3. What if the Founders Got it Right, Even if They Were Wrong? A closer look at the American Idea

This article is one in a series titled, "The Freedom Papers," a work dedicated to sanity. Therefore, may it be a thumb in the eye of mainstream media, subjective science, lazy religion, agenda philosophy, lobbied politics, elitism, and those that would abuse mankind with them.

One of the most popular arguments against the American idea is that the Founders sucked. Nowhere else is this asinine argument made more cliché than in that timeless classic of our age, Dazed and Confused. To quote the severely misguided history teacher, Ginny Stroud, as she addressed the graduating class of 1976:

“Hey guys, one more thing, hey, this summer when you’re being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth of July bruhaha don’t forget what you’re celebrating; and that’s the fact that a bunch of slave owning, aristocratic, rich white males didn’t want to pay their taxes.”

It is still ringing— louder and more prevalent than freedom is ringing in our cultural paradigm today. I wish I could quote the tone of her voice, because it drives home her narrow bias in a way the written word cannot. (Seriously, it haunts my dreams). When you take a closer look at this close-minded, relative thinking under the scope of human reason, its silence becomes deafening. The argument is a straw-man/ad hominem fusion that stands on the false premise that bad practice equals bad theory. Once there was a man with a long hedge. He wondered to himself how he might overcome such an obstacle without a hedge trimmer. But this man was bold. After mowing his lawn, he reached down and picked up the mower - still running - and proceeded to trim his hedge. Our brave hero lost all of his fingers, but his legacy lives on now in every warning label that reminds us to keep our hands clear from the mowing deck. And sadly, this is the source of most warning labels on products. Hearing a story like this does not make us afraid of lawn mowers nor doubt their ability to cut grass. In the same way, we cannot disregard the validity of the American idea simply because someone disregarded its promises. So let’s pretend we’re open-minded and intelligent people who can objectively look at the argument that the Founders sucked, ergo the American idea is no good.

Some of the Founders had slaves. Some did not. Just as this blanket statement does not exonerate the group, a blanket statement cannot be used to convict the group. Some were aristocratic; some were not. They cannot be reduced and placed into patriarchal caricatures like so many feminazis and historical relativists choose to do. It does not do history justice to criticize our ancestors from our point of view, pretending that they share our perspective to make their decisions and conventions. Nor is it wise to be critical of our ancestors’ actions from a purely historical standpoint without an anthropological perspective. This tends to lead us into the prideful assertion that there is nothing we can learn about ourselves by studying them, as though all of their practices are separate from our perfect and obviously wiser ways.

Let us not dismiss the fact that we stand in a line of history and not the pinnacle of human perfection. One day our ancestors will comment on our barbaric practices of euthanasia and abortion, our abhorrent treatment of marriage and the dignity of the human person, and our lack of respect for the nuclear family. We are shaped by our past, the good and the bad actions of our ancestors become links to us. As sure as we cannot escape that link, we cannot escape being that link for the next generation. So how do we stop the chain from becoming circular madness? We must do something that leads humanity forward. Not for progress’ sake and not as an aloof ideology of the times, but in a lasting idea founded in wisdom and truth. In the long view of history, the merits of ideologies can be judged and a clear perspective can be placed on them.

The American idea founded in Christian philosophy came to eradicate the sin of inequality rather than the much more common practice of denying that sin’s sinfulness. So say what you will about the Founder’s imperfections, but I say this: thank GOD that those men who came before us secured Liberty, equality, and freedom for us (which is certainly a thread of knowledge much more valuable than their practice of wooden denture dentistry). I cannot give our generation the same acclaim, since we resort further into moral disparity and away from the responsibility that true freedom demands. Perhaps that is why the current agenda seeks to attack our forefathers in this way, because it is easier for them to call what is good “evil.” I am afraid that in hindsight, our directionless and trivial efforts in this arena will prove to be more invaluable than wooden teeth. Our ancestors were not without their faults, and we are not wrong to point them out. However, weighed in the scales of justice, our Founders were not without their merits. In today’s world we cannot even appreciate how much their merits outweigh our own. We cannot discern that which they did right and that which they did wrong, because we are so separated from the moral integrity that drove the Founders to create what they did: the American idea that would come to be a roaring lion that struck fear into and scattered the wrongly accepted practices that defined their generation and every one prior.

The model of civilization in the world up to the 18^th century had been shadowed by inequality, domination, and slavery. Practices throughout the ages that were propagated and accepted are found abhorrent today. This should speak volumes to the fact that just because something is popular opinion does not make it right. This rarely serves the agenda of the age though, so this wisdom is greatly downplayed. One of those abhorrent ancient practices is human inequality, and it remains an ill of our world today as people are still trafficked and exploited as slaves. But if you will notice, it is what the Founders declared and established that forged the way to conquering that stereotype. The American idea made inequality the unacceptable and unfortunate enigma instead of the broad and open convention. Any political voice that would decry human inequality is nothing but an echo of the American idea and the first governmental body to claim that all men are created equal. Despite their past, the Founders made a lasting republic that would rise to break the convention of tyranny. They created freedom like the world had never seen and has yet to re-create. Remember that America is the only country in history to ever fight a war against itself to eradicate slavery and human inequality. So no, it is not a free pass, an excuse, or a defense of the crimes of buying and selling other human beings, but it is a comprehensive perspective by which to judge the Founders and the merits of the American idea. They got it right even if they did not live up to it themselves. The Founders established the system by which all men ARE created equal, and they still rely on us today to make human equality a reality. The American idea is the only political system that claims this, and it is the only governmental hope in this world to one day eradicate the concept of human inequality. That is the lasting mark that the Founders have left on the pages of history. They walked about in an aristocratic world blinded by the sin of inequality and lived with that mud on their boots. Yet they strived still for something greater, leaving an indelible mark upon the world that changed it forever and conquered those ancient perils. I wish I could say that our generation was as brave, as ferocious in its defense of morality, integrity, and upholding the dignity of the human person. However, I am afraid that when we are weighed, we won’t be found wanting; our contribution won’t even be found.

When the Founders laid the foundation of America, they set it upon the pillars of Christian teaching. Only in Christian philosophy do we encounter the notion of equal human dignity manifested in individual freedom. Only Christian philosophy demands personal autonomy as the only method of achieving liberty and justice for all. Only in Christian philosophy is perfection demanded yet failings forgiven (not tolerated). These concepts exist in bits and pieces throughout the ideologies of the world, but the only place it is truly explored, fully discovered, and lived out is in the Christian life. The fact that we as a secular culture are incapable of embracing American freedom soundly answers any question of the Founders Christian heritage. The government of America was not built to blindly force human will or serve the devolution of public opinion. The freedoms endowed by our Creator and delivered to Americans on a silver platter come from a law not founded in our own intellect, but in something far more wise and supernatural. America does not split the notion of earthly rule from our Heavenly King. Rather, they founded a political system which acknowledged that government can never take away man’s God-given rights. The concept that all men are created equal does not appeal to us because it is an intellectual truth but because it is a moral truth. A moral truth calls our intellect into a higher reason and purpose. The Founders of this country created the impossible: a system that allowed the wisdom of the ages to become the reality of how humanity should live and prosper. They created a unique world that can only function in a vacuum where goodness and integrity are demanded, for only in the marriage of conscience and intellect can freedom exist between free people. Patriarchal, aristocratic, low-minded men have always graced us with their presence with little to no change upon the tome of history. If the Founders can be so labeled, they would be one more gear in the cog of tyranny, and yet they chose still something greater at such a great risk to themselves. They staked their own lives, fortunes, and their sacred honor on the founding of the fairest and wisest concept of justice ever to be laid down as a government. Upon pain of death, they chose the hard path. They chose to rebel against the evils of their world and to align their path with righteousness and truth. They laid down their own security and opportunity to give the treasonous American idea a chance to not only change— but to save the world. And to that, I say this:

There are far… far…… FAR easier methods of tax evasion.

Thank you for reading! If you like what you read, be sure to look for the next installment: “Okay So... What is American Freedom then?"