Do you see any problem with our state’s ban on smoking in public places? What about Seattle’s prohibition on restaurants using trans fats? These laws may make us feel more comfortable or healthy, but is it the role of government to micro-manage our personal health choices?
Or what about the now-defunct Monorail’s use of eminent domain to take a large parcel of property in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, most of which it planned to sell for a profit? That seems bad, but is it actually wrong?
All of these questions, and many more like them, can be answered by understanding the proper role of government in society. And each of these actions is a sign that our government may have forgotten why it exists.
The 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, understood that government exists to secure our fundamental rights: our “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” In fact, that’s why they broke from England — because King George’s government had forgotten that role while trampling on colonists’ rights. They declared independence with the vision of creating a government carefully designed to have enough power to protect individual rights, but no more.
And 113 years later, July 4, 1889, that same vision was on the minds of the delegates who gathered in Olympia to write Washington state’s constitution. I believe it’s no coincidence that they made the Declaration of Rights’ 32 sections specifically cataloging our fundamental rights — the first part of the constitution. They even spelled out their vision in the first sentence, writing that government is “established to protect and maintain individual rights.”
But I fear that’s no longer the vision of many of our leaders. They view government as the all-powerful helping hand, the big brother who helps us lowly citizens out of all our jams. But to get that help we have to give up some rights, such as being able to set rules on our own property for whether our patrons can smoke or eat unhealthy foods, or letting government take our property because they have a better use for it.
Little by little, lawmakers are regulating away our individual rights and claiming it as progress. Why are they wrong? Because the protection of individual rights is absolutely necessary for a free and prosperous society. If we want America to continue to be the land of entrepreneurs, a place where anyone can make something of themselves, it must be a land where government protects life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
But it’s up to us to make that happen. Our state constitution says that We the People hold the political power, and because of what that band of revolutionaries did back in 1776, we can set the role for our government. But we’ve accepted the handouts; we’ve allowed the regulations; we’ve elected leaders who don’t know the proper role of government.
Restoring the proper vision for government starts with us knowing and understanding our fundamental rights.
As you celebrate Independence Day this year, I encourage you to dust off a copy of the state constitution and read through Article I, the Declaration of Rights. It’s short, most of it is easy to comprehend, and it’ll give you a brief refresher course on what life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness actually entail. With that knowledge in hand we can start engaging our neighbors and leaders in meaningful discussions, we can understand what laws are good and bad and why, and we can begin holding our government accountable to protect our rights, thereby ensuring that we still have some freedoms to celebrate on future Independence Days.
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