National Chairman's Letter

Individual Sovereignty

May 2002

Dear Members and Friends of the Independent American Party,

Our IAP National Mission statement includes the phrase "to promote ... individual sovereignty" -- which inherently includes sovereignty of the family. And with personal and family sovereignty comes personal responsibility.

The first plank of our IAP National Principles states: "We believe that to maintain freedom, our political institutions must be founded upon faith in God and moral laws as declared in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution for the United States and the Bill of Rights."

Our view of individual sovereignty does not extend to personal anarchy as favored by the Libertarians in their support of legalized or unrestricted abortion, promiscuity, homosexuality, gambling, alcohol, drugs, suicide, etc. as a matter of choice. Freedom comes, not from the right to choose, but the making of right choices!

In times past, Americans were an industrious and hardworking people, independent of government aid. They took pride in their workmanship, whether they were farmers or craftsmen. It was this pride that spurred America on to economic greatness. They preferred personal responsibility over government security.

With personal sovereignty we were allowed to pray in school, protest at abortion clinics, control our own property, run a business without government interference, keep all our earnings, criticize government and be politically incorrect.

Citizens were law-abiding, well-informed and involved in community affairs. They held sacred their "right to vote." They assumed responsibility for their actions.

Parents were responsible for molding the lives and characters of their children. And it took two responsible parents to raise a child -- not a village. Parents had rights. Government was only in education.

But the America of today is far different than the America of a century or half-century ago.

Workers no longer take pride in their craft or employment. Personal debt has replaced thrift, saving, and responsible living in America. Free-loaders avoid work to get government handouts and welfare.

We can't pray at high school graduations regardless of majority will. We are told what we can't do in our business or with our property. Our incomes are taxed. Showing patriotism was politically incorrect before 9/11. Those who criticize government are now being viewed as terrorists.

Many voters are apathetic because of disillusionment; being turned off by politics; a feeling of helplessness to do anything about it; and indifference or ignorance. Our citizenship roles have become blurred as we are less able to identify the good in America.

John Dewey, the father of modern education, opposed teaching any absolutes of morals, government or ethics. His primary goal for education was to destroy children’s individualistic traits. Because, said he, "You can’t make socialists out of individualists."

We have been educated to dependence rather than liberty. We have exchanged freedom for economic security. We no longer desire independence from government interference.

We no longer accept personal responsibility for our actions. We want no restraints, nor any consequences. We blame antisocial and violent behavior on disease, genetics, environment, and victimization. Whatever is legal is moral.

In today's culture, sex addicts are not responsible for sex crimes. Gambling addicts are not responsible for thievery. Wife battering is a disease. Rioters are excused on the grounds of momentary mob mentality.

In Judges 17:6 it is written: "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes."

There is a growing movement in the country that children now belong to the state rather than the parents. That it is the states prerogative, privilege and responsibility to care for them, educate them, and shape them into proper world citizens.

The late Ezra Taft Benson, former Secretary of Agriculture and a religious leader, asked: "Could many of our ills today have resulted from our failure to train a strong citizenry from the only source we have -- the boys and girls of each community? Have they grown up to believe in politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without effort, wealth without work, business without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice?"

Dresden James said, "The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawarely enslave themselves."

As individuals, we must guard our personal and family sovereignty against encroaching local, state, national, and potential world government. As a political party, we aim to promote such sovereignty; restore parental (rather than government) influence over the family; and promote good citizenship and personal responsibility for one's actions.

Yours for Freedom!

Bruce Bangerter
IAP National Chairman