Who is Your Politician? Take the Test
By KrisAnne Hall, JD
The fight for American Liberty began with one man in 1761, his name is James Otis, Jr.
Because one man said, “Consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed” the fight for Liberty was birthed in the hearts of our founders. We can learn a lot from the wisdom and conviction of this one man.
The way people conduct themselves is a clear identification of what they believe and who they are as a person. Through their actions, politicians will classify themselves. Otis teaches us about 3 distinct classifications of political personalities:
“I can sincerely declare that I cheerfully submit myself to every odious name for conscience’ sake; and from my soul I despise all those whose guilt, malice, or folly has made them my foes.” James Otis, Jr. Feb 1761
Guilt- these are the people who know the Constitution requires they limit government and defend the Rights of the people, yet they choose to claim that the necessity of compromise justifies abandoning their duty to the people and the Constitution for to sake of action. I call it sacrificing principle on the altar of pragmatism.
Malice – these are the people who are simply power hungry, greedy, and often times of a wicked morality. They willingly work contrary to the Rights of the people and the Constitution to satisfy their own greed, pride, and self-serving intentions.
Folly – these are the people who have the best intentions, but are ignorant of their true duty to the Constitution and the Rights of the people. Through their ignorance they end up working contrary to their good intentions and end up destroying the Rights of the people and the purpose of the Constitution.
Does your politician fall into any of these categories? If your politician is not defending Liberty 100% of the time, then he must fall into one of these groups. What we must be willing to accept is regardless of motivation driving your politician; whether compromise, ignorance, or wickedness, the end result is exactly the same- the destruction of the Liberty of the people. Otis is teaching us that we must boldly proclaim how these people have classified themselves through their actions and declare them a foe and not a friend.
That means we must make the hard choices. We must be able to set aside personal feelings, group loyalties, and familiar relationships to support only those who put the Constitution and the Liberties of the people FIRST. Identify which classification your politician falls into and show them their errors. If they give your excuses and/or refuse to correct their behavior then they have clearly classified themselves, and you must label them a foe to liberty no matter who they are. We can no longer be a people who settle for the “lesser of two evils” because in the end evil is all we will get!
Our founders are crying out through history and the ages with instruction and inspiration. They are reassuring us that they were able to make the hard choices and we can, too. The one advantage we have is that we are not living in a kingdom and revolution is not our only solution. Through their sacrifice they gave us a Constitutional Republic along with very powerful, yet peaceful means, to control those in government. We must simply be willing to get educated and implement the solutions they gave us. We must be willing to do the right things for the right reasons.
The bottom line is this: the people are not a reflection of their government, the government is a reflection of its people. If we want a government that chooses Liberty First and operates Constitutionally, then WE must be a Constitutionally and Liberty minded people, First. We can do it, it is in our blood.
Learn more about James Otis, Jr here: http://bit.ly/HistoryRevisionDebunked
Published with Permission of KrisAnneHall.com