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Our declining democracy seems to be dying a slow, certain death. And this death comes not from outside threats and circumstance. It is degenerating from within, dying from the inside out. And the causes are many. Oddly, two of the primary causes are two of democracy’s core values: personal freedom and equality.
Even though our nation was “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” our democracy declines for these very reasons. It declines because many of our present political and cultural leaders see the principles of individual freedom and equality so narrowly and childishly that these noble virtues have become vices.
Today, personal freedom has become an insistent, incessant individualism. It is a childish, immature, spoiled view of personal freedom, a freedom without boundaries or judgment. And that view of liberty is not a moral, rational or even a practical vision. It is, by definition, self-indulgent and, by extension, sociopathic. It is, by implication, the doorway to decadence and depravity.
And, like spoiled children, the leadership elite and their complicit followers also demand equality, interpreted to mean mathematical fairness without regard to effort or free will. They want everyone to get the same amount, have the same thing, no matter what. And, to make this happen, they will use governmental authority to enforce equality without regards to morality or justice or even personal freedom.
This is why many politicians and socialistic ideologues enviously vilify the wealthy. This is why their policies undermine the virtue of hard work and commandeer the accrued rewards that derive from effort and enterprise. This is why they no longer strive for equal opportunities, but insist on the equality of outcomes.
Like children, they are envious of those who have achieved a measure of success. And they wrap it in the rhetoric of fairness and compassion. They accuse the wealthy of greed and reveal their own greedy envy by their rapacious rhetoric and their high-handed tactics of big government, rather than properly balancing their rhetoric and tactics in a manner that appeals to the moral obligations inherent in the rewards of effort and enterprise.
These leaders and their followers have lost the necessary integration inherent in all sound morality. For any moral virtue left untethered from other pertinent virtues inevitably becomes a vice. Just think of any person who values honesty over all other moral principles. If honesty is not restrained and tempered by discretion, compassion and love, it becomes a character flaw, a moral vice. Such is the case with equality.
Similarly, freedom is not a virtue unless it is used rightly. Real freedom is always subject to moral review. And all decisions become a matter of morality. But because our culture distorts freedom, denying the essential moral evaluation of all free-will acts, our nation and our culture endorse sins of all types and castigate those who rightly judge freedom’s uses along moral lines.
This is why our leaders and our culture despise any attempt to judge any belief or behavior on moral grounds. Now, personal freedom has become immune to evaluation and judgment. But freedom without moral evaluation is not freedom. It is license, plain and simple.
So, how has this childish philosophy that distorts equality and denies moral judgment caused our democracy to decline? The evidence is all around us.
Familiar examples of the tyranny of untethered equality are evident in the monotonous rhetoric of “race,” “class” and “gender.” While equity of opportunity is a fair, moral goal, the equality of outcome is the product of envy, not justice or compassion, despite their rhetoric.
The distortion of equality is also clear in the relentless surge of socialistic movements and the expanding power the government and its bureaucracies continue to confer. The “Occupy” movement’s envious and destructive disregard for personal achievement and property is just such a socialistic program fueled by envy. The federal government’s ever-expanding regulatory control and the health-care mandates inflicted on private, religious institutions, regardless of the moral imperatives of religious and moral freedom, are some familiar attempts at equality without regard to other moral principles such as religious expression and the morality of life.
And, when it comes to personal freedom, we need look no further than the television screen or the headlines. The homosexual agenda, rampant promiscuity and pornography, violence, abortion, euthanasia, greed, materialism, divorce and profanity are familiar effects of unrestrained individual freedom. This litany of depravity is significant in its ubiquity and in the endorsement and encouragement of many of these sins in law and in culture.
When government and culture become the instruments of deliberate distortions of such beliefs and a great mass of people are complicit in this, democracy dies. The forms may remain, but the substance is lost. For democracy rests on freedom and equality as two of its principles, but not its only two.
Democracy thrives on the moral conviction that right and wrong exist. It thrives on the fact that we are all equally subject to moral imperatives, moral standards, moral judgments. It thrives on the idea that goodness must be sought and lived and that evil must be acknowledged and avoided. It thrives on the love of truth and the truth of love.
So, what must we do as followers of Christ? First, we must meet these challenges with informed and resolute action. For many in our nation no longer seek to build a more righteous, a more moral society founded on reason and on natural law, as our founders intended. And we must persuade them that their beliefs are bereft of real truth and moral rectitude.
Second, we must recover the real purposes of democracy. Democracy’s purpose is not to create a society devoid of differences, a socialistic society where personal achievement, individual stewardship and personal property are anti-social vices. It is not to create an amoral, personally free society where individuals cross all moral boundaries with impunity. It is to create a good society, a noble society, a virtuous society, a loving society. These are the purposes of real democracy, a democracy resting on the truth of goodness, nobility, virtue and love.
And these purposes are the very purposes God intends for human society. For as children of God, we know we are our brothers’ keepers. We are bound to help the less fortunate, the lost, the blind, the sinful. And, as disciples of Christ, we are also bound to the "Great Commission," to make disciples of all nations. And, as we relentlessly bring the full Gospel of love and of truth to our nation and our world, we must bear the suffering, lovingly preaching and embodying the truth, in season and out of season. For even the gates of hell will not prevail against us, as Jesus assures us.
And finally, let us do so “with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.” And “let us strive on to finish the work we are in,” so help us God.
Frank Cronin writes from eastern Connecticut.
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Benjamin Wiker: The Church and the (Secular) State
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Very well said! The author has identified the problems of our current culture and the decline of our country and provided us as Catholics with a plan of action. Excellent!
In the 1960’s Kurcheve the leader of the soviet union said that they would destoy democracy and United States from with in.
This column is spot on.
And to add to it this: Prosperity has rendered a significant percent of the population stupefied—that is, for the most part, they’re isolated from their dysfunctional behavior, the cost of which is passed onto society (the taxpayer) in general.
And couple this with universal suffrage where even the totally ignorant are allowed to vote, it will spell the death of the republic.
Excellent article! But my question is, how do we respond to those who believe morality is relative and will inevitably ask, “Whose morality do we follow?”
I am bombarded with such phrases as “well that’s your morality”, or “why should I follow your morality?”, when what is moral should be common for all. Right?
This should be read at every Church service this Sunday!!
The following prophetic words (which have been largely ignored) describe the self-evident forces that are arrayed against people of faith at this critical hour in our Nation’s history. Is anybody there? Does anybody care?
“The West has yet to experience a Communist invasion; religion here remains free. But the West’s own historical evolution has been such that today it too is experiencing a drying up of religious consciousness.
…This gradual sapping of strength from within is a threat to faith that is perhaps even more dangerous than any attempt to assault religion violently from without.”
- - Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Templeton Prize Lecture, “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag”, London, May 10, 1983.)
Dead Center Bulls Eye! The only point I would add is that society has confused freedom with license. Freedom supposes doing what is right for the common good while license supposes doing what you want regardless of what is right. Again, Great commentary.
Very well said. Thank you for the clarity and vision.
Amazingly well written. Gem after gem. Read and re-read!
This is an outstanding article and should be widely promulgated. I would only add that the extreme individualism he describes is also the root cause of the great diviseness which permeates our political institutions today. Unfortunately, the seven deadly sins are still very much with us.
No,no,no,no,no!!!! We are NOT a democracy; we are a Republic! There is a huge difference even tough politicians use the term loosely. Iran is a democracy. The United States is a Constitutional Republic. Our liberty and freedom is dying today for two reasons: 1. because we have confused the understanding of Separation of church and state. There is nothing in the Constitution that includes the separation of church and state- Nothing! A letter than Jefferson wrote, regarding his intentions in the first Amendment, mentioned that the government could hold no authority over the church - this must be separate, he said! That is it folks! Do not take my word for it - go to the Avalon Project - a free online law library at Yale….you can read the Constitution - which we all should - as well as the Federalist Papers - these tell how to interpret it - and many of the Founding Father’s letters are there as well.
2. The second reason is that we do not know the Constitution and we allow our politicians to continue to disregard it. The States give authority to the constitution and they can take it away via Nullification. Each State has the power to simply disregard any Federal law, through this process….again do not take my word for it - see the Tenth Amendment Center - on line…. Our government is out of control, spending billions of dollars a day, while we are asleep.
This is why our REPUBLIC is dying…...we are not a democracy, as the risk of democracy, by definition is mob rule…...Time to read up folks! If we are not knowledgeable government will continue on its merry way. We were not taught these things in school, as the discipline of history was changed in the early 1900’s by Woodrow Wilson. Let’s do our homework and take our country back….it is our Constitutional right.
one last post: It is not the role of government in a Republic to create a good society. In a free society - a free republic - as Archbishop Fulton Sheen said; “liberty is the freedom to do what we ought.” Our country was Founded on Christian principles and it is not the role of government to define or control this. It is up to us, knowing the Constitution and the only one way to interpret it, to ensure that government fears its people. See this link: http://www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/115-8/Paulsen.pdf and
Akhil Amar’s America’s Constitution: A Biography is the second best book
ever written about the U.S. Constitution.
The best, of course, is The Federalist
Great article. It’s everything I feel and think but can’t express like this writer can.
I am so tired of the wealthy being attacked. (I am middle class and was born dirt poor.) Why is it that only wealthy businessmen are attacked? If a person feels the need to attack the wealthy, how about attacking movie stars and sports’figures. They make huge salaries for just entertaining (if you can call it that).
Tricia,
Yours is a related, but different argument. I know there are those who are very focused on the point you’re advancing, but the argument made in the article stands, as is, and is valid, imo. It is legitimate to speak of the Unites States as a democracy in the general sense of the term - we’re a democratic republic or a representative democracy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_republic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_democracy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_republic
You write, “It is up to us, knowing the Constitution and the only one way to interpret it…”
I think we would also do well to remember that the Constitution is an imperfect, if largely good, man-made document. If we insist on “original intent”, as if the Constitution is Inspired Scripture, then women shouldn’t be voting and neither should black people. That was the manifest view and intent of the framers.
I believe the article gets to more important, fundamental principles that underly the decline of our country.
Tricia,
Yours is a related, but different argument. I know there are those who are very focused on the point you’re advancing, but the argument made in the article stands, as is, and is valid, imo. It is legitimate to speak of the Unites States as a democracy in the general sense of the term - we’re a democratic republic or a representative democracy.
You write, “It is up to us, knowing the Constitution and the only one way to interpret it…”
I think we would also do well to remember that the Constitution is an imperfect, if largely good, man-made document. If we insist on “original intent”, as if the Constitution is Inspired Scripture, then women shouldn’t be voting and neither should black people. That was the manifest view and intent of the framers.
I believe the article gets to more important, fundamental principles that underly the decline of our country.
Whatever happened to good old absolute monarchies? I’m serious—as a Catholic I believe that Catholic monarchies more accurately reflect Christ’s Truth, as those are the New Covenant equivalents of the Kingdom of Israel. I don’t say that a patriarchal, absolute Catholic monarchy would be perfect—no merely human society can be—but I believe it has the potential to be a better society than any democracy or republic. I also believe they will be making a comeback, perhaps within our lifetime.
Re: monarchy.
Aside from the implausibility factor, in this day and age, I’d rather have as little power in any one individual’s hands as possible. If a monarch is good, multi-talented and benevolent then it could be great. If he’s not, it could be the very worst because the monarch can do evil at will without having to worry about approval and consensus.
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This is an excellent article and so timely! The misuse of the term “freedom” has lead to disaster in our country as you have pointed out so clearly. Thank you for your words of advice and encouragement to do our part in this matter. Lets get back to the real purposes of democracy!!
Well done, Mr. Cronin. Nice to see that some Catholics have not abandoned logic for emotionalism and can still think rationally!
No Michael, it is a dictatorship coming, like what we have now. Our current president has overrode the rule of law on numerous occasions, the same with the Supreme Court, especially when it ignored the Constitution: Everyone has a right to life.
However, in the Old Testament when the Jews wanted a king, (they were ruled directly by God through holy judges), God warned them, the king would take their sons and daughters and their worldly goods and multiply his soldiers, wives and worldly goods. And that’s what happened. I think they hungered for some stature in the world, and that’s why they wanted a king. Unfortunately, the same principle seems to be working now in the United States without a king. Good luck on getting a Catholic one. God bless you. Susan Fox http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com
Well done Frank. You said it all. Americans must pray and work very hard to deliver Americans from the hands of goodless politicans. If they fail, American immoral politicans will spread their false and destructive values to the rest of the world.
Without God, vice prevails in darkened minds unable to perceive truth and logic.
Amen to all of the above!!! Great article! God bless you!
Franciscan: I must disagree. Frank Cronin’s analysis from the very beginning is off the mark. The U.S. is not a Democracy, it is a Constitutional Republic of which the difference is quite distinct. Although, we culturally use the term interchangeably, the author should have made the distinction. It is my first contention that an article analyzing the narrowing of our core personal freedoms and equality, while including the concept of the government process, should at the very least make this distinction. He should also make the distinction between liberty and freedom. The other option is to entitle the article differently to discuss the benefits and risks of personal freedom/personal choices outside the realm of the Christian faith. To give the author some credit, he does make an indirect reference to the lack of adherence to Rule of Law, when he talks about the lack of values.
The author clearly makes the case that the death of our country “democracy”, is due to democracy’s core values: personal freedom and equality. In the U.S. there is no premise or foundation upon which to make this claim, our laws have been based on the preservation life liberty and pursuit of happiness. Although he quotes one phrase of the Gettysburg address, “nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” this is not relevant to why we are in the state we are in today, fundamentally. Actually, a reference to Lincoln, can only weaken the author’s argument, as Abolition could have been achieved without war years earlier. Lincoln sought more to preserve the Union, which was not his proper role as president, according to the Constitution and Rule of Law. He also claims that the role of democracy is to create a noble society, etc. This is not the role of a government at all! It is a responsibility of its people under the laws of the church and benevolent faiths. The role of government in a republic is simply this: to protect and preserve our unalienable rights…..(unalienable is used vs inalienable as they are God given - we can see this as a premise within the Declaration as the power to become independent of England)
The Constitution is the foundation of our liberty and to see it any other way “IS” the reason why our country - our Democracy as he states - is dying. Our Constitution is constantly misinterpreted under the premise of Supreme Court Doctrine and specific cases, instead of the actual text. This is why the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act. It offered its opinion under the guise of adjudication. Frankly, this is often taught in the law schools although that is changing. Issues like freedom, rights, and equality add fuel to the fire, in Mr. Cronin’s defense, yet our government is not the provider of our rights in this Republic, God is our provider.
You write about women voting, but during the early years, women could vote. Voting processes were based on land ownership. As we industrialized, the process became a problem. Moreover, many individuals, like Alexander Hamilton preferred the monarchy. Early letter of Patrick Henry and Jefferson speak to the veritable coup that made the Philadelphia Convention a success and ratification of the Constitution a reality. It was a close call.
Later problems with equality, which came to their peak during the early 1900’s, were fostered by the progressive who sought a social democracy. Woodrow Wilson was responsible for segregation, and detrimentally revising history. This had nothing to do with the original writing of the Constitution, it had to do with the interpretation and acknowledgement of the Constitution. The Federalist Papers as well as many letter from Washington, Jefferson and Madison, all speak to the interpretation of the Constitution and their views on slavery and such issues voting/representation, etc. George Washington, died before taking any credit to freeing the slaves. He had freed his slaves with one condition that he be allowed to teach a trade, as well as to read and write. Abolition had already begun. The real story about Lincoln was never taught.
Sadly, those in DC for more than a century have not honored the Constitution and we have not held them accountable, as a result of our complacency and ignorance. During these times when our faith and religious freedom are under attack, I am quite emotionally charged after reading this article which was not rooted in the fundamentals of our country, our rights, and our liberty.
Just as we as Catholics, discuss our questions and concerns within the framework of our Church’s history, doctrine and the Word of God, our country will not change until our discussions on issues such as personal freedom, are structured within the framework of history, our Constitution, and Rule of Law. If this does not happen, we will continue to come to an impasse with our political leaders and our fellow citizens on both moral issues and our rights. This article brings to light an important trend around the world, yet it does not broach the root of the problem. It merely focuses further on rhetoric about human weakness, of which the Founding Fathers were acutely aware and had planned for within the framework of the Constitution.
I urge everyone to read the Federalist Papers, or Akhil Amar’s America’s Constitution: A Biography, as well as the Rule of Law. (can be found at the Avalon project on-line). Our government today is out of control, because American’s do not understand its role and its duty to Rule of Law. as for human nature,over the millennia we have been known to vacillate from liberal to conservative in our behavior. We are sinners, called to be saints. The Founding Fathers new this.
Thanks for reading this.
“freedom is not a virtue unless it is used rightly. Real freedom is always subject to moral review. And all decisions become a matter of morality. But because our culture distorts freedom, denying the essential moral evaluation of all free-will acts, our nation and our culture endorse sins of all types and castigate those who rightly judge freedom’s uses along moral lines.”
This is so right! Just the other day I was speaking with a co-worker and mentioned morality. His response was, “well doesn’t everyone have their own morals?”. He would therefore conclude that freedom is not dependent on objective moral standards, the very issue presented in this article.
The writer is absolutely correct! The leaders of America have not followed the Constitution this country is based on. Furthermore, he addresses the complaisant attitude of the overall public, myself included. If we are so outraged by where our country is headed, we have a duty to actively participate in protecting our future.
Democracy has always borne the seeds of its own destruction. Unfortunately they are now beginning to germinate.
Gary: I think you meant Khrushchev. The Socialist Norman Thomas said after our 1936 Presidential Election that they would take over our nation without firing a shot. Obama made both prophets.
Democracy declining from within sounds like the Catholic Church declining from within. See:
“Animus Delendi-I, Desire to Destroy” by Atila Sinke Guimarâes
Frank Cronin’s, “Democracy: Dying from within?” raises a provocative question, yet misses the premise and answer. While omitting key characteristics of America’s Constitutional Republic, he falsely states that two primary causes of democracy’s decline are “core values: personal freedom and equality.” To understand the decline in democracy, morality, and virtue, one must consider political science/politics, untainted history, and the Constitution. Moreover, one must understand the role of government, versus the church, versus the citizens’ role and responsibilities.
Few would argue that we are seeing a flagrant loss of virtue with an ever-rising acceptance of deviance. While attempting to understand this behavior, Cronin himself, falls prey to the influences of political scientists who attempt to divide Americans. Partisan political schemes are meant to elicit contempt, while encouraging tolerance and compassion for immoral behavior under the guise of freedom, civil rights, and equality. Mother Angelica noted it best describing such tolerance as “misguided compassion.” Campaign rhetoric and special- interest promotions evoke the notion that the opposition is selfish, poorly-raised, and emotionally immature, as Cronin notes; “like spoiled children.” Americans often respond with anger, fear and hopelessness, questioning whether self-governing is plausible. Cronin overlooks this powerful influence. Thus, when he describes the ideal virtuous society, Cronin mistakenly confuses the role of government/democracy, with the role of the Church and the citizens. The Church provides the moral compass; while the responsibility of individuals is commitment. It’s the duty of government to adhere to the Constitution and Rule of Law, which are based on Christian principles. The role of the federal government is to protect and preserve our unalienable rights, nothing more.
Cronin’s point; “culture distorts freedom denying the evaluation of all free-will acts”, portrays a consenting-collective, to which neither he nor his readers belong. Further, he confuses freedom and liberty. “Liberty is the freedom to do what one ought”; Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Although I agree with his plea to evangelize our faith, Cronin’s argument; “we must persuade them that their beliefs are bereft of real truth”, is the same argument of Muslim extremists supporting Sharia Law. This is one reason why such discussions must remain within a specific framework, while avoiding political influence.
I will say that in some ways, Mr. Cronin may believe that America has moved from a Constitutional Republic to a Social Democracy. We can see this shift in the early 1900’s. With that said, he does not broach the root of the problem, which is the influence of the political system that has misguided our compassion, and knowledge of true American history, the Constitution, and Rule of Law.
Catholics discuss faith within the framework of Church history, Doctrine, and the Word of God. Americans must structure discussions within the framework of untainted history, our Constitution, and Rule of Law, anything less disregards solutions within the Constitution and the States.
Beth: your point is well taken, but the same argument regarding complacency has been used for over a century. Until we discuss the future of this country within the framework of our Constitution, unrevised history and Bastiat’s Rule of Law, nothing will change and Americans will remain pitted against each other. The foundation of this country accounted for bad human behavior, thus the structure upon which America was founded can withstand such assaults. It is time for every American to read the “Federalist” and the Constitution in order to use the tools provided to take our country back. (see Avalon Project - free online)
Excellent article! The author’s distinctions between freedom and license, equality and fairness are so simple and yet so profound. The author expertly reveals how an ignorance of these distinctions coupled with an imbalance in the value attributed to these virtues can easily result in much of the depravity plaguing our nation! Simple and brilliant!
Bob Rowland: America has essentially operated as a social democracy since the early 1900’s, simply because Americans have not been engaged and do not understand the Constitution. The difference today is that we are beginning to wake up to the already waned liberty,education, family and common sense.
When Americans begin to teach their children again, and we can uneducate the educated perhaps we will see a change for the good.
Frank Cronin’s article, pointing the finger at the deviant left wing liberals, is morally wrong. We should be worried about their souls more so than making them the problem. We are all at fault for our lack of expertise on how the government operates, the founding fathers, and the Constitution. These people know not what they do. Frank’s article should have been entitled, “blaming today’s counterculture for the 100 year process of decline in democracy and righteousness.”
“The United States was originally a constitutional republic where the law was supreme and to which all, including the president, congress, and judiciary, were equally subject. We’ve been educated to accept the conversion of our governmental form to a representative democracy where the majority will is supremely vested in elected officials who are above the law. Our government of law has been superseded with a government of men. Our competitive free market for goods services has been replaced with statism which is a concentration of all economic controls and planning in the hands of a highly centralized state. Our constitution no longer governs. We are now governed by 1000 arbitrary and dictatorial federal regulatory agencies and presidential executive orders. Our political and economic freedoms are gone soon to be inevitably followed by our religious freedom.”
Joe Rotole:
You nailed it! .....By definition we are a Republic, but we have been operating quite differently for many decades. I could argue that we have been operating as an Oligarchy as well, but that is for another conversation. With that said; I feel solutions lie within the states through nullification, sheriffs interposition, and Article V. In fact 36 states are now working on an 18 word amendment to the Constitution, which would require the Federal government to seek approval of the majority of the individual states before raising the debt ceiling. see: http://www.restoringfreedom.org
Also, one could also argue whether the Anti-federalists were right, and perhaps the Articles of Confederation should have remained.
I have hope that we can educate others, and make the kind of change to ensure our liberty. It took over 100 years to get to where we are today; it will take that long to bring it back. See The Forgotten Men website and fb page….good group of folks nationwide.
Mr Cronin’s article, burnt my toast, in that in my opinion he totally missed the point, and he should have defined our current political climate instead of falling prey to the other side of the partisan rhetoric.
So your assertion is that if political leaders and citizens do not define freedom as the Catholic Church, their definition must therefore be shallow and childish. That in a non sequitur. There are many definitions of freedom, from many religions and from secular thinkers.
To label the ideas of others as shallow and childish simply because they do not comport to your dogmatic faith, and contending then that their views naturally leads to moral depravity, that just does not comport with fact. Moreover, labeling, insulting, and judging others does not advance your argument, nor is it neighborly.
True freedom is in the ‘obedience’ to the Kingship of Christ and His Divine Law.
Obama would never have been elected in 2008 if the U S bishops had been practicing the Catholic Faith.
“What Has Happened to the Catholic Church” by Rev. Francisco Radecki and Rev. Dominic Radecki.
“Animus Delendi-I, Desire to Destroy” by Atila Sinke Guimarâes
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