Opus 2013-51: Cornerstone Considerations: D of I, Truths: The Consent of the Governed

One of the revolutionary concepts advocated by the Founding Fathers is that people have a right to the kind of government they want and it is that buy-in that makes government legitimate.

“That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed,...”

Elections and representative government are the ways in which we have addressed this. 

Our modern government is drifting away from this with the growing number of regulatory agencies that are appointed and not elected.  The current administration is making this an art form but they are not alone in going around the rule of law to get what they want.  Most of the limitations on our everyday freedoms come from regulations written by bureaucrats who never need to run for reelection and who seem to have almost unlimited power to coerce and intimidate.  Think of the IRS.  Think of TSA.  Think of the DMV. 

Some people say that people get the kind of government they deserve.  I think it is more appropriate to say that people get the kind of government they are willing to put up with.  The problem is that we seem to be willing to put up with more and more government and demand less and less liberty.

It is the next section of the Declaration that gets scary, at least to governments.

homo unius libri