America is not meant to have a “ruling class.”  The Declaration of Independence takes direct aim at an entrenched aristocracy by stating a “self-evident” truth that “all men are created equal.”  People, of course, are not naturally equal.  They are blessed with individual talents and carry through their lives individual burdens, but no person is born with a divine right to rule over others.  On the contrary, through God’s gifts of life and liberty to each one of us, we are capable of governing ourselves.  That is harder than it sounds because self-government is a responsibility that requires work and vigilance.  

Unscrupulous individuals intent on seizing greater power for themselves take advantage of self-government’s labors by promising to do the heavy lifting for others in exchange for their liberty.  I’ll protect you.  I’ll keep you safe and secure.  I’ll make you happy.  Just do exactly what I say.  It is a Faustian bargain that has led generations of once-free peoples to discover only years later that they have been left imprisoned in chains.

There is no human form of government that does not become corrupt over time.  As soon as any political system is erected to govern a population, the clock starts ticking toward its demise.  The principal reason this is true is that humans are naturally sinful — a burden common to us all — and, therefore, any human-created system will tend to reflect that sinful nature on the path toward its own destruction.  Even governments founded on the noblest of principles and respect for civic virtues — such as the truth that we are endowed “with certain unalienable rights” that no legitimate government may infringe — will come to undermine those foundations as corrupt individuals acquire ever more influence over government’s reins.  

Because the least virtuous people are most attracted to power, the longer that any political system persists, the more corrupt it will become.  In order for good people to reclaim their God-given rights to life and liberty, they must eventually accept the responsibilities of self-government again.  This is what Thomas Jefferson meant when he wrote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.  It is it’s [sic] natural manure.”

When is a government so corrupt as to render it illegitimate?  There are many telltale signs: unconstitutional assertions of authority, widespread criminality, currency debasement, coercive intimidation, selective prosecution, purposeful failure to protect its own borders, and rampant censorship — to name just a few. 

The U.S. Constitution explicitly organizes a federal government consisting of a few hundred citizens representing the American people in three small, coequal branches of government.  It requires these representatives to faithfully uphold the Constitution — including the Bill of Rights.  It requires Congress to declare war.  It makes no mention of a vast administrative state, a collection of clandestine intelligence agencies allowed to circumvent the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against warrantless searches, an alliance with private companies to engage in mass surveillance, or the establishment of a Pentagon complex providing a permanent military presence on American soil.  It makes no mention of an unaccountable bureaucracy empowered to write legally enforceable rules and regulations on its own.  It makes no mention of a private central bank empowered to manipulate the value of money.  It makes no mention of private corporations acting as gatekeepers to public office by posing as political parties.  

Yet today we have tens of millions of federal employees who carry out their own agendas and do not represent the American people.  Presidents, members of Congress, and even Supreme Court justices routinely ignore the plain meaning of the Constitution’s text in order to insert their own self-serving interpretations into our governing document without any constitutionally required ratification from the states and the American people.  Since WWII, the U.S. has been in an endless state of war from one region of the world to the next without any formal declarations or any electoral mechanism through which the American people may object.  The Department of Justice selectively prosecutes Americans, as evidenced by its alliance with Antifa-like groups promoting Marxist revolution and outright persecution of J6 protesters, pro-life groups, liberty movements, parents protecting their children from government indoctrination, and the religiously faithful.  

There is little doubt that Jefferson would have found any one of these realities an unacceptable imposition of tyranny and their combined flourishing as demonstrable evidence that the “tree of liberty” is leafless and dying.

Culturally, there is also a telltale sign: the most shameful people now wield power while shamelessly shaming good Americans.  We are “ruled” by shame projectionists. 

Good Americans do not behave like Bill and Hillary Clinton.  After Bill was caught having sexual relations with a White House intern barely old enough to legally drink, he was not burdened by shame.  When multiple women accused him of sexual harassment or rape, he did not resign.  His wife Hillary is so free of shame that she quickly slimed Bill’s accusers as “trailer-park trash,” excused her husband’s atrocious behavior as part of some “vast right-wing conspiracy,” and ran for office, herself.  Only shameless people blame others for their own depravities and double-down with new offenses — including taking Chinese Communist Party bribes, renting out the Lincoln Bedroom to campaign donors, committing perjury and fraud, and stealing expensive pieces of White House furniture on their way out the door.  

Yet the permanent “ruling class” in D.C. treats the Clintons like royalty.  George W. Bush is so fond of accused rapist Bill and Russia collusion fraudster Hillary that he calls them “brother” and “sister.”  Former FBI director Jim Comey, after having laid out a detailed criminal case against Hillary Clinton for her intentional mishandling of Top Secret material, asserted that “no reasonable prosecutor” would seek a conviction.  Why?  Because in a deeply partisan national capital that votes 98% Democrat, unethical prosecutors use partisan judges and juries only to unjustly convict Republicans.  Shamelessness has corrupted the whole city.

What is sometimes difficult for good, ordinary people to understand is this: in corrupt and dying political systems, shame is the chief political currency of those in power.  Just as a bank robber might insist, “If we haven’t done time together (in prison), we’re not doing crime together,” as a way to look out for government snitches, politicians and government bureaucrats follow a similar policy.  Knowing one another’s dirty secrets is the glue that binds a government run by criminals.  It is why everyone knows that powerful people used Jeffrey Epstein’s services to have sex with children and trafficked slaves, and yet no one will be held accountable.  For all intents and purposes, the whole U.S. government was on Epstein’s client list. 

If the Clintons supercharged shamelessness in America, they have certainly found plenty of equally lascivious comrades along the way.  It is why sexually delusional men shamelessly beat women in competitive sports.  It is why women “shout their abortions” without any consideration for the lives they have sacrificed.  It is why the ever-evolving LGBT community commits itself to “pride,” rather than humility.  It is why Jew-hating leftists accuse the right of “hate.”  It is why a criminal deviant such as Hunter Biden calls himself a “victim.”  It is why Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin threatens the deaths of American servicemembers in an undeclared war against Russia, unless Congress again gives tens of billions of dollars to similarly corrupt officials in Ukraine.  

In such an era, when the worst people hold onto power, it becomes imperative never to let the shameless shame you.  Don’t let them shame you into putting on a mask, paying more for “green” energy, abandoning God, or adopting their “woke” religion.  Do not worry about the government’s opinion of you.  As Tucker Carlson sagely advises: “Care only about the opinions of people who love you.”

Image via Pxfuel.