The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

American Ideals and Ideas

I have often written in my Articles and Chirps about our American ideals and ideas. But what are these American ideals and ideas? The answer is that The Declaration of Independence expresses our American ideals, while the Constitution of the United States is the ideas of how to implement our ideals. I have touched upon these American ideals and ideas in many of my Chirps and a few Articles. However, as these articles and Chirps do not do full justice to our American ideals and ideas, I have therefore coalesced these Chirps into this article.

Our essential American Ideals of “Life, Liberty, Property, and The Pursuit of Happiness “ and “Freedoms, Liberties, Equalities, and Equal Justice for All” are enshrined in our two founding documents: The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States. These ideals are based on our Founding Fathers' understanding of Natural Rights and Natural Law. Yet very few Americans have read these documents, and fewer still understand their meaning, as well as the meaning of Natural Rights and Natural Law. The following three books are excellent guides to our American Ideals as expressed in The Declaration of Independence:

• The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty by Timothy Sandefur
• The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom by Thomas G. West
• The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition by Bernard Bailyn

These books examine the understanding of our Founding Fathers on Natural Law and Natural Rights and how they based their understanding on the crafting of The Declaration of Independence. Three other books examine the incorporation of these ideals into the crafting of the ideas of The Constitution of the United States are:

• The Constitution: An Introduction by Michael Stokes Paulsen and Luke Paulsen
• The Heritage Guide to the Constitution: Fully Revised Second Edition by David F. Forte, Matthew Spalding, et al.
• The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant 3rd Edition by Robert G. Natel

After reading these books, you will know and understand these documents and their importance in both yesteryear and today’s society.

The ideas of Natural Law and Natural Rights are often conflated into the term Natural Rights. Though these two ideas are closely related, they are not the same. Natural law is inherent and fundamental in a society of sentient beings who wish to survive and thrive in their interactions with each other. Natural rights are those rights derived from natural law that establish a zone of liberty and freedom for an individual that no other person, group of persons, or government can violate. The issues and concerns of philosophers, theologians, legal scholars, and others involved in this epistemology are to determine the natural laws and the natural rights derived from these laws. A fine legal article (but easily readable and understandable by non-lawyers) is A Law Professor’s Guide to Natural Law and Natural Rights by Randy E. Barnett, which defines and explains the ideas of Natural Law and Natural Rights.

Many Americans do not know or have forgotten the ideals and ideas upon which our country was founded. As I have said, “The Declaration of Independence expresses our American ideals, while the Constitution of the United States is the ideas of how to implement our ideals.”. However, these ideals and ideas have several interpretations and meanings that often are contradictory or contentious and fraught with misunderstandings of the founders’ intentions. Some of the most common misunderstandings, contradictions, and contentiousness, along with the links to the Articles or Chirps that I have written on these topics, about these documents are:

• A Republic or a Democratic interpretation of the Constitution:
  “A Republican Constitution or a Democratic Constitution”
   
• Natural Law and Natural Rights in society, governance, and law:
  “A Hierarchy of Rights” and "Natural, Human, and Civil Rights"
   
• The Conflicts of Individual Liberties and Freedoms in a Social Compact of Government:
  “06/17/21 Conflicts of Individual Liberties and Freedoms versus Government”
   
• The Importance and assurance of Equalities and Equal Justice for All in governance:
  “Freedoms, Liberties, Equalities, and Equal Justice for All” and "Justice and The Rule of Law in America"
   
• The place of Religion, Morality, Ethics, and Virtue within government and society:
  “10/14/19 Doing Nothing Illegal”, “Religion, Morality, Character, and Virtue within Government and Society”
   
• The Precepts of a Civil Society:
  "A Civil Society"
   
• The Role and Responsibilities of the Government in Crime and Punishment:
  “06/15/21 Crime and Punishment”
   
• The Role and Responsibilities of the Government in Public Education and Public Welfare:
  “Indoctrination versus Education”, “03/24/21 Is it Time to End Public Education?”, and “Entitlements”
  
  
• The Role and Responsibilities of the Judiciary and Judges in a Just Society:
  "The Law is Not All", "The Rule of Law or the Rule of Lawyers", and "Judges, Not Lords"
  
  
• What constitutes a Just Government and a Just Society?:
  “A Just Government and a Just Society”
  

America is not just a place but a belief in these American Ideals and Ideas and the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. To be un-American is to not believe and uphold these ideals and ideas and the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

Ergo, if you believe in Internationalism or are a Citizen of the World, then you cannot be an American. As Hamlet asked himself, ‘To Be, or Not to Be’, you must decide whether to be an American or not to be an American – you cannot be both. To be an American is to commit to these ideals, ideas, and principles, and to not be an American is to put your internationalism and world citizenship ahead of your Americanism. Otherwise, you will become entangled in a non-sequitur from which there is no escape other than to decide to be or not to be an American.

If you disagree with some of these American Ideals and Ideas, then the proper method to change them is through the process of a Constitutional Amendment. Any other method of change is contrary to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and it is unacceptable and a corruption of our American Ideals and Ideas, and therefore un-American.