Vivek Ramaswamy: «To unite this country, we need to revive our ideals»

Ramaswamy: “For most of human history, it was done the other way around. The relentless pursuit of excellence and meritocracy, that is a radical and extreme idea. But I believe the way we are going to unite this country is by embracing that radicalism instead of engaging in moderation and compromise.”

OK, so, he is saying things that sound good, but he is still speaking in generalities.  More than that, free speech and meritocracy are not the founding ideals of America.  The founding ideals cannot be summarized any better than they were by Samuel Adams who, shortly after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, declared:

“…This day, I trust the reign of political protestantism will commence. We have explored the temple of royalty, and found that the idol we have bowed down to, has eyes which see not, ears that hear not our prayers, and a heart like the nether millstone. We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought, and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them. From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come.”

–Samuel Adams, “American Independence,” August 1, 1776

The sentiment was echoed by his cousin, John Adams:

The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations … This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.

The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, 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.

–John Adams

I hear plenty of pundits waxing eloquently about the temporal attributes of our founding, but scant few dare broach the ground upon which this nation was erected: the principles and ideals espoused by Moses in the Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy!

Only when, as a nation, we choose to return to these principles will the lamp of liberty once again shine in the darkness that is the ruins of America — and not until…

–B3A