Benjamin Franklin once said, “They who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
The founders of our country, the drafters of the Federal Constitution and of the State Constitutions, knew the need to protect individuals from the authoritarian repression of overbearing government and the tyranny of the majority. They knew the unique sovereignty of the individual. They knew that the "men of Darkness" would always be with us and would always tempt us with the offer of a trade of liberty for unattainable utopia. In recent years, the Federal constitutional protections have been eroded, most often in search of security. We often encounter the Federal Constitution not as a means of protection for our inalienable rights, but as a tool to undermine the very source of those rights.
Ronald Reagan noted in a speech over 50 years ago, that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Generations have passed since then. Were we to rely now on the Federal Constitution as a safeguard of liberty, there would be no generation standing between us and its extinction.
Hope, however, is not lost. The best hope for our country to recapture our liberty lies in the many State Constitutions. Dan Itse, in States Have Powers, gives us an encouraging reminder that, within our State Constitutions, lie the tools to fight for freedom, protect freedom, and hand freedom down to our children.
States Have Powers is a fight by Dan Itse for freedom and a fight to protect freedom and to hand that freedom on to our children.
We should heed that message.
