On Voting, Lesson 3: Our Rights Are Only as Strong As Our Respect for the Rights of Others

Those who think they are protecting America by violating the rights of others will soon find out their destructive, unprincipled beliefs have consequences.

Alexis de Tocqueville

All week, in the run-up to the election, I will be dipping into my Foundation for Economic Education and Intellectual Takeout archives to create brief daily posts, not on the candidates, but on principles that may inform your decision. My advice is to choose candidates who you think best understands these principles.

As we go along, you will also see applications to our current Mindset Shifts U work on The Road to Serfdom.

On Voting, Lesson 1: A Nation of George Constanzas Will Not Remain Free

On Voting, Lesson 2: Politicians Can't Solve Problems

In our rush to call names, are we ignoring real and ongoing threats to liberty?

If a “Stalin” or “Hitler” had been born in the United States, would the American public in the 1930s have demanded their services as a politician? There were people with Stalinist or fascist thinking in the United States; some may have dreamed of achieving political office.

For example, an American Stalin may have wanted to collectivize (and starve) Midwestern farmers. An American Hitler may have dreamed of making America free of Jews and conquering Mexico. They mostly lived out their lives, muttering to themselves about their ideologies. The number of Americans who shared such crazed views was too small to matter. In short, our collective beliefs, not those of a single individual, are the seeds that sow the government we reap.      

Why didn’t harsh economic conditions in the 1930s destroy the American republic and lead to totalitarianism? In his classic observations of America, Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville was  astonished by the knowledge Americans had about their government:

I have scarcely ever encountered a single man of the common people in America who did not perceive with surprising ease the obligations entailed in the laws of Congress and those which owe their beginnings to the laws of his own state, nor who could not separate the matters belonging to the general prerogatives of the Union from those regulated by his local legislature and who could not point to where the competence of the federal courts begins and the limitation of the state tribunals ends.

The depth of knowledge Tocqueville observed among common citizens was due precisely to America’s founding—unique among nations; our nation was founded on principles, not nationality.

The Founding Fathers were great believers in a knowledgeable citizenry as an essential bulwark protecting our founding principles and, thus, our liberty.

James Madison wrote in 1822, “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

A few years earlier, in 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote,

I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.

In other words, no law or constitution will protect rights if the population doesn’t believe in those rights. To the point if enough people believe in fascism or communism, killing the current leader of the movement will only produce a change of leadership, not the end of the movement. Did the death of Hugo Chavez relieve the suffering of the Venezuelan people? Did the death of Stalin end communism in the Soviet Union? Did the death of Kim Jong Un’s grandfather and father end the unimaginable suffering in North Korea?  

Remember this when you cheer for a mass movement: you can’t change politicians like you can detergent brands.

In this first inaugural address, Jefferson reminded the young republic of the importance of using principles as a North Star to protect “peace, liberty and safety.”

Principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which we try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.

Those who think they are protecting America by violating the rights of others will soon find out their destructive, unprincipled beliefs have consequences. Rights selectively granted will soon vanish.

The government does not exist to grant us rights. The government exists to protect our inherent rights.

If you doubt that, read the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution—it is the one everyone should know, but few, including judges, do.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

The Ninth was necessary because some of the Founders were concerned that enumerating some rights might later lead some to believe the government had granted only those rights. The word “retained” clarifies that rights are inherent, not granted.

Your rights are only as strong as the strength of the respect that you have for the rights of others. Why? A government strong enough to violate the rights of some will soon violate yours.

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