Jefferson on How to Restore the Republic
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.” (Thomas Jefferson)
Mr. Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, with the agreement of his colleagues, stated the principles upon which an uncorrupt America was to be built. He was also happy with the Constitution of 1789 and defended it vociferously. “The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution.” I suspect—no, I know, based upon what he wrote—he would be disappointed with the government today. More on that subsequently.
His statement at the beginning of this article is an interesting analysis. If a Republic grows corrupt, i.e., perverts the principles upon which it is founded, then the corruptions must be removed and the founding principles be restored. Any attempts other than restoration will be useless—they will have no positive effect in bringing the republic back to what it was intended to be—or a “new evil.” Impurities from the founding ideals is an “evil”—at least for that Republic as it was intended. Changes are necessary over time, of course, and Jefferson never denied that. But if the adaptations change the founding principles, then the country is no longer what it was intended to be.
The founding principles of the United States are in the Declaration of Independence. One, natural rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, given to us by our Creator, not by government, a la Democratic Senator Tim Kane. Two, a government by the consent of the governed—i.e., the people tell the government what to do, not vice versa. And three, a limited government, governing a virtuous people—“our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people,” John Adams said. Freedom based on virtue, people freely choosing to do good and not harm others, not a freedom based on selfish promiscuity and licentiousness, which is self- and society-destructive. Any abandonment of those principles would be a “corruption” of the Republic, and the only answer, Jefferson said, is “restoring its lost principles.” That isn’t exactly what is happening in America today. The corruption in America, and its government, is wide and deep, and wholly because our politicians—and the people—have abandoned and dismissed the great principles this Republic was founded upon. It’s ugly, compared to what our Founders wanted. The Left has taken over the culture of America, and by doing so has moved the nation far, far from what our Founders intended, as stated in the Declaration and Constitution. That’s their resolve.
Of course, the news isn’t 100 percent bad. We get the occasional win (Trump), and that’s nice. The Republicans still control the Senate and House, but only because of RINOs. The Supreme Court remains largely “conservative.” These are some positives. Here is another example of a hopeful “positive,” a move towards restoration.
Ken Paxton’s victory over John Cornyn in the Texas Republican Senate primary was a delight, to say the least. But in the general election, Paxton is going to face, in one sense, a different kind of “progressive,” far-left Democrat. James Talarico is trying to cloak—hide—his radical-left views under a mask of Christianity, which is a joke, but it is something new for Democrats, and obviously is designed to deceive the naïve and get many church-going Texans to take another look at the Democratic Party, something most of them haven’t done in decades.
But Talarico is enticing and beguiling, and Paxton better be on his toes. The Democrat, who has a Master of Divinity from a theological seminary in Austin (a warning sign to me if there ever was one), has distributed “Love thy Neighbor” signs at his rallies (read: “let us murder our babies and mutilate our children”). Talarico has called Jesus a “radical feminist,” and argues that the Bible sanctions abortion (the angel Gabriel indicated to the virgin Mary that God requires human consent before creating life. Unbelievably stupid and blasphemous, but some will, no doubt, be persuaded.) “Look, progressivism is actually more ‘Christian’ than the Right. The Bible supports abortion on demand, climate change, feminism—God is non-binary, you know—etc. etc.”
His “open-minded Christianity” is further evidenced by his description of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam as “circling the same truth” as Christianity, directly contrary to Jesus’s “I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to God but by Me.” But just like the country, as a whole, has slid, morally and culturally, to the Left in recent decades, too many have allowed the culture to influence their religion rather than vice versa. Thus, religion—still important in America—becomes a deception covering and condoning secular progressivism. What this has done is saturate Christianity with increased impurities and evil, and can, has, and tragically, probably will continue to “deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:18).
Time will tell how effective Talarico will be, and how well Paxton can expose this false Christianity to the people of Texas. I don’t think Talarico’s deceptions will work, but if they do, and he gets elected, we’ll see more Democrats across the country trying it. They will still hate true Christianity and Judaism, but it will allow them to steal more votes.
My point here is that the general trend over the past few decades is a country moving away from its founding principles. Mr. Jefferson shows us the way back to true greatness—the eternal (from “Creator”), founding principles enunciated in the Declaration. But the Democrats will never go back to that, nor will Republicans, for that matter. Limited government and a virtuous Republic are dead, at least for the foreseeable future. The question thus becomes, how long before this current corruption and evil completely destroy the Republic?
We need morally unbending leaders, and there are too few of those.
