Oct 12, 2020 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph.D.
The most difficult thing for me to watch in the decline of freedom in America is the rise of censorship. Not that censorship has not existed to some degree for decades, it has. None of the networks reveal the power of the Council on Foreign Relations or the Bilderbergers over America today, but censorship has become blatant, more especially from the rich on the Left.
Apparently talk of the insurrectionist activities of George Soros are nearing forbidden. The Left never cover George Soros’ manipulation of elections, especially his buy up of district attorneys in big cities who then do not punish those arrested for pillage and arson turning them free the next day to do the same that evening. Most news organizations appear intimidated into silence on the subject.
FOX News recently demonstrated Soros influence over their show Outnumbered in Harris Faulkner’s interview of Newt Gingrich September 17, she said, “Speaker Gingrich, I know you have a final thought for us.”
Gingrich responded, “The number one problem in almost all the cities is George Soros-elected, left-wing, antipolice pro-criminal district attorneys who refuse to keep people locked up. Just yesterday they put somebody back on the street that is wanted for two different murders in New York City….Progressive district attorneys are anti-police, pro-criminal, and overwhelmingly elected with George Soros’s money, and they’re a major cause of the violence we’re seeing because they keep putting the violent criminals back on the street.”
To which co-host Melissa Francis injected, “I’m not sure we need to bring George Soros into this.”
Gingrich argued, ”He paid for it!! I mean, why can’t we discuss the fact that millions of dollars he spent.” To which co-host Marie Harf abruptly cut him off, “No, he didn’t. I agree with Melissa. George Soros doesn’t need to be a part of this conversation.”
Gingrich responds, ”OK! [pause] So it’s verboten,” German for forbidden. [Long awkward silence, then cut.]
That George Soros hates Donald Trump and is motivated to inject his influence in the election to get rid of him is clear. At the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in 2020, January 21-24 he told those attending, “Clearly I consider the Trump Administration a danger to the world. But I regard it as a purely temporary phenomenon that will disappear in 2020.” (George Soros, Davos 2018. Donald Trump and the Davos Connection, From the Editors Desk, Michael J. Matt).
Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri spoke of Soros’ influence. “He spent $17 million since 2015 alone trying to buy district attorneys. And he’s had tremendous success in my home state of Missouri in St. Louis, in Philadelphia, Florida, Texas, look all around the country” (Tucker Carlson Tonight, Sept. 22).
Who are some of these county district attorneys funded by the $17 million Soros money? Bill O’Reilly identified Diana Becton from Oakland, California as having received $275,000. She “will not prosecute looters if you’r poor. She says…its okay if they break into stores if they need…what they’re stealing.” Chicago DA Kim Fox, of Jessey Smollett fame, received two million dollars. Kimberly Gardner, $68,000, famed for trying to prosecute the couple protecting their home with a gun in St Louis from those who broke into their gated community and threatened violence on them (Bill O’Reilly on Fox News’ Awkward George Soros, Sept. 18).
Tucker Carlson added Mike Schmidt of Portland, Oregon who was given $20,000 by Soros, He “announced he won’t prosecute any of the rioters, who’ve turned Portland into a war zone. He’s already dismissed charges against rioting suspects, hundreds of them. In fact, at one point Schmidt said the unrest in Portland was “beautiful.” In 2017 Soros spent roughly $1.7 million in Philadelphia, getting DA candidate Larry Krasner elected. He has a reputation for letting everybody out—even criminals (Tucker Carlson Tonight, Sept. 22).
Soros has vested money in DA races in 17 states over the past few years these include: Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia. Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois, Mississippi, Georgia, and New York (Soros’ Prosecutorial Power Grab, https://youtu.be/q1k1gvPOxSo). Just how many of these big city DA’s are needed to bring down America with pillage, vandalism, assault and arson nobody is saying especially not Democrat news outlets and now some Fox News shows refuse to talk about the Soros buyout of DA’s promoting anarchy.
For Tucker Carlson revealing this destroy America plot, “Criminals commit crimes, police arrest them, Soros backed DA’s release them,” to the attention of Americans, “Twitter slapped a warning label on our video. They claimed it contained sensitive content.”
Let us be clear!! The above information documents Leftist George Soros as the number one insurrectionist in America today. His efforts to burn down American cities by financing Democrats who open our jails destroys justice and makes him an enemy to all who love liberty.
Apparently now even Fox News is afraid of him.
In 2016 George Soros influenced justice in six states, in 2020 it amplified to seventeen states. If Fox News is now censored or afraid to tell America of the Soros’ insurrectionist activities, who will, and with censorship how long can America stand?
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Oct 5, 2020 | Globalism, Liberty Articles
Harold Pease, Ph.D.
We are coming to the end of an election year where the “hunger games,” having gone on every four years for well over a century since William McKinley, is finalizing. The “game” part of the process is how it is done by the mega rich through their super packs and media outlets causing the people to believe that they actually choose their president. This, at least until 2016 when America rejected their anointed candidates.
For years I told my students that the quickest way to understand our political system is to watch the movie “The Hunger Games.” The strategy is to herd all voters into their two camps called Republicans and Democrats excluding all other political parties, where there exist few real differences on foreign policy and where the super rich have agreement. Since they own all major media outlets, information for or against those they allowed elevated is managed.
The few astute enough to figure this out and learn of other choices are easily brought back into the fold by the siren call that they are throwing away their vote if going outside the “ordained” two parties. Those disaffiliated with both establishment political parties, about 40 percent, called independents, are returned to the fold at election time still forced to choose from the existing approved candidates. And thus only candidate names change every four years.
I suppose that as a political scientist by profession, this is more easily understood to me. I write the Federal Elections Commission every Fall of every election year to find out who is running for president, which I have done since the early 1990’s. Never has the list of serious candidates for president been less than 200 and never has the list of serious political parties, most offering a presidential candidate, been less than 20.
So who are the excluded (deplatformed) candidates on the ballot in 2020. “As of September 21, 2020, 1,202 candidates have filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to run for president” (https://ballotpedia.org/List_of_registered_2020_presidential_candidates. This site lists candidate names and party affiliation).
The Federal Elections Commission requires that anyone running for president that spends or collects $5,000 or more on his/her candidacy for president file with them. Obviously the number of presidential candidates and political parties has escalated far beyond that in the past. I went through the list and found forty political parties, doubling the number of political parties previously.
We used to assess the seriousness of a candidate by the $5,000 expenditure and how many states allowed his/her candidacy in their state. States decide who qualifies for their ballots and who do not. Since the Federal Election Commission has not yet published by state this information, as is common in past elections, it is difficult to know this number, but we can assume, as in past presidential elections, that it exceeds 20 political parties most offering a presidential candidate.
The Federal Election Commission has six commissioners but it requires four votes to accomplish anything thus many important votes end tied at 3-3. The president can only appoint three from his own political party so, in the most partisan time in American History since 1861, Democrat members have resigned and since August 31, 2019 the FEC has not had a quorum to function (Wikipedia, the Federal Election Commission).
So what other political parties offer choices for president on the ballot this year, absent the FEC state list and given the traditional non-coverage by the establishment media? They follow:The two strongest are the Libertarian Party with (Jo Jorgensen) and Green Party, with Howie Hawkins. Others that commonly provide a presidential candidates include: American Independent Party, Independent American Party, Constitution Party, Reform Party, Socialist Party, Peace and Freedom Party, and the Socialist Workers Party. For most of the last century the Communist Party U.S.A nominated Gus Hall but that stopped when they concluded that more gains were coming through the Democratic Party than they could achieve under their party label.
The Libertarian Party has offered a presidential candidate and convention in every election for decades and normally is on the ballot in every state of the union, but are never invited to the “big debates.” The same could be said of the Green Party and a few others. Certainly they feel excluded. One may argue, “but they do not have enough voter strength to warrant inclusion,” but in fact, they do not have sufficient voter strength because the establishment media does not cover them. Liberty Under Fire argues for debate inclusion for any candidate on the ballot of forty or more states.
In political science we learn that the first election is the medias. They vote first by their collective exclusion of those not registered as Democrat or Republican. The people get to choose from those the media have not excluded. The wisest, most experienced, most gifted and most honest person in America could not be president of the United States unless he/she were a Democrat or Republican.
Media corporate owners have required media collusion and, as we have said in other columns, they are overwhelmingly also globalist and Council on Foreign Relations members. In 2016 Trump survived this media filter by running as a Republican, and vaulted over the establishment by funding his own primary campaign enabling him to say things as he saw them and win over Americans who have also felt something amiss in Washington DC. That is why they hate him. He threatens their continued power.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Sep 28, 2020 | Constitution, Economy, Globalism, Immigration, Liberty Articles
Harold Pease Ph.D.
An amazing event happened September 8, 2020 in a Donald Trump campaign rally in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The huge crowd broke into spontaneous “We love you” chants for the president. He was noticeably affected.
It happened again two days later in Freeland, Michigan, Sept. 10. Ten chants in a row broke out 30 minuets into the speech after his comments about helping stop the violence in Minneapolis and his threat to use federal agents in Seattle if violence did not stop there. He thanked the crowd after the first two chants but they would not stop until after another eight—“We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you.” He interrupted, “Don’t say that, I’ll start to cry [pause] and that wouldn’t be good for my image. You don’t want to see me cry. I’ll start to cry.” This tender moment was followed by another five “We love you” chants before he was permitted to continue.
Why is this a big story, two reasons? First, because I do not recall any politician getting that chant in the history of this country. Not even George Washington, Andrew Jackson, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, presidents said to be among the most popular. Second, in almost five years, I have yet to hear one favorable comment from Democrat news outlets. Because of this I am certain half of America, so influenced by the constant “hate Trump” spew, will never know that they lived through the administration of perhaps America’s most popular president. No public office holder has drawn the crowd sizes he consistently gets.
Remember this is the same presidential candidate who just four years ago was “piled on” seemingly by everyone: the establishment media, establishment Democrats, establishment Republicans, establishment bankers and corporations. Added to this was the globalist establishment special interest groups the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers. No president has endured more opposition than he—perhaps all put together. Imagine thousands now chanting “We love you” in unison to a politician in appreciation. This has never happened.
So why is he so popular with the American people? I’ll not dwell on the greatest economy in over a century, the highest employment rate for Africans, Hispanics, Asians, women and youth in my lifetime. The lowest taxes for the middle class in decades. These are not even disputed by the left in the 2020 election.
He is loved because he took on the globalists who were turning this country into the military arm of what they call the New World Order. He started no new wars, ended nation building in foreign lands, and is pulling out of the no-win wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Our soldiers will no longer dye in foreign lands for globalist causes.
Veterans love him because he treated them with dignity. He signed the VA Choice Act and VA Accountability Act, expanded VA health services, walk-in-clinics, and same-day urgent primary and mental health care.
Until the Chinese Wuhan Virus he lifted nearly 4 million Americans off food stamps. Against the advice of his opponents he shut down immigration from China early in the virus. He teamed with the CDC with daily reports and projected confidence by not overreacting to the virus by a nation-wide shut-down of the economy. He is viewed as most likely to restore his previous booming economy.
He gave America energy independence by encouraging fracking, opening ANWR and approving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. These blocked by his predecessor.
Border law enforcement agents love him because he is finally building a wall to stop illegal immigration that undermines the salaries of the American worker. It also slows drug trafficking that is killing Americans and greatly restricts the activities of drug gangs like MS-13 and other criminals. Trump has done more than any other president to stop wide spread sex trafficking, especially with underaged girls.
Those who value the Constitution love him because he protects it as written, with two appointments to the Supreme Court and 214 Article III judge confirmations. He is viewed as most likely to hold to the restraints of the Constitution, especially the 2nd Amendment and 1st Amendment rights of free speech, assembly, and religion. Also he is most likely to do away with the double standard in justice including the probability of treason in high places.
Most Christians love him because, more than any predecessor for a lifetime, he values and protects religion. He is the most “Right to Life” president in American history. Stopping the annual killing of hundreds of thousands of America’s unborn babies is widely supported by Christians.
Americans love him because he is perceived as being the most likely to stop the spread of socialism in the United States now fully embraced by the Democrat Party. Historically it has brought only universal poverty and misery.
Americans love him because he is most likely to deal with anarchists in our cities and arsonists in our forests. Most view these as insurrectionist attempting to remove their president and destroy the greatest most prosperous, for those willing to work, nation on earth. Safety is a human right.
But mostly he is loved because they trust him and believe that he really cares about them. He is the only second term president in decades that can run on “Promises Made, Promises Kept.”
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Sep 21, 2020 | Liberty Articles
Harold Pease Ph.D.
Fires engulf western states: California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana etc. Read the headlines, 29 fires in California, 35 dead, and at least 90 fires currently in western states.
Fox News Jeff Paul, reported Sept. 11, 2020, “California is one of the hardest hit with a record breaking 3 million acres burned and nearly 4000 homes and buildings lost so far…. The fires also taking a toll in Washington state where more than 100 homes are gone… and in Oregon, more than 35 fires are burning with at least five small towns destroyed.”
This fire destruction is unprecedented. It’s like Anarchists’ street destruction were not getting the media attention they demanded and President Trump had shown moderation by not sending national guard forces into places against the will of mayors and governors seemingly looking to bait escalation as in Kent State May 4, 1970. Seattle, Milwaukee, and Portland no longer drew the viewership it held mid-summer, so anarchists turned to Western forests.
Democratic news outlets blame global warming and say nothing of the avalanche of arsonists. Republican outlets say little of global warming blaming instead decades of kindling matter left by poor forest management. Both use the same arguments used in the 1980’s when forest fires became more common, global warming or poor forest management, neither address the amplified fire increase the last four weeks. In Oregon “half a million residents have been forced to evacuate their homes. That is one of every ten people in their entire state” (Tucker Carlson Tonight, Sept. 11, 2020).
Michael Shellenberger, author of Apocalypse Never and president of Environmental Progress explained why fires, especially hot ones, are more frequent than in previous years. In researching for his book, he interviewed most of the major scientists in California that deal with forestry. He found general agreement in that “we have five times more wood fuel in our forests than we did about 100 years ago and it’s really saturated. That’s what’s driving the intensity of these fires. It’s not climate change.” Adding, “if there weren’t climate change and the forests were still saturated with this wood fuel we would probably still be having these really intense fires…. So management is the key to saving us.”
Two points were especially convincing. One, “forests that have been surrounded by these high intensity fires, but were well managed …were spared those really hot, high fires and the fires of dropping down to the ground.” Second, if climate change were the main factor causing these fires, then all the forests would be on fire and they’re not. We’re seeing these well managed forests, these healthy forests are surviving these really severe mega fires” (Shannon Bream, Fox News Tonight, Sept. 14, 2020).
So back to the arsonists. The following 22 persons with ages listed have been arrested for intentionally starting recent fires, some in multiple places: Jedidiah Fulton 39, Alberto Vincent Acosta, Kevin Carle, 37, Ivan Geronimo Gomez 30, Guadalupe Molina-Pacheco, Julian Draper, Demarco Covey 24, Wesley James Bergman 37, Elias Pendergrass 44, Anita Esquivel 37, Vanya Hummel 24, John Davies 55, Christine Comello 36, Alesander Bradford Smith 26, Jesse Peterson 30, Jeffrey Accord 36, Milton Loice Moran 48, Anthony Travis Bodda 21, Alexander Jones 36, Michael Jarrod Bakkeia 41, Jonathan Maas 44 and Sammy Scott Piatt (https://youtu.be/94.JR9dBEo8).
Accused is not conviction and we hope all get a fair trial but the latter takes months, sometimes years. Our point, probably many of these fires are not acts of nature. Manti, Utah has had “14 confirmed arson hot spots” in a national forest near by. No suspects have yet been arrested.
An Oregon Board of Commissioners meeting in Oregon City, Clackamas County met to consider the request of the Sheriff’s Department for a 10:00 p.m. curfew. Captain John Smith informed the board of a significant recent increase in looting and burglaries all over the county. Some extreme groups were “staging gas cans for later destruction,” presumably to start fires. His department was receiving “reports and sightings of people armed with chainsaws, and the goal was to fall telephone poles in hopes of starting further fires.”
One person reported on Facebook, “Some of you still think we’re not being under attack. I found this individual walking in my property as I was driving in, all he had were some matches in his hand. Walked him out of my property at gunpoint and then when we got to some asphalt ground on the main road made him lay down while the cops arrived…. He has got multiple warrants one of them being assaulting a police officer” (https://youtu.be/rfRh3ngn80).
Democrat media outlets want to keep the narrative on climate change rather than arson. This logic allows them to attach the destruction to Trump and followers who do not believe science supports global warming. They believe the anarchy in the cities, and now in the forests, is instead designed to frighten voters to vote for Joe Biden. Biden inferred such, “Climate change is already here, and we’re witnessing its devastating effects every single day. We have to get President Trump out of the White House.”
Two preceding Democratic presidential candidates agree. Hillary Clinton, “None of this is normal, and confronting climate change is on the ballot this year. Vote as early as you can, for a habitable planet.” Barack Obama, “The fires across the West Coast are just the latest examples of the very real ways our changing climate is changing our communities. Protecting our planet is on the ballot. Vote like your life depends on it—because it does” (Tucker Carson Tonight, Sept. 11, 2020). Protecting us from anarchists and arsonists is also on the ballot.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Sep 14, 2020 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph.D.
Constitution Day, September 17, the day Americans celebrate the signing of the Constitution which was then sent to the states for ratification, is almost here. The numerous attacks on it, it’s founders, and the anarchy in our big cities today should give us cause to reflect upon what a gift it was/is to mankind.
For nearly six thousand years of recorded history governments best described as regimental in nature have dominated man. Only for a few fleeting moments in the past has individual man had anything to say concerning the restrictions placed upon him. Under an occasional benevolent monarchy or an unconcerned king, man has, in rare instances, been left to himself as in Athens, Rome, Runnymede, or in Philadelphia, unusual moments allowing individual freedom to flourish for a time.
Until 1787 man did not know how to free himself from excessive government—the enemy of true liberty. The Constitution harnessed government as never before. Now its wonders are everywhere apparent: magnificent material things, abundance of food, and unheard of leisure, etc. No society upon the earth has been more greatly blessed. None worked so little for so much. The last hundred years have brought such gifts to mankind, which only the insane would have supposed possible 200 years before, and truly America has become, for those willing to work, the envy of all the world—the land of the rich. Even the poorest among us have had a standard of living exceeding the vast majority that ever inhabited the planet.
The genius of the American Constitution, other than harnessing the government rather than man, is that it incentivized individual labor and creativity which unleashed tools, which unleashed abundance as never before. Probably at least 80% of the inventions of the planet have come from our soil.
The one message the present generation has not seemed to grasp is that freedom can be lost—even in a single generation. Today we have that generation, oblivious to history, natural law, common sense, morality and the Constitution and likely the most unchurched. A generation believing themselves entitled to someone else’s wealth. The most privileged residents of the earth who have never themselves fought for their own freedom yet are now poised to lose what others died to give them. Perhaps the most ungrateful and ignorant people ever.
They argue for such things as a Green New Deal which nullifies airplanes, automobiles and tractors, no borders which protects us from invading masses, and reparations which makes the present generation pay money to descendants of those offended 160 years ago. These Neanderthals oppose self-defense by opposing the 2nd Amendment while simultaneously supporting defunding of police which, for those that can still think, means no police which together means no protection for the most vulnerable in society. These would destroy America.
The greatest irony of all human history is that once man, with God’s help, finally discovered the formula for liberty for all, the Constitution, a small portion of this privileged class, university intellectuals and the super-rich like George Soros, using Millennials and students as useful idiots, seek to destroy it for the rest of humanity, perhaps forever.
Following the Civil War ending slavery, America was and is today probably the least racist society ever created and was so prior to the Obama Administration. If indeed America is racist a black man (Obama) never could have become president and a black woman (Kamala Harris) never nominated Vice President by a major political party, if there were no hope that her nomination would lead to the majority of Americans voting for her?
This group of history and cultural illiterates have no problem voting by violence. In previous months major Democrat led cities have allowed, even encouraged, acts of anarchy, robbery, pillage, rape and violence against police and small businesses. Antifa and Black Lives Matter easily infiltrated the demonstrations of sincere folks naively thinking themselves advancing social justice and the result was/is buildings and cars ablaze and injured law enforcement officers and citizens. Media outlets on the left refuse to cover such leaving the few on the right to show victims kicked in the head, such is the divide. Bring an “All Lives Matter” sign to a Black Lives Matter gathering and you can expect a beating.
Their obsession with racism, now mostly non-existent, has resulted in their tearing down statues of our greatest constitutional founders, those most responsible for the very freedom the anarchists enjoy. Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of The Declaration of Independence, which allowed our freedom birth experiment, was torn down by a small mob in Portland, Oregon. Four days later, in the same city, the same befell the statue of George Washington our Revolutionary War general, president of the Constitutional Convention, and first president that made liberty and the Constitution possible. Revolutionists draped the American flag around his neck, set it a fire, pulled the statue to the ground, placed another flag over his head and back and set it too afire. These anarchists, their party, and all supporting them hate America, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and liberty for all.
Yes the miracle of the Constitution eventually created the freest and most prosperous society known to man. Ironically it is the sons and daughters of these, the most privileged ever, that if not stopped will destroy it. Remember! Remember! What we have in place before we follow those who choose to lose it.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Sep 7, 2020 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph.D.
It seems that all the anarchists who pelt law enforcement with bricks, bottles, lasers and fireworks and set buildings and automobiles afire in many major cities in the United States in their revolution to bring socialism here, have turned on the very authors of their freedom, the Founding Fathers. Would that they had been born in Russia under Joseph Stalin, Germany under Adolph Hitler, or China under Mao Tza Tung. Had they been able to escape those tyrannies, today they would be strong defenders of the Constitution.
That slavery was a part of our history and that of the world cannot be denied. It runs through the Bible. Joseph was sold into Egypt, even by his brothers. It ran through Africa long before Europeans even began trading with them. The warring tribes sold their vanquished neighbors. And what did Africans sell to the Dutch ship off shore in exchange for the new knives, pots and pans—their neighbors? Slavery could have never gained a foothold on the continent had the Africans resisted it.
For the agrarian South it developed gradually from 1619 on, out of the indentured servitude economy. It cannot be understood absent a cultural and economic context. Anarchist do not care about cultural context, they seek only an excuse to destroy. Only the uninformed do not know this. Still, none of this justifies slavery and it never gained a foothold in the northern colonies.
But I am white, thus to “real” racists (those that would notice I am white), not qualified to write in defense of our “white” Founding Fathers. Let us enlist black intellectual Walter E. Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University, to defend the Founders (“Attacking Our Nation’s Founders, April 13, 2016).
The “founders as racist argument” first brought to his Christian college by socialist Bernie Sanders and the falsehoods within it had to be confronted. Dr. Williams wrote: “Our Founding Fathers struggled mightily over the issue of slavery. Let us look at some of that struggle.”
“George Washington said, ‘I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it.’ Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, Patrick Henry and others were highly critical of slavery, describing it as a ‘disease of ignorance,’ ‘an inconsistency not to be excused’ and a ‘lamentable evil.’ George Mason said, ‘The augmentation of slaves weakens the states; and such a trade is diabolical in itself, and disgraceful to mankind.’ James Madison, in a speech at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, declared, ‘We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man.’ Benjamin Rush said: ‘Domestic slavery is repugnant to the principles of Christianity.… It is rebellion against the authority of a common Father’.”
Slavery reared its ugly head in the Constitutional Convention. An unspoken concern was whether we were to become one nation or two? If one, then for a time at least, compromise had to prevail. Williams explained, “In their effort to create a union, the delegates at the Constitutional Convention had to negotiate many contentious, deal-breaking issues. Slavery was chief among them. Southern states made clear that they would not vote to ratify a constitution that abolished slavery or ended the slave trade. Northern delegates wanted to end slave trading and did not want slaves counted at all for congressional apportionment. Southern delegates wanted slaves counted as whole people. That would have given the South greater political power in the House of Representatives.”
The astute professor continued, “Convention delegate James Wilson offered a compromise whereby each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of determining the number of representatives a state would have in the House. This rule applied only to slaves. Freemen, whether black or white, would be counted as whole people… The Three-Fifths Compromise was not a statement about human worth; it was an attempt to reduce the pro-slavery representation in Congress. By including only three-fifths of the total number of slaves in congressional calculations, Southern states were actually being denied a greater number of representatives in Congress and hence electoral votes for selecting a president.”
The most amazing compromise of the Constitution was that our Founding Fathers got the South “to set 1808 as the year to abolish the slave trade.” Not slavery, but the slave trade. Abolition of slavery would come in a Civil War 53 years later at the cost of 360,222 northerners dying to end it.
Dr. Williams continues, “There’s little question that slavery is an abomination and a gross violation of human rights, but the founders had to decide whether there would be a union or not. Had morality been their sole guide, they might have taken a hardened, nonnegotiable stand against slavery, but then the Constitution would have never been ratified and a union would not have been formed.”
He then concluded, “Ignorance of our history, coupled with an inability to think critically, has provided considerable ammunition for those who want to divide us in pursuit of their agenda. Their agenda is to undermine the legitimacy of our Constitution in order to gain greater control over our lives. Their main targets are the nation’s youths. The teaching establishment, at our public schools and colleges, is being used to undermine American values.” No wonder the enemies of liberty, like Bernie Sanders, exclude the whole story and push this false narrative. Blacks too have greatly benefited from the Constitution.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
