Opinion: Communitarians Uphold Social Contract

I recently came across two thoughtful editorials that I would invite readers to consider. Both writers frame an effective argument for the legitimacy of government under the New Hampshire Constitution. Common Sense Conservatives agree with John Tobin and Peter Bixby because we believe ordered liberty promotes a civil society.

The capital gains proposal and core principles of the NH Constitution

Your Rep in Concord Putting N.H. Constitution in context

From both editorials:

Article 3 (of the NH Constitution) concerns Society, its Organization and Purposes:

“When men enter into a state of society, they surrender up some of their natural rights to that society, in order to ensure the protection of others; and, without such an equivalent, the surrender is void.”

Bixby writes:

“Our founders envisioned a society where agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, arts, and sciences, would flourish through the work of an educated and moral citizenry. When all citizens serve the common good, the result is a civil society that benefits all.”

I wholeheartedly agree. Sorry anarchists.

The problem is not society, or the legitimacy thereof, but the degradation of the culture and the people in it. At the same time, government has become too big and too corrupt to effectively uphold the social contract. It has become its own special interest group, thus leading us closer to Article 10 unfortunately:

“Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.”

We need forceful action not to destroy government but to restore a good government that can do its job. We also need better ideas.

We need a nonviolent, common sense revolution to deconstruct the ideas and the systems that are not working. We need to get rid of corrupt oligarchs in government and the private sector that are not serving the public good. We need to restore a better moral order so we can rebuild a better civil society. We need to reclaim our government.

That revolution is already underway and the battle is occurring on multiple fronts. We don’t need new capital gains taxes, more regulations, more fees, more lawyers, or more professional services. We need more freedom, personal responsibility, neighborliness, and thrift. We need better ideas and better citizens.

Yes, government is a necessary and legitimate aspect of the civil society as long as it continues to function the way it was intended to function. When it becomes contaminated with bad ideas and dominated by entrenched bureaucrats and career politicians it can no longer function effectively. Let’s build a better government and a better civil society.