Make America Whole Again
The Christian Right, the Liberal Left, and a Commitment to the American Enterprise
There are people for whom I have great respect who will not wish to read what I have to write. The intended audience of this note is not necessarily those who are most likely to read it; rather, it is their perceived opponents — those least likely to imbibe.
The irony is profound, but in the end it is more fun to be the member of a group from whom you receive support than to stand between two enemies. Alas, it is difficult being an individual in a world so bent on tribal division, but it is exactly this that we should all be striving to do, if our goal is to restore America — and even the West for that matter — to its rightful destiny in the course of human history.
America was founded on the notion that the primary duty of government is to defend the person and property of the individual against the passions of the mob and the methodical execution of policies of the state that are detrimental to the nation. Unfortunately, we have come to learn that behind many mobs are organized leaders that are both obvious and not-so-obvious — people who set the mobs into motion and abet them when they behave in a manner conducive to the objectives of those who organized them.1 These mobs can be instigated from within the private or public sector by anyone or group of people with enough influence, wealth, and/or power, as well as an objective that is perceived as impossible to achieve through the established social institutions of the societies in which they operate.
Most recently we experienced such activity during the racial riots of 2020 brought about by our local and State governments’ draconian response to the Chinese WuFlu, and the less than polite entry into our nation’s Capitol Building on January 6th in the following year. In both cases there were important forces behind the scenes who abetted the criminals and tempted many — otherwise innocent, people — into criminal activity. Ironically, the far more damaging first set of events have largely been forgotten while the relatively harmless, but for some frightening and even deadly, second event has been exaggerated beyond reasonable comprehension. Whatever position you may hold toward the events of the “Summer of Love” of 2020, or the “Capitol Insurrection” of 2021, if it is not clear by now that we are being manipulated by our national and global press, then I fear that you have become some sort of social drop-out or ostrich hiding its head in the sand. Clearly there are evil forces who have no interest in telling the truth about anything.
Our nation was founded on the notion that we, the governed, are responsible for our own fate, and that, if we do not act responsibly, then we are deserving of the ill-will that comes our way. The words of the preamble to our nation’s Declaration of Independence that receive so little attention, but bespeak volumes about the fundamental nature of us, human beings, are:
“all experience hath shewn, that [hu]mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed”
2nd Continental Congress. July 4, 1776. Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall), Philadelphia, PA. <https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript>
In effect, the forms to which we have grown accustomed are alien to our founding, and we need to abolish them. Fortunately, because they are alien to our founding, we can abolish them within the law, and we do not have to resort to violence. In fact, we should not resort to violence, because it is violence that the aforementioned evil forces would have us commit and thereby justify the use of emergency powers under martial law in order to bring about a complete denial of our rights. Martial law is ugly; it is what happened during Lincoln’s War of Consolidation when he suspended the right to habeas corpus and bullied the otherwise free press into submission. It is also what happened during World War II when Roosevelt interned Japanese-American citizens and confiscated their property for the “crime” of having been born in Japan or in the United States into an American household with Japanese ancestry. And, most recently, it is what happened, when the leadership of various American governments served an ultimatum to their respective government employees: “Be injected with an experimental gene therapy or you will be fired from your post”.
What disturbs me most about the ongoing “tribal confrontation” in America today — especially on the West and East Coasts and in our nation’s institutions of higher education across the nation — is the pro-, anti-Christian fervor of the non-dialogue.
Now, I am the first to admit that my nine-year sojourn in Japan was, in part, motivated by my desire to escape Christianity. This said, after spending 23 of the past 33 years living in Asia — including Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian dominated countries — I know longer feel this way. The American philosophy of governance is not about Christianity; it is about how a nation of people can govern itself in the absence of a royal sovereign or a one-party state ruled by an all powerful head who is only answerable to a tiny number of senior party members.
Alas, there are many patriotic Christians for whom I have great respect, and who believe that a belief in God is essential to the American philosophy of governance. I do not share this belief. In contrast, there are many on the Liberal Left with whom I share a common metaphysical outlook, but who appear to be hell-bent on destroying our past and recreating our nation as an appendage to some sort of top-down, global system of governance. These latter are performing a great disservice to themselves and our nation.
I have spent some 13 years in the State of Washington since my first arrival in the fall of 1987, have attended seven — nearly all of which are very reputable — American institutions of higher education in five different States, and have taught at several highly prestigious institutions of higher education in Asia. And this, ignores my educational and teaching experience in Europe before I became a wandering academic, independent researcher, social activist, and eventually born-again American patriot.
Many Americans who have defected from our nation’s Christian tradition are attracted to the cultures of East Asia, because they offer an alternative to a belief in God, and because their citizenry tend to be far less violent and better educated than our own.
In addition, many Americans and Europeans look to the more authoritarian-minded countries of East Asia, such as Japan, Korea, and Singapore, and even China, as the way forward. I am completely sympathetic with this inclination, but strongly reject the rationale given for its existence and do not recommend the inclination.
I have been a student of social science for most of my adult life and have had the opportunity to test my formal university training in American schools in eight countries on three continents including the United States, Japan (9 years), Hong Kong (7 years), Saudi Arabia (4 years), Germany (2 years), France (1 year), South Korea (1 year), and Thailand (1 year). Both my formal and informal training and experience have taught me that the aforementioned preference of many Americans and Westerners for Asian culture can be explained by the fact that both America and Europe have lost touch with their roots — roots that, without doubt, include, in large part, the Christian faith. This said, I am not here to extol Christianity, nor am I here to pontificate on Western culture in general; rather, I am here to emphasize the importance that the Christian religion played in our nation’s founding, and that those who would replace it with something else must take into consideration the importance of its contribution.
Unfortunately, the Liberal Left has failed to replace Christianity in a manner that is consistent with our nation’s founding. Rather, they have made the Democrat Party their congregation, and the state and political power their God. Moreover, they have abandoned in so doing the founding principles of American governance that once made our nation great and earned us the respect of the entire world — even that of our enemies! In so doing, these “irreligious charlatans” posing as “non-Believers” have largely destroyed the social fabric of American society and blame our founding for the societal, political, and economic dysfunction that they have brought about. Even more pertinent to my previous observations is that recent generations of Americans have been born into this dysfunction and are looking elsewhere in the world for solutions. It is the wrong place to look, because the answer is findable on our own soil, if only the Liberal Left were not so hell bent on poisoning it.
What makes matters worse is the Conservative Right’s response to the Liberal Left’s rejection of the Christian faith and its ability to adequately replace it. Rather, than working with the Left to preserve the American philosophy of governance, the Conservative Right has — in their own mind — made Christianity a prerequisite for its existence. This is an untenable position, if America is going to survive its cultural, political, and economic dilemma and schism. Look what happened to France in the wake of the French Revolution! The French nation passed through three alternating republics and monarchies followed by two more republics. And now, it is being overrun by the same whom it threw out in the 8th century while its leaders aspire to one-world government and the ultimate dissolution of the French state. Both Louis XIV and Charles de Gaulle would be rolling over in their graves, if they knew where the French nation is headed!
Alas, the only prerequisite for the American philosophy of governance to work is to acknowledge that the authority of the American state derives its authority from the people, and that the people agree on the basic set of inalienable rights to which those who fought for our independence from the British empire agreed in 1776 and during the subsequent five years of warring — namely,
“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”
ibid, § 2
Surely, this cannot be so difficult. Whether these rights come from “God”, the “Laws of Nature” or “Nature’s God” should not matter in the larger scheme of things, if our goal as a nation — no, not “God’s chosen people” for this is a whole other issue — is to preserve the consent of the governed and our rights as free and sovereign citizens under the Constitution of the United States.
In the end, the US Constitution and the philosophy of governance that underpins it is the culmination of more than two and a half millennium of human history and experimentation in the governance of our species.
No, I do not believe that we, Americans, were designed to become what we have become, but we must deal with who we are and the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Firstly, we must resign ourselves to the fact that — setting aside the annihilation of all of humanity by same— the nation-state is not going to go away in the very near future. More importantly, replacing it with a top-down, one-world government would be the end of America and the principles upon which our nation was founded. The WEF, WHO, and its friends in American government and other governments around the world reject our philosophy of governance.
Alas, there is nothing wrong with the America system of governance that cannot be fixed with Article V of the US Constitution <https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript#5> — and only, then, to the extent to which it needs fixing. Unfortunately, we are so afraid to touch our nation’s own basic law that we have rendered it useless. We ignore the document when it impedes us, and shine it forth when it is supports our cause. This is not the way the basic law of any constitutional republic should function.
It is surely the case that few in Congress or in American government at all levels of the system have every studied the document with any amount of sincerity. It should be the focus of every American high school student for at least two years, if not longer! And, no elected, hired, or appointed government official should be allowed to enter into an office of American government who has not been thoroughly tested on their understanding of the document’s underlying principles, if not each and every article and clause!
The document does not consist of 8,000 words. You would be lucky to pick up a short-story that does not consist of, at least, 20,000 words. Mind you, we are not counting pages. The Affordable Care Act passed by Congress in March of 2010 was nearly 1,000 pages long. Our basic law — depending on the nature of the transcription — is between 18 and 30 pages. The Federalist papers comprise about 77,000 words, and the Anti-Federalist Papers — a far more diverse collection of legal philosophy probably does not exceed 200,000 words, about the size of an epic novel. None of this should be too much to ask of high school students and our public officials. And, think of all of the interesting discussion that would ensue upon a thorough reading!
No, everyone does not have to become a constitutional lawyer or US Supreme Court Judge to hold office. This said, we have only to instill a substantial interest in all of our nation’s youth, and a thorough reading coupled with discussion and a comprehensive examination of our government officials to right the ship.
“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which … shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby .…” § 2
“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” § 3
Constitutional Convention. 1787. Constitution of the United States of America, Article VI. Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The US Constitution became law on June 21, 1788.
If we could all agree on these two simple requirements in every State and Commonwealth of our once great nation, our country would surely turn around. And, for the simple reason that the American philosophy of governance, if properly maintained, makes good sense.
In the end, the devout Christians of our nation need to be more resolute about their faith among the members of their respective congregations and less aggressive in their evangelical pursuit of non-Christian Americans when it comes to the preservation of the American nation. Accordingly, Liberals of the modern and post-modern sort, need to see themselves less as members of a political congregation led by political zealots bent on the acquisition of power and the eradication of the American philosophy of governance, and more as the individuals that they were envisioned to be when our founding fathers first assembled in Independence Hall to sign the Declaration of Independence — spiritual lights of profound discussion, exhilarating debate, and scientific clarity and independence.
In a world of lies, the truth becomes the enemy, and with the passage of time the truth will out. if not in peace, then in war. If not in liberty, then in submission and oppression. If not in time, then too late, and we will have missed our chance for both peace and liberty.
If you are in need of help read the first volume of De la démocratie en Amérique (Democracy in America) by Alexis de Tocqueville written and published in 1835. There are two volumes, but the first is sufficient. This is what America was like before one in 52 Americans were sacrificed in Lincoln’s War of Consolidation. It is also what America could be again, in large part, without slavery, without statutory counterfeit, and without the relentless fear of dissolution by our enemies — both foreign and domestic. And, all of this to say nothing of the endless series of crises to which we have been made subject by those who would undermine our nation’s founding principles.
In liberty,
Roddy A. Stegemann, First Hill, Seattle 98104
Author of Mount Cambitas - The Story of Real Money
word count: 2,808 or thereabouts with edits
The notion of the “not so obvious establishment” is perhaps best explained by Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai from whom I first learned the term. It describes those people in the employ of the “hidden establishment” who stand between the establishment and the average citizen as a cover for the wrongdoings of their hidden counterparts. Their service to the hidden establishment can be willful or unconscious. Their purpose is to deflect our attention away from an important source of social misery — our self-serving state and its private collaborators.