The Tree of Liberty

by Lyn Nofziger, 7/23/01

(Columnist and former Reagan adviser)

When this country was relatively small, consisting only of 13 colonies along the eastern seaboard it was possible for freedom lovers to band together in opposition to, among other indignities, taxation without representation.

Over a period of years resentment among the colonists grew toward a large and remote government that limited freedom and imposed itself in and on the lives of the people.

Eventually they had enough and they revolted. And out of that revolution arose the United States, a nation dedicated to liberty and justice for all. For more than 100 years the ideals of liberty and justice for all were taken to heart and were enlarged and expanded.

At a bloody cost slavery was abolished. Women won the right to vote. Laws were passed ensuring equality for all Americans. This was a good land.

But then in the early twentieth century the idea became acceptable by many Americans that government is more important than the individual, that government's purpose is not to make men free but to guide them and direct them and to force upon them rules and regulations that those elected to govern insist are for their own good. And because the people took freedom for granted they accepted laws and regulations and rules that limited their rights and their liberties because, they were convinced, the security and comfort each new law and regulation and rule brought were worth the loss of a little bit of freedom.

Thus it is that 225 years after the outbreak of the American Revolution Americans are right back where they started, with a big government that limits freedom and imposes itself in and on the lives of the people. Only more so.

Perhaps it all began with the income tax, that tax that in fact makes slaves of the people, that takes money out of a worker's pocket before he ever sees it, that puts him in prison if he refuses to pay it, that goes to buy votes and in other ways to accrue power unto a select few, that gives the national government nearly absolute power and authority over the 50 states, thus making a joke out of the proposition that this is a nation made up of a group of states banded together for a common cause and a common good.

Yes, it is true that in some respects freedom has continued to grow, sexual freedom, abortion, the right to express one's self through vulgarity and sacrilege. On the other hand most of today's laws and regulations widening freedom for one group do so at the expense of others.

Racial preferences are a classic example. When special rights are granted to one group for whatever reason they are granted at the expense of other groups.

When religious symbols are banned in public places so as not to offend atheists they limit others of the right to proclaim their beliefs. When schools are forced to become co-educational they are deprived of the right to educate those whom they would choose. When owners are banned from using private lands because of the possible presence of so-called endangered species government in effect abolishes the right to private property. When government moves to ban gun ownership it takes away a free man's right to protect himself and his family and makes tyranny easier to establish.

When government tells a restaurant owner, a business owner or a building owner that smoking is not allowed in his place of business it is limiting that owner's freedom to decide to whom he will cater and how he will run his business.

No one denies that government has some basic obligations such as providing for the national defense, protecting the populace from crime and criminals and passing laws that ensure public safety and individual freedom.

But there is a line, and not a particularly fine one between ensuring public safety without infringing on individual freedom and passing laws that put government in the business of telling the individual what he can't do and what he must do and what government has a right to do and force others to do.

These days that line is crossed more and more frequently. Congress passes laws that grant government more authority and take from the people more of their freedom. Bureaucrats write regulations to implement those laws, regulations which often go beyond the intent of the law. Federal agencies are given the right to fine and imprison and confiscate without trial.

Daily government at all levels, but especially the national government, encroaches on and limits those rights supposedly guaranteed by the constitution.

Additionally, the movement grows and the willingness grows to subject the rights of Americans to international courts and tribunals and treaties and commissions. And the will to oppose this movement also grows-- weaker.

What is to be done if free men are to preserve their freedom from encroaching domestic government and efforts to impose world government on Americans, efforts that are encouraged in some quarters of this land?

Jefferson said it best: "The tree of Liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

We have not yet reached that point and we may never; we may instead succumb to the rules and whims and dictates of an elite few whom we have mistakenly chosen to govern us.

Nevertheless there is a movement afoot in the land that gives hope. While advances in communications technology have made the world smaller they have also made the nation smaller and provided a way for freedom lovers to identify one another and to warn each other of what government is doing to limit and abolish the rights of free men, aided and abetted by fools and others who place their trust in government.

I don't know what's going on on the left, outside of what I read in the papers, but I hear from some on the right and I know that there are persons on the right who are alerting us as best they can to the on-going incursions of big government into our lives.

No longer can government attack and tyrannize in one area without it quickly being known nation-wide. And as government continues to exercise illegitimate power opposition to it grows. We have seen roads closed by the government in western lands reopened by irate citizens. In the Klamath area where the government has shut off water to farms we are seeing citizens take action to open the watergates.

We have seen bars and saloons permit smoking where it is banned by law.

We have seen the nation ignore 55-mile speed limits. We have seen parents home schooling their children because the public education system has failed them. We have seen a judge refuse to take down the Ten Commandments from where they were posted in his courtroom.

We have seen Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidians at Waco refuse to knuckle under to tyrannical law enforcement agencies.

We have seen the growth of public law foundations aimed at fighting overweening government in the courts. And there is more, and all of this is good.

However, the fact is that today the forces of freedom in this land are fighting a sporadic and losing battle. And this leaves one final question. Will the American people submit eventually and finally to the authority of Big Brother and big nanny government that dictates their daily actions and runs their daily lives or one day, while they still have their guns, will they rise up as they did 225 years ago and begin again the fight for liberty and justice for all?

It is to be hoped.