James Madison: “I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical [fanciful] idea.”
Let’s examine this brilliant statement that the Left totally denies, in theory and practice.
1. Three quick points. Number one: Virtue and “intelligence” (education) are requirements for a republican government. Number two: If there is no virtue in the people, the country will be in a “wretched situation.” Number three: Government cannot make you happy or free. Only virtue in the people can do that. This is what the “Father of our Constitution” taught us. He learned it from history, and he was exactly right.
When was the last time you heard a politician—of either party—talk about a “virtuous” citizenship? Never. There is no power over people in that.
2. According to Madison (and all our Founders), virtue (goodness, self-control, godly morality, responsible behavior, unselfishness) is absolutely essential to true liberty. Contrary to Leftist ideology, licentiousness is not “freedom,” actually it is self-slavery, a slavery to lust, debauchery, selfishness. It will hurt the person who practices it, and usually have negative consequences to those around him/her. And it will require bigger and bigger government to control it.
Note that virtue needs “intelligence” (education). That begins with the home and family (which is a major reason why the Left wants to manipulate education and destroy the family). The supreme moral purpose of fathers and mothers—each which provide unique benefits to raising children—is to train children not to be licentious and uncivilized, but to guide them to practice self-control, and to conquer lust and evil enticements that will personally enslave them, harm them, maybe destroy them, and probably others as well. Parents must teach their children the virtue that is the very heart of a free society, and without which true freedom cannot exist—cannot exist for anybody because laws are needed to restrain evil people and must be applied to everyone equally, including those who don’t really need them (laws, obviously, restrict freedom). The more virtue in a society, the fewer laws necessary to contain barbaric, licentious behavior. Virtuous people need little government. Which is why the Left hates religion, the family, and virtue.
Recommended
So, a cardinal goal of Leftism is to destroy the nuclear family (fully evident today), and thus the virtuous education of children by a father and mother. The Left DEFINES freedom as licentiousness, and we are witnessing the abundant chaos such a policy is currently wreaking in modern America—a decadent, debauched, uncivilized citizenry that requires more, and bigger, government (external control) because this populous hasn’t been trained (educated) to exercise the internal self-control necessary for a self-governing people. This is exactly what the Left wants. The less virtue, the more decadence, the more need for government. It is the plan of the Democratic Party and how they intend to gain totalitarian control in America.
The Left doesn’t want you to be free. They want to control you, thus they teach and encourage as much licentious behavior as possible. More government is thus necessary to exercise power over that non-virtuous, degenerate population that cannot limit and discipline itself. In other words, cannot be free.
But government cannot save you from yourself because those who lust for power are just as debauched, just as unable to control themselves, as those whom they crave to dominate. A virtuous politician will NEVER encourage licentious behavior. And as Madison also said, “If a man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?”
Obviously, the “nuclear family” is the ideal and, just as obviously, not always possible. And there are many single parents who are doing their best, and doing well, to raise children of virtue and honor. But still, there is something lacking in the less-than-ideal: either the tough love of the masculine father or the tender affection of the feminine mother. It is no coincidence that the rise in decadence in America has been concomitant with the destruction of the nuclear family, the abandonment of God and His ideal for the family, and the rise of “alternate” lifestyles. This is no accident, and indeed, it is deliberate by the Left.
Government cannot save you. Government cannot free you. Government cannot even protect you from yourself. Government can only protect your freedoms, but only if you practice the virtues that produce true freedom. “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical [fanciful] idea.” No form of government can save a rotten people, and if a country has rotten people, it’s going to have a rotten government. A good government would help teach people to be self-controlled, to be responsible, to accept the consequences of inappropriate actions and reform. They would teach men to be men, to be honorable husbands and fathers, and women to be women, honorable wives and mothers. The United States government is the biggest problem the country now faces. Instead of wasting money fighting useless wars around the world and worrying about nonsense such as climate change, it needs to be protecting the freedoms of its own people from barbarians, and trying to build a virtuous citizenship. But if there is no virtue in the government—and we have little to none—then they won’t even know how to do what they ought to be doing.
“But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint... Men are qualified for liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.” Edmund Burke.
Check my substack mklewis929.substack.com for recent articles and podcasts. Lots more on the Founding Fathers there. Follow me on Twitter: @thailandmkl. Read my western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon. And God Bless America!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member