By: Rev. Daniel J. Bradley
November 7, 2024
It seems only time two days after 2024 elections to look at the concepts of freedom, liberty, justice, and grace in our constitution and God’s continuing work through the messes that we have made as American Citizens.
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.”—The Apostle Paul
Jim Hartung was my US History and government teacher at Niagara Falls High School my senior year. He was a large man with a bald spot on his head. He always wore a tacky suit jacket with patches on the elbows. Mr. Hartung had a passion for the constitution. He had marched in the 1960 ‘s with the peace movement and against the abuses of power from the government which he would say, “We have strayed so far from the framer’s vision of this perfect union guided by the light of liberty and the Constitution which is penned in iron.”
The genius of grace in a constitutional republic is that the framers of this document left a loophole to correct errors and injustice. The 14th, 15th, 16th and the 22nd amendments are illustrations of course corrections when we have got it wrong. This is not a perfect union, and we are not a perfect people. We have blown it with regards to the genocide of native persons, slavery, the failure to give women and blacks the right to vote, and waging endless wars for money, oil, and wealth and poverty. The last item I will comment on is the treatment of immigrants whether they are documented. This issue was at the heart of the 2024 campaigns for President and other elected offices.
The most damming thing about the American political system is the amount of lobbyists and cash dumped into supporting candidates who then are beholden to the lobbyist like a puppet on the strings of its master. I believe it was William Shakespeare who wrote, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
In Richard the II, King Richard monolog of morning and loss gives the most powerful picture of grief and humanity of the human spirit:
For God's sake, let us sit upon the groundAnd tell sad stories of the death of kings;How some have been deposed; some slain in war,Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;All murder'd: for within the hollow crownThat rounds the mortal temples of a kingKeeps Death his court and there the antic sits,Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,Allowing him a breath, a little scene,To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,Infusing him with self and vain conceit,As if this flesh which walls about our life,Were brass impregnable, and humour'd thusComes at the last and with a little pinBores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
When I think of the framers of the Declaration of Independence which was really a decree of war, I think of the courage it took for the signing member to sign their death warrants. The fruit of liberty comes from the freedom of the Spirit which will not be ruled over. In this imperfect union the Framers of the Constitution and the signers of the Declaration of Independence fought and died for a government of elected representatives that would work on the will of the people striving for progress not perfection.
Joe Pesci (Simon Wilder) in the 1994 film, With Honors reminds the Harvard professor that, “the president is a bum…the only bliss he is searching for is freedom and justice.”
Freedom and justice are what every person citizen or not should be striving for. Living in peace with our neighbors who reside in the land in which we all are immigrants (illegal) at some point in history. We should not be pompous or righteous over lording our wealth and power over today’s immigrants. When should instead focus on freedom and justice for all. The writer of Deuteronomy which is often attributed to Moses states with regards to the alien in the land:
And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. 20 Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. 21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky. [1] Deuteronomy 10:19-22
One of the egregious errors crafted into the constitution was the three-fifths compromise. This was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention over the inclusion of slaves in a state's total population. This count would determine: the number of seats in the House of Representatives; the number of electoral votes each state would be allocated; and how much money the states would pay in taxes.
In remembering this egregious action, it occurs to me that black men and women were not granted the right to vote until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Integration of black students to white schools happened in 1954. The national guard in full riot with weapons drawn had to escort black children into schools in the southern states. The Selma Alabama march for freedom and justice for black Americans was met with firehoses, dogs, and the police beating the non-violent protests. It may seem as we have come a long way, but we really have just scratched the surface. With the present political environment, it seems we have turned back progress by a hundred or so years.
“The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority.” –James Madison
The minorities in this country are the unemployed, the poor and indigent, the black communities (which look like war zones), the 40 million without health insurance, special needs persons, the elderly that are racked and stacked in nursing homes, widows, orphans, wards of the state immigrant documented or undocumented, the LGBTQIA+ communities, and I could go on forever in a day. Instead of protecting these persons they are marginalized with no voice or hope left except for their elected representatives who are in bed with big oil, the pharmaceutical industry, the National Rifle Association (NRS) and so many other lobbyists.
Between January 2023 and April 2024, US political campaigns collected around $8.6 billion for the 2024 House, Senate, and presidential elections. Over 65% of that money, about $5.6 billion, came from political action committees (PACs).
Individual candidates have drawn over $2.0 billion, while party committees raised just over $929.9 million: $188.6 million for the Democratic National Committee, $130.1 million for the Republican National Committee, with the remainder coming from party committees at the local, state, and national level. So far, the 2024 campaigns have spent approximately $3.9 billion of total funds raised.
I assure you that in all my years of study that this is not what the framers of the Constitution ever envisioned the politic process to be. Political parties dig up dirt on the opposing candidates, fill the cable television and internet with false and income case damning lies to destroy one another. What’s even more upsetting is they used these advertisements to drive fear, anxiety, hopelessness into the voters who are then presented with a candidate who will save them from their lot in life. This is bullshit!
The final speech given by Michael Douglas (President Andrew Shepherd) in the film the American President written by Aaron Sorkin opens a conversation as to what the presidency is all about. These are a portion of that speech.
For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this country was, to a certain extent, about character, and although I have not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I've been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being president of this country is entirely about character…America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free". I've known Bob Rumson for years, and I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Bob's problem is that he can't sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character. And wave an old photo of the President's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism and you tell them, she's to blame for their lot in life, and you go on television and you call her a whore. Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, 'cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.
Character matters when it comes to the presidency or any other elected represent. Perhaps the only job you don’t have to have character is dog collector or an IRS agent named IRA.
We are in short supply of character in this country. It is hard to believe that out of three hundred thirty million people that the two major party candidates were the best we could offer to the American people! Shame on our parties. Shame on us for allowing this to happen!
Freedom and justice must be fought for at all costs. It’s a dangerous world we live in and if we are not careful, we will become a ‘banana republic’ where political opponents are jailed or assonated if you don’t believe me check out what has been going on in Hati. This ominous time we find ourselves requires more than we, our offering.
I will close with President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. To take a portion of it without the full context would do a great injustice to his legacy.
Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961
We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom — symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning — signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.
The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe — the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans — born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage — and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge — and more.
To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do — for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.
To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom — and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.
To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required — not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge — to convert our good words into good deeds — in a new alliance for progress — to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbours know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.
To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support — to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective — to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak — and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.
Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.
We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course — both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.
So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belabouring those problems which divide us.
Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms — and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.
Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.
Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah — to "undo the heavy burdens -. and to let the oppressed go free."
And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavour, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.
All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.
Now the trumpet summons us again — not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are — but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation" — a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.”
[1] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Dt 10:19–22.
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