“The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”—Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, as he nearly always did, nailed the point exactly. History shows that, as government grows, human liberty decreases. There is a metaphysical reason for this, and our Founders based the American system upon it. It runs like this.

“People power” is called liberty—the right to do what one wishes (in harmony with virtue and the laws of God). “Government power,” when abused, is called tyranny. Government becomes necessary when people misuse their “power,” their liberty, by living unvirtuous lives, which infringe on the rights of others. Thus, for that reason, government becomes necessary. But government power always limits somebody’s “liberty”—and again, sometimes, necessarily so. But the principle is the same—government power restricts liberty, and too much government power, when it infringes on people’s true rights, becomes “tyranny.” Our Founding Fathers did everything they could to prevent the American government from becoming tyrannical. That is, as Jefferson stated above, the purpose of the Constitution.

The problem is that “power” in a political system is a zero-sum game, and the only place government can get more of it is by taking it from the liberties of the people. And so, what Jefferson said here is historically and metaphysically true. The course of history demonstrates that as government grows, the liberties of the people decline. We want the........

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