BlackFive

The following book review is a special for BlackFive readers provided by Elise Cooper.  You can read all of our book reviews and author interviews by clicking on the Books category link in the right side bar.

American Underdog written by Congressman David Brat discusses how Americans need to return to the moral and economic lessons of Classical Greece and Judeo-Christian values. He emphasizes the need to protect future generations through a solid Conservative agenda.  The Congressman was interviewed regarding important issues of the day.

People might think of him as the 21^st Century “Mr. Smith”, or “Dave” Kovic. David Brat resembles these movie characters, a citizen politician, a single voice who tries to put their imprint on American politics and policy.  Brat is known for his odds defying win in 2014 against the then House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Brat was a little known economics and ethics professor who ran against the Washington establishment of his own party. He noted in the book, “In politics, I believe that true power derives from the people…I began my run for office out of the simple recognition that the establishment and oversized federal government are out of touch with the desires of voters and more responsive legislators are needed immediately.”

Winning the Congressional seat for the 7^th District of Virginia was a spark that preceded the recent rise of Donald Trump and the Brexit election where voters want leaders to represent them, not a bunch of elitists.  He commented, “Lovers of liberty everywhere should cheer the Brexit vote. The British chose clearly and decisively to take their power back from elites in Europe and to throw off the shackles of punishing rules and regulations handed down by disconnected and unaccountable officials. The people of my district, just as the people of Britain did a few days ago, proved that regular people with legitimate concerns, who play by the rules but feel like they are treated as second-class citizens in their own country, will speak out. The English need to reclaim their culture, borders, and a free economic system.”

What is important for the Congressman is returning to what he considers the three pillars of America’s foundation: moral tradition, rule of law, and the free market system.  He compares what happened in England; how a nation state, took back its sovereignty, to what should happen in the US, with states’ rights and the Congressional branch regaining their power.  He noted, “The Tenth Amendment says the Federal Government has certain powers, but the rest belongs to the states.  Then there is Congress.  I am working with Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) regarding an Article I project, which says Congress should make all laws.  The Senator has a picture in his office from 2013, which shows how Congress passed five inches of law compared to the Executive Branch, the President, that had eleven feet. This is a huge difference. This is happening because Congressional members do not want to take a hard vote on anything.”

He cites three examples.  First, the Corker Bill allowed for the passage of the Iran Nuclear Deal.  “This was unconstitutional because it changed the Senate voting on treaties from a 2/3 vote to a 1/3 vote.  Another example is Congressman Brian Babin (R-TX) who tried to stop the refugee flow into this country from terrorist hot spots. “Yet, the Republican leadership refused to consider it, but put a 400% increase in H2B visas in last year’s budget.  They did not do the right thing, and moved 180% in the opposite direction.”  His final example is how then Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) promised that he would thwart President Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty.  “However, we did not fight it at all.  We did nothing. The standard joke in Washington is ‘it is easy to compromise. Just vote to spend more money.’ In the last two years we had three million immigrants and just last months job report said we created only 38,000 jobs.  Do the math on the job front. 0.7% growth is not sustainable. This is what I am trying to change.”

The book also explains in great detail how Congress must deal with the issue of mandatory spending.  He noted to blackfive.net, “In ten years all Federal revenues will go only to our mandatory programs, such as Social Security and Medicare.  There will not be a dollar left for the military, education, transportation, or anything else.  We will have to deficit finance the entire budget.  This is coming from the report of the Congressional Budget Office.  As representatives, we need to tell the American people about taxes and spending.  We need to explain how our children will not have any basic systems in about fifteen years.  We should be presenting in a clear and understandable way the different options and what will result from each.  We are not doing this.  Republican leadership has left a giant vacuum.”

Congressman Brat has taken a pledge to only serve for twelve years.  He thinks part of the solution is to have Congress make hard choices, and to have term limits.  If there were more Representatives like Brat something might actually get done in Congress.  He is the real life Mr. Smith and Dave, humble and honest with good ideas.  Now if only others in Congress can follow his lead.

On July 4th you'll often see exhortations about how "freedom is not free".  These normally accompany images of the US Military and/or First Responders.  The images and message are important, however I think they are slightly off the mark.

Freedom is Free.  Freedom is not granted to anyone - it is inherent in every person.  No one can make you free.  You are.   However, in many places, and to varying degrees, freedom has been wrested away or outright stolen.   Whether you think it derived from God, a god, or some non-deist source, being free and exhibiting freewill is an inherently human activity.

Even in those places (like the US) where we are essentially "free" there are dark forces seemingly on an endless quest to interrupt freedom, usurp it, or deliberately steal it for their own nefarious purposes. 

It is the maintenance of freedom in our Nation where the cost truly exists. It is a cost that many are not paying . We are seeing the rot that neglecting such maintenance begets. 

It is axiomatic that our Active and Reserve military forces are an important cost of freedom maintenance.  They keep the wolf from our door and respond to crises abroad and here.  They are the vanguards of what we, as Americans, think of freedom.  Its readiness - personnel, equipment, policy, strategy - are costs of freedom that have been allowed to languish. 

It is also why, parenthetically, activists seek to change the nature of the US Military to achieve their questionable ends.  The activists understand that our Servicemen and Servicewomen represent the best of America, and they seek to include their activism within it.  The cost here is the maintenance of principles and standards.  It is fair to say that there is significant conflict on what this means.  The Military is suffering as a result.

In much the same way, Law Enforcement, Fire Fighters, and other Emergency Personnel - the First Responders - are a more local (and visible) cost of freedom.  Here we see a mix of costs not paid - again with activists impeding on reasonable law enforcement, police who act badly giving rise to doubt by their protected, and the inability of local politicians to keep these vital services properly funded. 

But this is only the surface. 

Below the surface, a far great cost of freedom maintenance remains significantly underpaid.  The citizenry writ large refuses to do its job.  They either elect charlatans and frauds into political office, or don't bother to participate at all.  This ensures that the loudest - not necessarily the wisest or most qualified - get their way.  We see this at all levels of political life; the laws and policies we must live under reflect such neglect.

Peeling one level lower - in our job sites and other organizations and groups - this same abuse of localized power manifests daily.  Employers mistreating their talent.  Local organizations and groups are "led" by recurring cabals that cannot or will not be removed from their mini-fiefdoms.  People treating other people badly to gain advantage or wield some sort of control.  Frankly, it is becoming a depressing activity to read even local news, for the nonstop drumbeat of bad behavior.

Maintaining freedom is the part that is always most difficult.  I remember the scene in the HBO series "John Adams" as the delegates vote to ratify the Declaration of Independence.  Gaunt faces are displayed on these men as the votes are tallied and they realize that this, as hard fought as it was to craft, was really the easy part.  Likewise, after the surrender of British forces at Yorktown and the work to build this new government began, the real cost of freedom is seen - making the system work.  That's why the real test was not the First President, but the Second.  

You, each where you sit or stand, have the chance to pay part of the that maintenance cost each day.  Understand the issues, vote, ask fair minded questions.  Those who lead should do so with care and empathy.  Those who have advantage should seek to lift up others not hold them back.  Understand why what occurred 240 years ago was necessary then, and that the spirit of that is still needed today.  We still are the "Shining City on the Hill" and it takes all of use to do the work necessary to keep it shining.

As you celebrate our 240th year of Independence - and well you should! - remember that the easy part was declaring it.  More difficult was (re)gaining it.  Most difficult is keeping it.  I ask that you focus your energies on what you can do to maintain freedom - for that is certainly not without fee.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.