I agree that America has done some great things internationally in defense of freedom, but we have also been engaged in conflicts where perhaps that distinction was not quite so clear. Most importantly, if you look around the world today, America’s slip in prestige has nothing to do with whether it is George Bush or Barack Obama who is addressing the U.N. Security Council, and everything to do with the fact that we don’t live out at home the ideals of liberty we claim to champion.

The bottom line is that we need to get our own house in order before we can knock on other people’s doors and tell them we have all the answers. We who have the courage to admit what our eyes and experience tell us know that a centralized government is a wasteful, tyrannical, and unsustainable one. There is no question it was not the sort of government intended by the men who wrote our Constitution.

Can a federated republic dictate global policy to other nations?

I don’t know, but the real question is: Are we fundamentally a stronger nation if we live up to our own constitutional principles at home?

I think the answer to that is unequivocally “yes.”

So we should lead by example, returning to the federalism of the Constitution, and trust the rest of the world to see the wisdom of freedom and liberty in their own time and in their own way.

To even think of projecting the principles of liberty from a country that doesn’t practice it at home is something that doesn’t make sense to me at all. I think Beck is definitely going in the right direction on this.

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. . . . [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and . . . degeneracy of manners and of morals. . . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. . . .”

He’s covered the 10th Amendment Movement here and there – and we’ve been in touch with his producers, but he hasn’t really touched on the issue much since this past spring. We’ll continue to contact his producers to try to get more coverage, but I think it’ll take more viewers demanding it.