There is no limited government without individual virtue

As we begin the countdown to the 250th anniversary of the formation of this nation, we should be thinking about the circumstances that made the foundation of the United States of America possible, what has undergirded the prosperity and relative peace we have enjoyed for almost two and a half centuries, and how best to ensure that the “blessings of liberty” the Founders wrote in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution will in fact be handed down to future generations.

In a nutshell, the future of the United States as we know it depends upon a resurgence of and commitment to individual virtue.

In his 1798 letter to the Massachusetts Militia, second President of the United States John Adams warned of what would happen if the American government adopted policies that had produced “desolation in so many Parts of the World.” He also drove home the critical relationship between the promise of limited government and responsible individual behavior:

“We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

If Adams would be dismayed to see the worship of greed in contemporary America, he’d be shocked speechless to the promotion of every vice he could imagine – and some beyond his worst nightmares.

It hasn’t been fashionable for people in government to espouse virtue for at least 60 years. And many of our other important cultural institutions – schools, churches, the media and entertainment industries – actively undermine virtue at every turn, defending or outright promoting sexual promiscuity, infidelity, adultery, divorce, physical violence, substance abuse and the exploitation of children. Grade schools and high schools have diluted their designated missions of teaching proper English, math, science and other academically rigorous subjects, in favor of teaching “tolerance” – which translates to exposing minors to adult sexual practices, including their teachers’ sexual preferences and identities. Violence, once unheard of, is now a common occurrence. Achievement test scores are down.

Government policies create financial incentives around lack of sexual self-restraint, and in so doing promote a cycle of poverty, hopelessness and violence born of fatherlessness and broken families.

All of this is relevant to the survival of the American form of government because the societal dissolution that follows the abandonment of individual virtue inevitably results in calls for bigger government: more programs, more agencies, more staff, more taxes, more expenditures.

Not only are these programs bottomless pits of profligate spending, but they are woefully, demonstrably ineffective. No amount of government money can take the place of a stable family with two married parents who are not addicted to drugs or alcohol and at least one of whom is gainfully employed.

In fact, it is the failure of government programs that produces the call for more money, more money, always more money.

If money solved the problem of poverty (and its many related ills), it would have been solved by now. This country has spent more than $25 trillion in the 61 years since President Lyndon Johnson announced his “Great Society” initiative to end poverty. And yet it has barely moved the needle.

For that matter, it isn’t even limited to the poor; if money solved society’s problems, Hollywood celebrities would be the happiest people in the country; their marriages the most stable and longest-lasting; their children the most psychologically stable. One look at the daily headlines reveals that to be a fairy tale.

We have let ourselves be seduced by weaponized words like “compassion” and “racist,” and we are reaping the consequences.

But it isn’t compassionate to wink at drug use. A compassionate, civilized society does not have addicted and mentally ill people convulsing, shrieking, urinating and defecating on the sidewalk.

It isn’t egalitarian or inspiring, much less true, to tell children of certain ethnicities that they need not meet academic or behavioral standards. Nor does it advance society to eliminate honors and advanced programs because Asian and white students are disproportionately represented in them.

It isn’t “open-minded” to tolerate violence, theft and vandalism, or to penalize law-abiding citizens by allowing criminals and illegal aliens on our streets.

It isn’t clever to make excuses when the politicians you vote for lie, cheat, steal, violate their oaths of office, or manipulate the legal process. And it is profoundly destructive to educate generations of “journalists” to believe that there’s no such thing as “truth” or “objectivity,” and that their role is to indoctrinate the public to their preferred viewpoint.

It’s no coincidence that the same political parties that promote self-indulgence are those clamoring for bigger government and higher taxes to pay for it all, as New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is. Mamdani is just the latest telegenic political candidate promising that socialism is the cure for what ails us. No one should be fooled by Mamdani’s (or anyone else’s) promises of “free” food, education, housing or health care. Someone is always paying for it, and all those freebies come with strings attached.

America’s “do what thou wilt” libertarianism and increasing fascination with socialism are ultimately completely incompatible. Ideologues always underestimate the costs of paying for everyone’s food, their housing, the medical care and their other personal indulgences. And when the bill comes due, those in control will demand control over all your choices: “You eat too much,” “You smoke too much,” “You drink too much,” “You have too many children,” “Your house or apartment or carbon footprint is too big.”

Just like that, the big government you were told would give you everything will step in and take it all away.

If we want the United States to survive, continue to prosper and be a beacon of hope, then we must admit that the social experiments of the past 60 years have been a disastrous failure, and change course.

Our churches and charitable organizations, our schools, families, communities and corporations must celebrate virtue, not viciousness; self-discipline, not self-indulgence; sexual restraint rather than sexual excess; hard work rather than handouts; delayed gratification over instant rewards.

Promoting virtue may not sound “sexy” or glamorous, but it is meaningful, and a civilized society depends upon it. Virtue is what inspires people to work on their marriages and other relationships; it is what makes friends reliable and what keeps entrepreneurs and employees coming in to work. It is what keeps city parks and streets clean and schools safe. It is what prompts someone to return a lost wallet or rescue a stranded animal. It is what helps people have faith in the justice system. It is why people honor contracts and pay their debts promptly (or at least eventually).

Virtue is essential to the long-term health of people and of their nations. America is perhaps the first nation founded on the express premise of limited government dependent on individual virtue.

We will not survive without it.