18 BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR AMERICA

Copyright 2006 By Ron Ewart
All Rights Reserved

A picture of the statue of liberty and the constitution.

The government today and probably throughout history, due to human failings, has been, is, and always will be about "power", but very seldom about "principle". However, if we choose to avoid principle, we do so at our own peril. Many governments have fallen for far less. This great land of ours could easily share the same fate unless we return to these principles, for which millions of brave men and women have sacrificed their lives, their limbs, and their minds to defend.

1. The rights of the "individual" are paramount and unalterable. All constitutional rights to the individual should be jealously guarded, protected, and defended by all branches of government, including the judicial branch. This applies to all Constitutional Amendments. Constitutional Law and not the legal philosophy of "Positivism" should guide judicial decisions at all levels.

2. The environment deserves protection. Reach Out to Safeguard Your Land but not over the bodies, jobs, and well-being of human beings. Any "takings" for the benefit of the environment should be fully compensated by the government, and restricting the use of wetlands or existing water rights is a "taking", without question. And the practice of condemning property through Eminent Domain for a higher economic use to a local government needs to be abolished as an abomination to our Constitution.

3. Any adult person that has two arms, two legs, and a reasonably functioning brain does not need help from the government. We only grow weaker as a Nation when we subsidize the able-bodied. Our monetary compassion should only be extended to those who truly cannot take care of themselves.

4. No group, business, agriculture or otherwise should be subsidized by the government treasury. If a business cannot stand on its own based on sound business principles, then it should fail. Stronger businesses should take their place.

5. The government, before anything else, must protect and defend the people from all enemies, foreign and domestic. It must do so by maintaining a strong, powerful military complex that cannot be defeated by any other power on Earth. It must further, by all means available, protect our borders, keep track of all aliens, and immediately deport those that would thwart our laws, including those that cross our borders illegally. To accomplish this, we must put our military on the border with orders to stop any and all illegal crossing of our borders by any means. Amnesty is an insult and an injustice to those who come to America legally. Rewarding lawbreakers makes a mockery of the rule of law. And the INS must be completely overhauled and powerful deportation measures instituted.

6. Our government must begin a distinct policy of energy independence by whatever scientific and current technology means available, including drilling for oil on all of our sovereign lands until a higher technology can replace the products of crude oil as our main energy source.

7. Any government program, including environmentally driven programs, that requires scientific evidence before implementation must have at least a two-thirds majority of all private (not government) U. S. scientists in that specific discipline agreeing to the condition prior to implementation of that program or the spending of government funds. New information should be analyzed to see if changes to the program should be made.

8. All new and old laws will require a "sunset" provision with a full congressional review and public input before continuation after "sunset".

9. A significant portion of government time should be expended towards cleaning up old arcane laws. Conflicting laws should be deleted or codified to remove the conflicts.

10. No treaty or international agreement with other nations will be signed or ratified by any branch of government that conflicts with the U. S. Constitution. Any current treaties or agreements that do conflict with the Constitution should be immediately repealed or re-drafted to remove the conflict.

11. No public official shall be allowed to remain in one political office for more than two terms forever. Entrenchment is an enemy of a good and just government, where remaining in office becomes a greater priority than service to the country.

12. Criminals, when sentenced, should complete the full sentence.

13. Criminals who perpetrate violent crimes against children, women, or the disabled for the 2nd offense, including murder, rape, sex crimes, or kidnapping, should be incarcerated for life. This is provided the evidence against the perpetrator is overwhelming and incontrovertible. A civilized society cannot tolerate those that would prey on people who do not have the capacity to defend themselves.

14. Taxation should be fair and equitable across the board. Not indexed to how much you make. The tax code should be drastically simplified, and the government should quit using it for social experimentation.

15. Funding of all government programs, local, state, and federal (except the military), should be frozen in place for five full years (unless we are at war) in order to assess where we really are fiscally and maybe catch up with revenues, or find out what are the real priorities. Waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption should be investigated, and perpetrators vigorously punished to send a strong message that these abuses will not be tolerated.

16. No funding or aid would be provided to any foreign country that does not change to a democratic form of government and will not allow us to audit where the funds are going. America must be allowed to distribute the funds or aid in every case.

17. The entire Veterans Administration office should be overhauled, and new policies put in place with the funds to match. These new policies would create an absolute priority for treating our veterans and their families with respect, honor, dignity, and the admiration that they deserve. These people gave their lives, minds, and limbs in the service of our country, defending our cherished freedoms. The current VA programs are an egregious affront to these individuals and an abysmal travesty.

18. Restrict, by legislation, the access of narrow-focus lobby groups in Washington DC and State legislatures, including the all-powerful environmental lobby. We should be a government of the "people", not special interest groups.

The foregoing principles parallel the rights enumerated in the U. S. Constitution that have been perverted over the last 70 to 100 years by those that seek power rather than be guided by principle. We must return to these principles or find our constitution and its safeguards and protections unraveling more and more with each passing law that violates these principles.

Governments only get powerful because we let them. Political parties get powerful because we let them. Large corporations and legal or illegal organizations get powerful because we let them. Environmental groups get powerful because we let them. Unions get powerful because we let them. The larger these entities become, the more they will try to increase their power. But WE, THE PEOPLE, in the form of individuals and families, have the ultimate power if we will only exercise that power and if we act as one in defense of our unalienable rights as granted to us by our creator and institute into law by men under our Constitution and further by living up to our civic duties, obligations, and individual responsibilities. But if we are divided, if we fight amongst ourselves, if we allow ourselves to be bought by the promises of government largess that always comes with a loss of freedom, and if we ignore these time-tested constitutional principles, we are rendered impotent and the "powerful" will fill the gap, as they already have, because we let them.