Responsible Liberty

Ronald Reagan said, “A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.” 

The responsible liberty that Reagan speaks of is not some new idea that he invented. He understood full well what our founding fathers and those who have followed meant when they spoke of our freedoms, given to us by our Creator, as unalienable rights. He understood that liberty without responsibility is the road to anarchy. He understood that responsibility without liberty is the road to tyranny. Anarchy and tyranny are ideas that we, as Americans should never accept. We must maintain the necessary dependency of liberty upon responsibility and vice versa. They cannot exist, meaningfully, without one another.

Reagan also said ,“I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.” Government power consumes liberty. An unchecked government will abuse and add to its power until we, the people, stop it from further doing so. The Constitution of the United States was not meant to restrict what the people could do, it was written to restrict what the government can do. We must not allow the government to ignore and trample on the Constitution any longer. The founding fathers knew this. We must not forget. John Adams said, “But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”Read that again, liberty, once lost, is lost forever. It is our duty as Americans to insure that this never happens.