Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

Date: March 27, 2008 - # 8813 - Title: Principle # 3 (814)

Are ‘we-the-people’ looking for the best presidential candidate or have we reached that day when we are willing to settle for the second best, or even the third best candidate, because the best candidate or candidates are unwilling to go through the anguish associated with America’s political process?

            Perhaps it was ironic that this column on Skousen’s third principle of good government would publish during the heat and passion of the 2008 presidential primary. What we are witnessing is not a pretty sight – but it’s still the best system for choosing elected leaders, short of the Lord reaching down and choosing another Moses to lead America.

            But how long will America retain its liberties if we continue to elect leaders because they are a war hero, a black man, or a woman? Are these the qualifications Jethro told Moses to look for in setting up a people run government? Not likely.  

            Our government ‘of the people’ was designed to be a ‘shared government’ with everyone taking part in it. This leads to that third principle of good government: “The most promising method of securing a virtuous and morally stable people is to elect virtuous leaders.” Would you consider our current elected leaders as virtuous as the Founding Fathers? If not, why not? And shouldn’t we try to find those individuals who can lead America out of the quagmire it finds itself in? And this refers to all elected officials, including county commission members, school board members, and state and federal leaders.

            The process begins, as Jethro told Moses, by educating our children. He told Moses (Exodus 18) “thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work they must do.” How different this nation would be if our children were being taught today “the ‘laws of Nature’s God’ that Jefferson said was the foundation of this nation’s liberties. The Founders tried to instill this principle into our governing system with the 1787 Northwest Ordinance which stated that every new territory, to become a state, would have to establish schools and teach “religion, morality and knowledge.”

             The second step, after educating the rising generations on the source of our freedoms was to “provide,” as Jethro told Moses, “out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands (the president), rulers of hundreds (state leaders), and rulers of fifties (county governments), and rulers of tens (city governments): and let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.” That was shared government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” long before Lincoln coined the phrase.

            The final step after choosing the leaders was to charge them as judges of the people. Deuteronomy records that he “charged your judges at that time, saying, hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.”

            The Founding Fathers followed this pattern in establishing our Constitution. But America has strayed from this pattern, and is likely, as did the Israelites, to pay a price, perhaps a heavy price, for not adhering to “the laws of Nature’s God” this nation was founded on.

            Beginning in the late 1800s our law schools began to distance themselves from the Constitution and teach case studies and consider them as precedence. The Israelites had their own Case studies - the Torah, and ignored “the [59] perfect laws of liberty” Moses had established to judge the daily relationships of the people, much like America is selectively ignoring our constitutional principles today.

            These 59 laws were the laws the Founders, especially Madison, found in their biblical studies and founded the Constitution on, consciously or unconsciously.

            The Israelites ignored their “perfect laws of liberty” and were scattered and destroyed. Is America ignoring Moses’ counsel and following the same path the Israelites followed or will America choose men and women whose intent it is to serve the people and establish peace within our nation and continue to be what America created to be – a beacon of hope unto the world.

Our choice of a new president will tell the world if America still wants the best or is willing to settle for the second - or third best amongst us.