Group Conscience and Trusted Servants

One of the greatest movements in man kinds history, though seldom recognized as such, is Alcoholics Anonymous. Besides having saved literally millions of lives directly and indirectly, AA through the creation of their Twelve Step program has enabled other organizations using this simple program which is based upon common sense and spiritual principles to help untold millions of others to overcome a wide variety of shortcomings and crippling addictions from smoking to drugs.

The First Step is based upon a very simple and obvious idea which for all its simplicity if not accepted will keep a person an institution or even a nation from healing. This first step basically says that you can't fix a problem if you do not admit that you have one. That is the kind of simple common sense approach that has made AA and all its offshoots so successful in dealing with peoples problems.

You may think that a program designed to help (heal) a bunch of drunks would have little connection to the politics of modern day America. I would argue that our modern day American government very much reminds one of a bar full of binge drinkers in desperate need of intervention.

Besides the Twelve Steps which AA developed for an individuals recovery, they also have the lesser known but nearly as important Twelve Traditions which are meant as a guide to maintaining order within the AA community of thousands of individual groups throughout the world. Considering how large AA has become and that it is comprised of people who, in order to recover, must admit that they are insane, the continuing functioning of this organization shows that these traditions must have had some degree of success.

The Second AA Tradition is pertinent to this rambling discourse I have embarked upon. It states:

For our group purpose there is but one authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

Putting aside the fact that few people in or outside of AA actually believe in a Loving God ,what I wish to point out is the idea of  a group conscience and the trusted servants. You could easily relate this to being a simplified version of the republican form of government we in the United States are supposed to abide by. The group conscience representing the majority rule of our democratic process which selects representatives who act as our trusted servants.

The "they do not govern" aspect is a little tricky depending on which way you interpret the word govern. In the political sense there are two basic definitions for the word govern which, depending on which definition you choose, makes all the difference whether in an AA Group or an entire nation.

Definition of GOVERN

transitive verb

1a : to exercise continuous sovereign authority over; especially : to control and direct the making and administration of policy in

b : to rule without sovereign power and usually without having the authority to determine basic policy

In an AA group the "they do not govern"  phrase in Tradition Two relates to the first definition above. The leaders, though they may administer and even develop certain rules, they work within a predetermined set of guidelines or policies beyond which they may not go, these guidelines being the Twelve Traditions themselves. So the trusted servants within an AA Group would operate under the second definition of govern since the basic policy has already been established within the framework of the Twelve Traditions.

This same concept is exactly how our Federal Government is supposed to operate. The group conscience being We The People elect representatives to act as our trusted servants to rule within the framework of guidelines set forth within The United States Constitution.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

 
This is the travesty of our current government, the "I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same" portion of that oath has become moot. As Senator Jim DeMint recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal article to warn incoming Senators

At your swearing-in ceremony, you will, as all senators do, take an oath to "support and defend the Constitution." Most will fail to keep their oath.

The terrible truth is that most of our elected officials not only break their oath, they don't even believe in it or the Constitution. The Constitution is no longer a framework within which they must operate, it is a hindrance to their grand designs and political schemes. They define govern (1a) and to hell with the  group conscience .

Have you ever heard the statement  "In the United States the people are sovereign"? Do you believe it? Although those seem like just hollow words in today's America they are actually the foundation of our nation. This concept has often been reaffirmed in many Supreme Court cases such as:

"In the United States the People are sovereign and the government cannot sever its relationship to the People by taking away their citizenship."

Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967)

Consider those words "In the United States the People are sovereign.."  What does sovereign mean? "one that exercises supreme authority within a limited sphere . "How limited is the sphere of  We The People of the United States? Or rather how limited is it supposed to be? Not  limited at all, in fact the very Constitution those trusted servants  swear  "to bear true faith and allegiance to"  puts no limits on the sovereignty of the people only upon those trusted servants.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

It is really pretty straight forward unless you are a drunk, binge drinking in the bar with your buddies enjoying the game on the big screen not wanting the party to end.

In the United States We The People are sovereign and nowhere in our Constitution which is the ultimate law of the land does it give our trusted servants the power to impose such things as mandating that we purchase health insurance. Nowhere in the Constitution does it allow trusted servants the right to fundamentally transform our country to some new governing structure built on some "New Foundation" without the consent of the governed.

Bill Clinton famously and rightly said "There is nothing wrong with America that can not be cured by all that is right with America." And the rightest thing about America is its form of government properly restrained by the Constitution or as old TJ put it  "In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution"

Which brings us back to the beginning, you can't fix a problem if you do not admit that you have one. The problem, as a nation, is that we must admit  that we are not being governed in accordance to the law of the land. And the solution is that we must either return to the basics and insist by group conscience that we be governed in accordance with it, or be prepared for a painful dissolution.  Because as all alcoholics know in their hearts but deny in their actions is that it is a family disease which must either be healed or the family will be destroyed. So too with the a government addicted to power, it must either be healed or the nation will be destroyed.  Just as there is no middle ground when dealing with addictions, you either are or you are not, there is no compromise when determining who the sovereign of a nation is. Either the people are or their once trusted servants are. Either we are a self governing nation or we are not.

 As Paul Rahe so aptly put it:

“We can be what once we were, or we can settle for a gradual, gentle descent into servitude.”