America’s New Year’s Resolution—A Covenant For Civic & Personal Renewal

America is struggling to maintain our economic health, dignity and confidence. We therefore need to make a renewed commitment, a covenant, to return to the virtues of the American way of life. A majority are upset with the direction America is headed. Many think the US has fallen off track because of overly liberal or morally corrupt leadership. The notion we must become like Europe and accept an under-performing economy, welfare lifestyles, a reduction in military might, and huge growth in bureaucracy outrages many. As well it should! For the government exists for our benefit and protection. Contra, we do not owe government the duty of living as mindless automatons feeding its ever- increasing expansion and might.

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We are at a crossroads. We can either accept the idea America is a spent force, used up, ethically suspect, and over the hill because of some strange invisible disease. Or, we can make up our minds to climb back up that peak and reclaim the pinnacle of world leadership. Will it be hard, take intense concentration and effort, and expose us to the ridicule of our enemies? We already know the answer to those questions. But is there any other way out of our morass, short of giving up? It is time we renew our vows as Americans, to each other, and the nation at large. This article is about challenging ourselves to rise above the current cultural squalor, liberal defeatism, and progressive suicide cult mentality. Instead, we must choose the sacrifices of excellence, and a return to the classic themes that made America great, by cutting spending, honoring marriage, educating our children properly, dismantling censorship, and returning to our faith traditions.

I. Introduction to Civil Revival

Why should Americans consider signing a pact for renewal? As acknowledgment things have gotten out of control. We are at a crossroads where the entire future of our great land hangs in the balance. The purpose of renewing our commitment to our American principles, in the sight of all citizens, is to return to doing our very best possible, for us, our children and the rest of the world. After all, we have a duty. We do so by summing up the obvious: That,

1. America has a potentially fatal disease of incompetence, apathy, and loss of faith;
2. Unless we act quickly and decisively, the America we used to know will perish, overtaken by a loathsome imposter. And,
3. Without public renewal, the task is so difficult it will probably not be followed through individually.

II. Background

We Americans are a people of the covenant. According to Donald Lutz, the model for the American Constitution came from the earliest Pilgrim and Puritan civil covenants used when our forebears first planted communities upon the Northeast of this continent. Lutz describes how biblical church covenants became the most influential idea in the history of political agreements, used by Constitutional philosopher John Locke to morph into civil social contract. The history of the social contract covers three compelling elements, according to Sir Ernest Baker, in Social Contract, Locke, Hume, Rousseau. The first is Roman Law, the second are biblical teachings, and the third, Aristotle's Politics. Writes Baker,

Very large elements of political liberalism were based on a conflation of three sources -- the teachings of the Bible, the doctrines of Roman Law, and the principles of Aristotle's Politics. The Bible taught that the powers that be are ordained of God; but it also taught that David made a covenant with his people. It was the doctrine of Roman Law that quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem ("That which pleases the prince has the strength of law" ); but it was also the doctrine of Roman Law that the reason why this was so was that "the people, by the Lex Regia passed into regard to his authority and power. The principle of Aristotle's Politics might seem to favor a monarchy of the one best man; but they also favored a clear distinction between the king and the tyrant, and they endorsed the right of the masses not only to elect the magistrate but also call him to account.

Therefore, what some might see as an overly religious doctrine, others could suggest has too much pagan influence. This is perfect for a diverse country. Our great history of forming compacts, covenants and social contracts will serve us well in pledging to recommit ourselves to America's fundamental doctrines of capitalism, freedom, and small representational government.

III. Five Resolutions

National Debt, Personal Debt & Taxes

Massive US deficits are meant to solve certain problems, but what are they? In fact, the cure is worse than the disease. Consider these quotes: "Every business person, and anyone who has ever managed a checkbook, knows you can’t survive by borrowing 40 cents of every dollar you spend. Yet this is what our federal government is doing -- with no real improvement projected even after the economy recovers." Another author says, "The American public is largely unaware that the true deficit of the federal government already is measured in trillions of dollars, and in fact its $65.5 trillion in total obligations exceeds the gross domestic product of the world. " And from another story,

If Congress could stop the debt growth at $15 trillion and borrow all the money at 2% interest rate it would take budget surpluses of 500 billion per year for 50 years straight to pay off the national debt. Remember that the current debt is nearly $1.5 trillion per year so there is nearly a $2 trillion dollar swing needed in the budget of the US government to pay this off.

America must balance its spending ASAP, or risk insolvency. This can be done by slashing spending, and cutting taxes. Arthur Laffer's economics of taxation paid off under Ronald Reagan. Laffer's Curve says lowering taxes actually raises tax revenues, up to as point, as less people try to hide income and more people work longer hours. If we slashed social welfare spending, we'd attack almost half the budget, as about 45% of the 2008 US budget was spent on Welfare and Medicare. States are struggling, too. Jonah Goldberg writes, saying, "In California alone, pension costs have gone up 2,000 percent in a decade." But the problem is not just happening in government, but on a personal level, too. Consumer credit card debt alone is now almost $1 trillion dollars. And has all the junk we bought made us happier? Therefore, we must foreswear all debt, public and private, for the foreseeable future as part of our national compact.

Getting Rid of Political Correctness

Any thinking person understands Political Correctness is killing America. It is the death of general standards of behavior in deference for the chosen few. It is a leftist attempt to upend the social order in the name of "progress." It murders free speech. Political Correctness punishes virtue, rewarding indolence and incompetence. Therefore, it is a public evil to be destroyed. The main evil PC promotes is crypto-Marxism under the guise of "sensitivity training." PC was introduced by the Frankfurt School, whose goals are listed here: The Frankfurt school recommended (amongst other things):

1. the creation of racism offences
2. continual change to create confusion
3. the teaching of sex and homosexuality to children
4. the undermining of schools and teachers' authority
5. huge immigration to destroy national identity
6. the promotion of excessive drinking
7. emptying the churches
8. an unreliable legal system with bias against the victim of crime
9. dependency on the state or state benefits
10. >control and dumbing down of media

PC is cultural Marxism, therefore it must die, and it is we who must club it to death.

Education

Much of America's current problems result from appalling educational standards at our free schools. Because many adults can think rationally, demagogues manipulate them. Therefore, we must change the school curriculum immediately. The Founder's society is claimed the most brilliant in history. But what did they have that we don't? Only resolve. The following subjects must be studied: Logic, including fallacies; World, classical, European and American history; concepts of capitalism; propaganda and how to detect it; an intense study of communism and its failures, and the history of freedom. We must commit ourselves to make the coming generations twice as educated as each previous.

Re-Sanctification of Marriage?

How many devils are released through each divorce? Marriage is no longer held as a sacred bond, but one of convenience. But the fallout from easy divorces and children out of wedlock is devastating to children and adults, with each faring worse in every testable criteria. For example, kids of divorce double the risk of stroke. Or consider a Heritage Foundation report,

Children of divorce are increasingly victims of abuse. They exhibit more health, behavioral, and emotional problems, are involved more frequently in and drug abuse, have higher rates of suicide, perform more poorly in reading, spelling, and math. They also are more likely to repeat a grade and have higher drop-out rates and lower rates of college graduation. Almost 50% of divorced parents with children move into poverty after the divorce.

We can teach ourselves to honor again this most sacred bond. We do so by refusing easy divorces, and encouraging friends and family to stick it out. Marriage is an academy for character building, which then is added to the sum total character of our nation.

Faith Communities

We all have faith communities, we can repair to, even agnostics and atheists. It is in our churches, synagogues, and other gatherings of those sharing our metaphysical views that help revive our spirits. In world history, originally only Bible peoples had charity, or tzedakah. To retake the controls of government largesse, we must insist the widowed, infirm and orphans receive aid on a personal level. Further, it is our faith communities which equip us to do great acts of charity, as the Golden Rule teaches: Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

IV. A Proposed Renewal Covenant Outline

A. We shall:

1. Commit ourselves to balance our federal, state and personal budgets every year, while leaving some aside for a rainy day fund.
2. Fight against Political Correctness to the ends of our might; for it is Marxist evil.
3. Reconstitute the educational system of America, making sure our real history is taught, along with logic, economics, government, science, and the classics, regardless of the costs.
4. Re-Sanctify Marriage. We must admit this is the most solemn vow on earth. Is is the introduction into civil society for all people. Therefore, we must fight to salvage it.
5. Repair to our houses of faith, or sources of tradition, to feed our souls, and bring others along on this magnificent task.

Conclusion

America's roots are covenanted and virtuous. Unless we return to our foundation honoring Life, Liberty and Property, there will be nothing left of the old America that blazed the trail for the rest of the world to follow to freedom and prosperity. Therefore, let us commit ourselves to this covenant in the presence of our faiths, whether agnostics, or even Tea Parties, or in the presence of our long-suffering God.