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Monday, June 24, 2024

What does “We the People” mean?

the AZEL

PERSPECTIVE

Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 362 B
 
José Azel's latest books "On Freedom" and "Sobre La Libertad" are now available on Amazon. 

What does “We the People” mean?  (Previously published)

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Our political troubles begin with the first three words of the U.S. Constitution: “We the People.” According to Randy Barnett, Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University, those who favor a Democratic approach to the Constitution read “We the People” as a group or collective entity. And those who favor a Republican interpretation view “We the People” as individual persons. 

It is clear from the founding documents, and the Founder’s affinity to the philosophy of John Locke, that individual liberty was the main guiding principle in the creation of the United States. The Constitution was designed to implement the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and functions as the institutional device to secure our natural rights of life, liberty, and property. For the Founders, “We the People” meant, not a collective entity, but each one of us as an individual citizen. Yet, as George Will points out in The Conservative Sensibility, our choice of one or the other of these different understanding of “We the People” has enormous political consequences. 

Under the collective interpretation, “We the People” expresses the desires of a majority of the people, where the will of the majority prevails. Thus, the Constitution becomes a mechanism for the will of the collective, where the only legal individual rights are those granted by the will of the majority. In contrast, the “We the People” as individuals interpretation sees the Constitution as a tool for restraining government and limiting laws discordant with our natural rights as individuals. 

The American ideal is more than majorities having their way. Our fundamental rights are not subject to democratic vote or to the outcomes of elections. 

As Professor Barnett formulates it, “The great divide in America today is between those who believe, as the Founders did, that first come rights and then comes government and those who believe...that first comes government and then come rights.” Government is not the creator of our natural rights, and majorities have no right to violate our natural rights. Our rights supersede democratic majority. 

At the core of these beliefs is the doctrine of natural rights. Natural rights are those that are not dependent on laws or government. Natural rights pre-exist government and can be discovered by reason. We construct governments to secure our natural rights. We are rights-bearing individuals, and the United States is a rights-based government. And thus, the legitimate function of our government, as affirmed in the Declaration of Independence, is to secure our natural rights. Government’s function is to protect our life and liberty so that we may pursue individual happiness. The goal of a democratic government is freedom, not the other way around. 

The Founding Fathers believed that majority governments were inherently dangerous to our individual rights. As noted by George Will, “Of the major institutions created by the Constitution – Congress, the presidency, the Supreme Court -- only one half of one of them, the House of Representatives, was, in the Framer’s original design, directly elected by the people.” 

Consequently, for about 150 years following the founding, political discussions often began with a debate concerning whether the federal government was entitled to take some action under its constitutionally enumerated powers. Today, as George Will notes, “almost nobody in either the legislative or executive branch believes that there is any subject, any sphere, from which the federal government is constitutionally excluded.” This is unfortunate, because our natural rights must take precedence over the power of the majority to govern. 

History has been defined as the record of the struggle between freedom and authority, and James Madison identified tyranny of the majority as a political evil that democracy could produce. “We the People” does not mean our ethnic, racial, political, or sexual groups. We are not, as “identity politics” requires, defined by accidents of birth or socialization. We are not whatever our group is. We are not a society of politically sedated collectives. Individual opinions are necessary for a healthy democracy. We must reclaim our Founder’s “We the People” as individual persons to define ourselves as independent participants in a free society. 

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Abrazos,

Lily & José

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José Azel, Ph.D.

José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.  

He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies. Dr. Azel was a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami, Jose Azel has published extensively on Cuba related topics.

In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami.

José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp.

They cycled St. James Way (
El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary and throughout southern France.  They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast and in the Galapagos Islands. Most recently, they rafted for 17 days 220 miles in the Grand Canyon. 

Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them. 

Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro.

Books by Dr. José Azel
José Azel’s writings are touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone who wishes to understand why countries do, or do not, progress will find in this book the best explanations. And, from these readings emerge numerous inferences: How and why do the good intentions of leftist collectivism lead countries to hell? Why is liberty not a sub product of prosperity, but rather one of its causes?

If it was in my power, this work would be required reading for all college and university students, and I would also recommend its reading to all politicians, journalists, and policymakers. With his writings Azel accomplishes what was achieved in France by Frédéric Bastiat, and in the United States by Henry Hazlitt: Azel brings together common sense with intelligent observation, and academic substance. Stupendous,

Carlos Alberto Montaner

                                                                   BUY NOW
Los escritos de José Azel están tocados por la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquiera que desee entender por qué los países progresan, o no, encontrará en este libro las mejores explicaciones. De estas lecturas surgen numerosas inferencias: ¿Cómo y por qué las buenas intenciones del colectivismo de izquierda llevan a los países al infierno? ¿Por qué la libertad no es un subproducto de la prosperidad, sino una de sus causas?

Si estuviera en mis manos, esta obra sería de obligada lectura de todos los estudiantes universitarios, pero además, le recomendaría su lectura a todos los políticos, periodistas y policy makers. Con sus escritos Azel logra lo que Frédéric Bastiat consiguiera en Francia y Henry Hazlitt en Estados Unidos: aunar el sentido común, la observación inteligente y la enjundia académica. Estupendo.

Carlos Alberto Montaner
                                                           
Compre Aqui
"Liberty for beginners is much more than what the title promises. It is eighty themes touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone that wishes to understand why countries do, or do not progress, will find in this book the best explanations. Stupendous"

Carlos Alberto Montaner

"Libertad para novatos es mucho más de lo que promete el título. Son ochenta temas tocados con la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquier adulto que desee saber por qué progresan o se estancan los pueblos aquí encontrará las mejores explicaciones. Estupendo."

Carlos Alberto Montaner

Compre Aqui

In Reflections on FreedomJosé Azel brings together a collection of his columns published in prestigious newspapers.  Each article reveals his heartfelt and personal awareness of the importance of freedom in our lives.  They are his reflections after nearly sixty years of living and learning as a Cuban outside Cuba. In what has become his stylistic trademark, Professor Azel brilliantly introduces complex topics in brief journalistic articles.
En Reflexiones sobre la libertad José Azel reúne una colección de sus columnas publicadas en prestigiosos periódicos. Cada artículo revela su percepción sincera y personal de la importancia de la libertad en nuestras vidas. Son sus reflexiones después de casi sesenta años viviendo y aprendiendo como cubano fuera de Cuba.  En lo que ha resultado ser característica distintiva de sus artículos, el Profesor Azel introduce con brillantez complejos temas en  breves artículos de carácter periodístico.
Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future.
Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish.

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