Once again, a passage from Fr. George Rutler's book Beyond Modernity. This one points to a problem which ought to be familiar to us.
...The totalitarian mentality is a uniquely modern creation; its first use as a scientific category was by Mussolini. While tyrants of the past abused power which they claim to have received from God, the modern totalitarian claims power as a substitute for a non-existent God. The loss of accountability amplifies willfulness, and wilfullness on a grand scale opens the iron door to cruelty on a grand scale....
Whatever else the Founders may have said or done, they understood the hierarchy that Rutler talks about. Power (and human rights) are "from God", not from Governments. Adams was very clear on that, and on the accompanying requirement for morality.
Phrased another way, only a religious and moral people can exercise the power given from God, and through the democratic republic in this country they elect people to exercise that power. If the people are not religious or moral, totalitarianism follows.
Implicit and critical: the elected must also be 'religious and moral,' and their appointees must be the same, whether appointed to Courts or Cabinets. Without those attributes, the system will collapse.
Want to see a preview? Look at the political prisoners held without bail and without trial in the D.C. Gulag/jail on charges of trespassing on January 6th of LAST YEAR.
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