. The decay was there—I just didn’t inspect well enough to see it.

I made the same mistake with my children. They all graduated from Rockwood schools because I believed the hype about the district. Though I saw occasional signs of rot, I never looked too deep. I didn’t want the inconvenience of having to deal with a rotten institution where I sent my kids for eight hours a day. I told myself it was a good school district.

I was wrong. I should have dug deeper, sacrificed, and sent them to Catholic schools. That option seemed impossible at the time, but, looking back, I could have done it had I been willing to give up some personal luxuries and a little of my time driving them to and from school. And I don’t get a mulligan.

If you’re still not convinced that American society is no longer capable of self-governance, just look at these headlines from today’s news:

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Meet the Biden DHS national head of censorship, America. Please DO NOT RT this video as it may upset your new internet overlords

That’s just a quick random list of things going horribly wrong in America. There is not a single facet of life that is better today than it was 30 years ago. None. American students are less knowledgeable than at any point in American history. The quality of everything is atrocious. I went to Walmart last night for a few necessities. They had one self-checkout bay open at 6:30 p.m. I stood in line with 4 items for over 40 minutes. And Walmart is probably the most reliable business in the area.

Over one million American women murder their own children every year through abortion alone. California is about to legalize infanticide up to one month after birth. (Eventually, mothers will be permitted to murder their own children at any point.)

Then, there’s the problem with the two major political parties. You might be thinking things will get better if the Republicans take over Congress next year. Good luck with that. The people who run the Republican Party are every bit as evil as the new Ministry of Truth bimbo. Mitch McConnell is the property of the Chinese Communist Party, and Kevin McCarthy is a leftist. But the GOP caucuses will elevate both degenerate old scumbags to Majority Leader and Speaker in January, and you’ll be called a racist xenophobe if you don’t support everything they do (for China).

Meanwhile, institutions like the CIA and FBI now focus primarily on locking up people like you and me. And the US military is standing by to kill us if we don’t go easily to prison. Dystopia is far worse than any novel or movie ever portrayed it.

Since self-governance is impossible in America, I think it’s time to start picking a divine right monarch and chuck this miserable experiment in public government. I’ll submit St. Louis IX King of France as the model. I’m happy to let go of all the principles of self-governance as long as the king is a devout Christian who lives his faith and demands everyone else in the country lives it, too.