nation urge us to engage in “holiday giving” (although it mustrnbe noted that one of them, L.L. Bean, did put Advent andrnChristmas—along with Hanukkah and Kwanza —on its calendarrnof important dates). Two leaders of the religious right, CalrnThomas and Dr. James Dobson, issue a call to repent of over-involvementrnin politics, while Charles Colson urges, “Once morerninto the breach!”rnThe national elections are a year away, but several thingsrnseem decided in advance; among the Republicans, the numberrnof available choices has diminished to perhaps three. Amongrnthe Democrats, the “pro-choice” partv, the “choice” is evenrnmore limited. Perhaps by Christmas (or, pardon me, by WinterrnHoliday) the two major parties will have fused in a bipartisan ecstasyrnof sensitivity and polihcal correctness.rnCharles Colson and Nancy Pearcey have published HowrnNow Shall We Live?, in order, as good leaders must, to offerrnhope to their conservative Christian audience. They believernthat the surging hdes of unbelief, relativism, moral depravity,rnpromiscuit}’, pornography, and the like can be turned back andrnour once more or less Christian nation can become such again.rnThis hope depends on hvo presuppositions: first, that there arernenough Americans who still have biblical or Jndeo-Christianrnvalues at heart to make a difference, and second, that it is possiblernto rouse those bewildered and benumbed masses to makernthe necessar)’ decisions and to take the necessary stands.rnSt. John the Baphst was described in words spoken by thernProphet Isaiah as a “voice crying in the desert” (Mark 1:3), andrnmany Chronicles readers as well as writers must have the feelingrnthat that applies to us as well. If so, perhaps it is not at all bad,rnfor while John’s own career was cut short by a cruel tyrant, thernMan whose coming he proclaimed changed the world. If werncry in the wilderness long enough, loud enough, and persuasivelyrnenough, it may just be that those who listen and take heedrnwill turn out to be a majority after all, and not a silent one atrnthat.rneyQCcKsrnA Bad Liernby Donald W. LivingstonrnThe great evil of the modern age is the abilit)’ of modernrnstates to destrov or suppress independent social authoritiesrnand to concentrate power to the center. The horrors of the 20thrncentury—world wars, totalitarian revoluhons, mass killings ofrnmillions bv the state—could not have happened without a concentrationrnof power unprecedented in histor)’. The mother ofrnmodern centralization is the Enlightenment ideology of liberalism.rnThe modern state took shape in the 17th centur}- to protectrnthe natural rights of the individual. The enemies of the individualrnwere the moral and political tradihons of Europe. Butrnany state powerful enough to destroy substantial moral communihesrn—leaving only a rootless mass of rights-bearing individualsrn—is also powerfid enough to farm those individuals for whateverrnpurpose the ruling class might choose. The FrenchrnRevohition created the first liberal regime dedicated to thernrights of man and the first totalitarian regime. Napoleon put thernvast state machinery created by French liberalism to the purposernof conquest and his own glorj-. Hitler did the same withrnthe massive state machinery created bv Bismarckian andrnWeimar liberalism.rnAmericans worked out the first constihition designed explicitlyrnto decentralize pover. By 1800, the world had two modelsrnof modern polifics: the French unitary state and the decentralizedrnAmerican federation. But, in time, the American polityrnwould follow the French model. This revolutionary changernwas not brought about by the people openly debating andrnamending their constitution. It occurred —as it has occurredrnelsewhere—by fraud and violence.rnIn politics, tell the big lie, Hitier said. The little lie can be uncovered.rnThe big lie has the power to invert and transform thernworld itself The current regime of the United States is gromidedrnin three big lies. The first is Lincoln’s declaration that thernAmerican states were never sovereign; that the union createdrnDonald W. Livingston is a professor of pliilosophy at EmoryrnUniversity.rnthe states, not the states the union;rnand that a state is no more than arncounty in a unitary state. (Had thisrnbeen put to the Founders, therernwould have been no union!) Thernsecond lie is the 14th Amendment.rnThis “amendment” was never constitutionallyrnpassed by Congress, norrnwas it constitutionally ratified by thernstates. The third is the “incorporationrndoctrine,” which says that thern14th Amendment incorporates thernBill of Rights. The inversion is breathtaking. The Bill of Rights,rndesigned to protect the states from the central government, isrninverted to protect the ever-expanding rights of the individual —rnguaranteed by an ever-expanding central government—fromrnthe states.rnThe elimination of state and local sovereignti, over constitutionallyrnreserved powers (the regulation of religion, morals, education,rnvoting rights, law enforcement, citizenship, etc.) by therncentral government has led to social and nroral disintegration.rnThe only remedv is to restore the Constitution. There are signsrnthat the big lie is losing its grip. Revisionist historians and philosophicrncritics of liberalism have been chipping away at thernmyths that have covered the big lie. These myths are beginningrnto entit the stale odor of their 19th-century origins—a period inrnwhich the West was obsessed with centralization and imperialism.rnAmericans disnrayed at the destruction of their cultural inheritancernby their own government are, for the first time, disposedrnto listen to tiiese critit|ues. The U.S. Taxpavers Part}’ hasrnrenamed itself the Constitution Parh’ and is vigorously teachingrnAmericans what their Constitution is. If Americans ever rediscoverrntheir Constitution, they will necessarily discover tiie bigrnlie. And with that—as in the former Soviet Union—some hithertorntreasured icons will be jnstiy headed for the dustbin of histon,’.rntrn14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn