Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. Today's Tuesday, June the 21st, 2022. Actually, the first official day of summer. Though it's already been pretty warm in a lot of the country right now before we've even officially had summer begin. But as I said, today is the 21st, the official start of summer, and we've got, I guess, officially three more months, or I should say three months of summer. So I hope you're looking forward to it like I am. And I also hope that your week is off to a great start. Last week I talked about how we can fix stupid, and it's something that I believe can be fixed. But on the other hand, if you couple stupid with nefarious or evil, then that's a wholly different matter. And it's something that we can definitely fix, but it's something that is more sinister, and it's it's worse than stupid, it's worse than ignorant. It's one of those things that we have to be on guard against because those who want to undermine our way of life from the other side of their mouth will talk about how grand and how glorious the Constitution is, but it's just lip service. All they do is talk about how great it is on the one hand, and on the other hand, they actually do things to undermine it and literally to try to bring it down. And I will fight against anyone who tries to bring down the Constitution or to try to make it into something that it's not. Now, when I say fight, I don't necessarily mean throw it in the octagon and do the MMA style. I don't necessarily mean that. It can mean that, but when I say fight, I mean to use my voice as a way to help others to see the wonder of the Constitution and the liberty that it has provided those who live here in the United States and those who have come from other countries. I dare say that it also is a motivator for people who live outside the country who want to come here legally and reap the benefits that is the Constitution and liberty here in the United States. Let me start off by saying that I realize that there are consequences to elections, of course. Those who are elected to represent us are elected in a lot of different ways in terms of what it is they actually stand for, how influential they are or were during a campaign. I believe we have to be mindful of those that we elect, and that we need to try to elect people who will actually do what their oath of office says, which is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It seems to me that one of the things that we all have in common and that we share is the idea of the preservation of liberty and freedom. It's a blessing in all of our lives, and it's something that sometimes we may take for granted. I hope we don't. I hope we try to daily look at our lives and look at the opportunity that we have and the way that we can achieve our heart's desire, whatever that may be, and ultimately whatever it is, it's guaranteed by the Constitution. So it's liberty and freedom that we have to use as we will to our benefit and progression or to our destruction, ultimately. I'm not really a dramatic person, but when we take the Constitution for granted, ultimately we are looking at our own destruction. And if we want something else to replace the Constitution or something that we think is going to be more quote unquote equitable to everyone, then I say look no further than the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Those two documents are all we really need to continue to preserve freedom and liberty for everyone here and for those, as I said, who want to come here legally. And truth be told, there are people who are benefiting from the Declaration and the Constitution who have come here illegally. That's another story, another time, another episode, perhaps, but not for today. You know, one thing that I am in favor of is term limits. And my opinion on term limits is that if it's okay for the executive branch to be term limited, then shouldn't it be appropriate for the legislative branch to be term limited as well? I think so. Unfortunately for the vast majority of us, term limits will probably never take place because those who will create or who would create a law that would be signed by the president enforcing term limits are the very people who don't actually want term limits because it encroaches upon their power. Why would they want to change something that they are benefiting from? Duh. But who knows, maybe one day it'll happen and then I'll wake up. Aside from consequences to elections, there's also the things that people say in public, whether they're former elected officials or whether they're members of the media or some other group, people do have the right to say the things that they want to say. Now, I'm going to talk about a couple of people who are iconic political figures in our society, and that is Bill and Hillary Clinton. Now, recently both of them have been in interviews where they talked about our democracy and the threat to our democracy should a certain person named Trump actually run and win in 2024. Now, I couldn't care less what anyone thinks about any of those three people. But I find it disturbing that two pretty intelligent people would actually say these things. Now, I know why they're saying those things. They're two political people, and they don't do anything without first calculating what the outcome of what they say and do actually is. They want to shape the narrative, and they're not alone in this endeavor. And to be fair, it's not just the Clintons who have talked about this. There have been a lot of other people who have mentioned these so-called threats to our quote unquote democracy. Well, first of all, I don't believe we have a pure democracy, which is where laws are made by the voting majority with virtually no regard for the rights of the minority. For instance, if we had a pure democracy back in the day, slavery may not have been outlawed, and thank goodness that it was. And if we had a pure democracy, slavery may not have been outlawed until much, much later than 1863. What I believe we live under is a representative republic. Now, in a representative republic, laws are made by representatives chosen by you and me, and we hope that these laws are in harmony with the Constitution that protects the rights of the minority. As an example of that, though there are laws that we sometimes don't agree with and don't like, the Bill of Rights exists to protect the rights of all, but specifically the rights of the minority. Think about it. The right to freedom of speech, the right to freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, due process and on and on. These first ten amendments of the Constitution are the thing that protects the minority in a society where laws can sometimes be raunchy. So in theory, anyway, we should not have laws that encroach upon the Bill of Rights. But I'll leave that open to you as to whether you think we have laws today that do indeed encroach upon the Bill of Rights. And in reality, I suppose this could be considered as quite ideal, but this incredible ideal that is America must continue to be protected. If we are going to continue to have a country, the Constitution and Bill of Rights must be preserved for all. It seems to me that in all the world there is no better way to have liberty and freedom protected than the Constitution. In Federalist Paper number fifty one, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison argue about the structure of the government and that it must furnish the proper checks and balances between the different departments or the different branches of government as we would refer to them today. They said this, quote, but what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. End of quote. There seems to be no greater important thing that we can do than to hold these elected representatives accountable for not only the things that they say and do, but for the laws that are enacted that are passed by the executive branch. Certainly neither party is comprised of angels. I think that's something that we could probably all agree on. But the undermining of our republic takes place on a daily basis by members of all three branches of the government. And to me, ladies and gentlemen, that is a scary proposition. It's one which we need to be wary of and we need to pay attention to. We can't just let it go by and say, ah, it doesn't really affect me, so I'm not going to really worry about it. No. All politics is local, as they say. And until it knocks at our door, sometimes we can be complacent. And that's probably one of the worst positions that we could ever be in, to be complacent of what is going on around us. Ultimately, there's going to be something that will come knocking on our door, and we're going to be outraged as to why it's happening and wonder what in the world took place to get us to that point. Well, my opinion and my belief is that we should definitely make sure that we're paying attention so that we can do something about it before it does come knocking at our door. And to be sure, ladies and gentlemen, it's not just members of the government who take advantage of trying to undermine the republic. It's also members of the media, people who are in entertainment, and others. So we need to pay attention to those who are not in government and the things that they say and do and the way that they can undermine our Republic as well, because it does happen on a daily basis. I find it interesting, if not a little bit disturbing, that in particular, politicians are adept at saying not what needs to be said, but saying that which they think promotes their cause. And what's their cause? Well, of course, it's the next election. Hello? Unfortunately, it's all about the next election for many of those who are elected to represent us. Now, like you, I want to believe that there are still some in our five hundred and thirty-five member group of representatives, including House of Representatives and Senators, who actually want to do the right thing by the people. But to me, they seem to be the exception, not the rule. And that's some sad commentary about our society as well. We have too few people who are actually fighting for the right cause, which is to defend the Constitution of the United States of America. That's what they're there to do. They take an oath to do that. But it's unfortunate that many of them have abdicated that responsibility and who want to promote, as I said, their own cause, which the bottom line, again, we joke about a lot of things, or I joke about a lot of things sometimes, but certainly their cause is to get elected next time. That's the main purpose of why they are there. And that's really sad to me. I suppose at the risk of sounding a little too cynical, I have to believe that there are still some good people who want to do the right thing, who are working hard to save our Republic, because to me it is worth saving. And sincerely, all kidding aside, I am prepared to do all I can do to preserve and defend our rights as defined in the Declaration and Constitution. Those rights are worthy of defending. And as citizens we should have no qualms about defending those precious rights that are available to all who live in the United States of America. Well, I'd like to end this episode with a quote again from one of the Federalists' papers. This quote is from Federalist Paper number ten by James Madison, who said, quote, Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency. End of quote. That without having the Constitution, without having the freedoms and the liberties which we enjoy, we wouldn't have opposition to it. So we take the good, which is the Constitution, and we accept the fact that there will be those who are opposed to it. But it doesn't mean that we should just do away with it because there are those who are opposed to it. Just like we shouldn't hope that air would be done away with just because it is the fuel that adds to the fire of destruction. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.