Part 1 – How Freedom Was Reversed
It is April 14th. Welcome to YesToHellWith.com.
Today, we begin a four-part series about something far bigger than taxes, alcohol, regulations, or the courts. We are going to discuss the restoration of first principles.
For generations, Americans have been taught to think backwards.
We have been taught that government comes first and freedom comes second. We have been taught that if the government says something loudly enough, long enough, or with enough agencies and penalties behind it, then it must be true. We have been taught that the burden is on us to prove why we are free.
But that was never the American system.
The original understanding was exactly the opposite.
The people come first. Freedom comes first. Government comes second. And government possesses only those powers that were specifically delegated.
That means every government action must answer one question before anything else:
By what authority?
That is the first principle.
Before there can be jurisdiction, obligation, enforcement, taxes, penalties, regulations, or prison, there must first be authority.
Not presumed authority.
Not authority because some agency says so.
Not authority because “that is the way it has always been done.”
Actual authority.
The Constitution created a government of limited and enumerated powers. Congress was given certain powers. The states retained others. The people retained everything else.
But over time, something happened.
Government began with small powers and slowly expanded them.
The power to tax became the power to regulate. The power to regulate became the power to prohibit. The power to prohibit became the power to punish.
And after enough time passed, Americans forgot that there was ever a limit.
This is what I call drift.
Drift occurs when a limited power slowly moves beyond its original purpose.
Then comes encroachment.
Encroachment is when that expanded power moves into private life: your home, your labor, your earnings, your property, your choices.
Finally comes entrenchment.
Entrenchment occurs when the new claim of power has existed so long that people assume it must be lawful simply because it exists.
The law may be old. The bureaucracy may be large. The penalties may be severe. But none of those things create authority.
For years, Americans have lived under a dangerous inversion:
That freedom exists only where government has not yet spoken.
But the truth is exactly the opposite.
Freedom exists unless government can prove authority.
That is the restoration of first principles.
In this series, we are going to examine how this loss of perspective happened, how it has affected taxes, private conduct, and daily life, and why recent court decisions may finally signal that some judges are beginning to see the problem.
Because once you understand the true order, you can never look at the system the same way again.
The people are not subjects. The people are not presumptively obligated. The people do not exist by permission.
Government must justify itself.
And that is where freedom begins.
Get full access to YesToHellWith at yestohellwith.substack.com/subscribe