Read It for Yourself

Understanding Our Government’s Design

One of the most important parts of being a United States citizen is understanding the purpose of our government and how it’s designed to work. It’s vital to understand if our government is on track with its intended design or if it’s fallen away from that design. One of the best ways to learn about this is by studying our nation’s founding documents.

Two Documents

The Declaration of Independence proclaims that people have God-given rights. The Constitution explains how those rights should be protected and implemented.

The National Center for Constitutional Studies put it this way, “No documents have had a greater influence on the citizens of our country than the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. The Declaration of Independence marked the birth of our republic and set forth our “unalienable rights” to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Later, the Constitution outlined our style of government and defined the rights protected from government intrusion. These documents have been a beacon to all men and women who value freedom. They are just as meaningful now as when they were written.”

Let us not forget these two amazing documents.

The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. — That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

The Declaration shows us that the purpose of government is to secure and protect the before-mentioned rights.

The Constitution

The preamble to the Constitution goes like this, “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The preamble indicates that the purpose of government is to strive to make our country more perfect each day, seek justice, ensure peace, provide for the defense of our nation, promote the welfare of our nation, and secure the God-given blessings of liberty.

The Government’s Job

The government is designed to protect our rights by rewarding those who do good and opposing those who do bad. Our founding documents state that government needs to provide for and protect the country. The rights that should be protected are the inherent rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There are so many more rights that need to be protected too! These other rights are all the things that civilized communities are intrinsically entitled to. It’s the government’s job to protect our rights not give us our rights.

Why Is This Important?

The United States can’t be protected unless we learn how its government is intended to work. We do this by reading the documents on which this country was founded. The actions of this country need to be rooted in our founding principles, not elected officials’ agendas or biases. When we understand our government’s design, we can successfully protect the inalienable rights that all of us are entitled to.