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Tag: Liberty

  • Civil Disobedience: The American Way

    Civil Disobedience: The American Way

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    State Chairman, Alaska Constitution Party

    Karen Murray

    “Not to Speak is to Speak. Not to Act is to Act.  To do nothing when a house is burning is to do something — it is to let the house burn. To say nothing when a country is burning is to do something — it is to let the country burn.” 1  

    One of the greatest tragedies of 21st Century America is its lack of education in regard to American history, literature, political philosophy and religious thought. We are drowning in mega-terabytes of information on a daily basis, yet we seem to be more confused and chaotic in our thinking than ever before. More information does not equate to more education. The type of information presented is more important than the amount of information. One of those missing pieces is the lack of knowledge on how to use logic, reasoning, and debate on issues about which we might disagree. As a people, we are becoming increasingly reactionary rather than taking well-thought-out action towards fixing whatever the problem may be. Our conversations often turn into confrontations, bullying, and violence, with no real solutions achieved. When political decisions are made which are in opposition to the founding principles of the Republic, those which violate the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; when the representatives of the people are only representing themselves or their financial backers, many people feel that there is no way to repair the damage, except through violence.  It’s time to re-educate our people on the art of Civil Disobedience.

    What is Civil Disobedience?

    Civil Disobedience is peaceful action by a citizen or group of citizens against a law, policy or regulation established by a governing authority.

    The first American example of Civil Disobedience was in response to the Quartering Act of 1756. As more British troops arrived in America during the French and Indian War, Parliament decided that the colonies should feed, clothe, house, and provide transportation for them. New York decided that it would not support such a mandate. The state assembly felt that the act of implementing it would send a message to Parliament that they supported the law. Instead, the act of non-compliance sent a stronger message that the colony did not recognize the authority of the state to impose such a mandate. They were later censured for this in one of the Townshend Acts.

    Henry David Thoreau, an American transcendentalist author/philosopher who lived in the 19th century wrote an essay called “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”.  Thoreau was concerned about a lot of government overreach in his day, but specifically slavery and the Mexican American War.  It is an enlightening work, surprising in its application to the situation Americans find themselves in today, and I highly recommend reading it.

    Another source for parts of this article is “Civil Disobedience: A Constitutional Alternative to Justice” by Samuel H.J. Shultz.2

    Rules of Civil Disobedience 

    Rule #1:  There must be an official government law, policy, regulation, etc. in place. 

    Rule #2:  That law, policy, regulation, etc. must be deemed to be Unjust. A good example of the concept of what is Unjust comes from the ancient Brehon Laws of Ireland.  A flax farmer’s field was adjacent to a sheep herder’s pasture.  One day the sheep escaped into the farmer’s field and devoured the flax.  This destroyed the farmer’s income for an entire year, until another crop could be raised.  The farmer sought compensation by bringing his case before the local Brehon (judge).  The Brehon ruled that because the flax had been destroyed, all the sheep must be destroyed.  Case closed.  A young boy about 14 years of age shouted, “This is an Unjust judgement!”  In those times anyone could challenge a case in this manner and of any age, so the boy was asked to prove his statement.  He explained that the flax could grow back the following year, but the sheep would not.  A Just decision would be to simply order that the sheep be sheared, and the fleece given to the farmer to compensate for the loss of his crop.

    Rule #3:  All appeals to common sense and calls to reverse the government act in question have been ignored or punished by public officials. A good example of this is found in very recent events in America.  Mask mandates and vaccine mandates are both examples of unjust government actions, which spawned spontaneous acts of Civil Disobedience by individual citizens across the country.

    Rule #4:  The word “civil” has two meanings when applied to the term Civil Disobedience.  It refers to government authority, but it also applies to peaceful and logical conduct. Although Civil Disobedience has been practiced in various forms throughout history, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and the 1960’s as well as the American Indian Movement of the 1970’s are two examples many of us remember still.  Violence eventually erupted in both these movements and the reasons are varied and complicated.  Yet both began as powerful examples of Civil Disobedience.  Will the future look back upon the battle to re-establish America’s Constitutional Republic as a beacon of light in a dark world?  Only time will tell.

    Consequences

    There are always natural and unnatural consequences for any choice we make. Newton’s Third Law of Motion applies here in more ways than one: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” 

    If you choose to practice Civil Disobedience, you can expect some sort of reaction from those who would be tyrannical.

    There are an endless number of government acts which need to be overcome by exercising this Duty of American citizenship, indeed it can be said to be a Duty of all humans – to defeat tyranny through peaceful and lawful means.

    1. Roger K. Hudnut, 1971; A Sensitive Man and the Christ, page 21.
      ↩︎
    2. Schultz, Samuel H.J. (2019) “Civil Disobedience: A Constitutional Alternative to Injustice,” Mitchell Hamline Law Review: Vol. 45: Iss. 2, Article 9. Available at: https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/mhlr/vol45/iss2/9 ↩︎
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  • Why is Private Property so Important?

    Why is Private Property so Important?

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    CONSTITUTION PARTY NATIONAL CHAIRMAN

    Justin Magill

    Most Americans today tend to think of private property simply as a home – the place where the family resides, store their belongings, and find shelter and safety from the elements. It’s where you live. It’s yours because you pay the mortgage and the taxes. Most people don’t give property ownership much more thought than that.

    But there was a time when property ownership was considered to be much more. Property, and the ability to own and control it, was life itself.

    The great economist John Locke, whose writings and ideas had a major influence on our nation’s founders, believed that “life and liberty are secure only so long as the right of property is secure.”

    John Locke advocated that if property rights did not exist, then the incentive to develop and improve property would be destroyed;

    Private property ownership, Locke argued, brought stability and wealth to individuals, leading to a prosperous society of man.

    From the very beginning, the United States was guided by the idea of private property ownership. It was written into our governing documents. Property and freedom – one cannot live without the other.

    John Adams argued, “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”

    In today’s America, private property is quickly being destroyed across the nation, and note the growing lawlessness. The fear of climate change has become the excuse for government to dictate how every strip of land will be used.

    Have you ever wondered why these green forces focus so hard on the environment?

    That’s because the environment does not recognize political boundaries. The environment crosses rivers, fields, and mountains, all of which cross over national borders, state borders, county borders, city borders, and the boundary lines of your yard!

    That fact has given massive new power to those forces that seek to change our way of life and system of government.

    If you are determined to protect private property rights, then you need to start with a good definition of what private property is. Too many people think it just means a place where you pay to store your stuff.

    Here is a definition that was written by a Washington State Supreme Court Justice – Richard B. Sanders:

    “Property in a thing consists not merely of its ownership and possession, but in the unrestricted right of use, enjoyment, and disposal. Anything which destroys any of the elements of property to that extent, destroys the property itself. The substantial value of property lies in its use. If the right of use be denied, the value of the property is annihilated, and ownership is rendered a barren right.”

    We keep trying to defend liberty. Today, we need to take the offense. I think we can do that by taking that definition of private property as our banner and start demanding our rights.

    Tom DeWeese,
    President
    American Policy Center
    https://americanpolicy.org/

    Tom DeWeese is one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, private property rights, personal privacy, back-to-basics education and American sovereignty and independence. Today he serves as Founder and President of the American Policy Center.

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    Why Is private property so important? – Constitution Party

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  • A New Declaration of Independence

    A New Declaration of Independence

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    Constitution Party National Chairman

    Justin Magill

    The Founders of America declared their Independence from the tyranny that had
    increasingly oppressed them. They declared themselves and their posterity separate from and free from the tyrants who were abusing their individual rights. They fought a defensive war against their mother country which had attacked them with oppressive taxes, abuses in the courts, the military, and even mercenaries.

    Today, we face ever increasing tyranny and abuse from our Public Functionaries. Those we put in positions to secure our individual rights have betrayed us and violate their oaths of office.

    They have attacked our individual rights and have prostituted us for their own ambitions for popularity, power, and wealth. They have done what they were given
    the authority to prevent and we are left with the knowledge that we are funding and
    promoting our own oppression.

    It is time for American Citizens to wake up and take responsibility for their own
    governance and get their public functionaries back in line. It is time for a return to
    limited government!

    From the Constitution Party, July 4, 2025

    A Declaration of the Rights of American Citizens, When in the Course of human events,
    it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have
    connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
    separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle
    them, a decent respect to the opinions of the Citizens of America requires that they
    should declare the causes which cause them to declare their Public Functionaries to be
    traitors who have violated their oath of office and disregarded the Constitution.

    We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equally free and
    independent, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that
    among these are Life, Liberty and the right to own and use Private Property.–That to
    secure these individual rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their
    just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Public Functionary
    becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to correct them, and to
    return Government to its limited form. Prudence will dictate that long established
    traditions should not be changed for light and passing causes; and accordingly, all

    experience hath shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer, while evil is sufferable,
    than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But
    when a long train of abuses and violations, following invariably the same Object,
    demonstrates a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is
    their duty, to throw off such Public Functionaries, and to return to the Guards for their
    future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of We the People; and such is
    now the necessity which constrains them to alter their current Systems of Government
    and return to the limited government we previously had. The history of the present
    Oligarchy is a history of repeated injuries and violations, all having the direct purpose of
    establishing an absolute Tyranny over the People. To prove this, let Facts be submitted
    to a candid People.

    They have created a wall of bureaucracy and agencies to insulate them from
    accountability.

    They have erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent swarms of Officers to harass
    our people, and take their private property.

    They have refused to pass laws submitted to them, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

    They have treated some individuals and groups like second-class citizens, violating their Rights for the preferential treatment or benefit of other individuals or groups.

    They have used the IRS and Law Enforcement agencies to target and harass those who have questioned or resisted them.

    They have repeatedly prevented and persecuted Citizens for speaking out at public
    meetings, Citizens who have opposed with firmness the invasions on the rights of the
    people.

    They have made Judges through bureaucracies who are dependent on their Will alone,
    for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries, and have
    directed abuse of justice by their judges.

    They have repeatedly ignored due process and, without warrants, searched private
    property and records, taken private property, and imprisoned individuals indefinitely.

    They have raised and kept among us, Standing Armies of alphabet agencies and
    bureaucrats to rule in the place of the limited legislature, executive, and judiciary
    branches of the Constitution.

    They have combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our
    constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving their Ascent to their Acts of
    pretended laws:

    They have bought our schools and indoctrinate our children into their service:

    They have used the guise of environmental protection to steal our private property and
    confiscate our assets.

    For protecting their bureaucrats, by a mock Trial or no trial, from punishment for any
    abuses which they have committed on the Citizens of these States:

    For creating and facilitating conflicts in foreign lands for their own profits:

    For wasting our sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers, lives and
    wellbeing and the meager resources of our Citizens, for their wars and conflicts:

    For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent, to pay for unconstitutional expenditures:

    For abusing us with the unfettered tax of inflating away our incomes and savings
    through fiat currency and crushing debt:

    For preventing us from using sound money, silver and gold, for currency:

    For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

    For taking away our Constitutions, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering
    fundamentally the Forms of our Governments through their judges:

    For buying our own Legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to
    legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

    They have abdicated the right to govern here, by declaring us out of their Protection and waging War against us.

    They have incited domestic insurrections amongst us and have endeavored to bring on
    the daily destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

    In every stage of these Oppressions, We have Petitioned for Redress in the humblest
    terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Public
    Functionary, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is
    unfit to be the representative of a free People.

    Nor have We been lacking in thoughts of our American brethren. We have warned them
    from time to time of attempts by their government to extend an unwarrantable
    jurisdiction over us. We have invoked them by the ties of our common kindred to
    disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably disrupt our connections,
    communication, and our unity. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of
    kinship. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our
    Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace
    Friends.

    We, therefore, the Constitution Party, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for
    the correctness of our intentions, do, in the Name of the Citizens of America, solemnly
    publish and declare, That We the People are, and of Right ought to be Free and
    Independent; that We are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Oligarchy, and that all
    political connection between us and the Oligarchy, is and ought to be totally dissolved;
    and that as Free and Independent Citizens of America, We have full Power and Right to
    do all other Acts and Things which Free Citizens may of right do. We invoke the return to the Constitution and to a limited government that will secure our inalienable Rights.

    We demand that our States get their creation, the U.S. government, back under control. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.