A bad trend in a good land

Sometimes an issue is so obvious and simple that the only person in the world who can make it seem complex is a Washington policy expert. This column is about such an issue. It is called the sovereignty of the United States. It revolves around one question: Who decides, us or somebody else?

The people who founded the United States had a keen appreciation of sovereignty. They believed that God and the law of nature demanded that men and nations determine their own destiny.

When a foreign parliament, in which they were not represented, imposed taxes on them and tried to limit the areas in which their courts and legislatures could act, they pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to restore their selfdetermination. Some never lived to see freedom restored. Some saw their property destroyed and their families harassed. Some were imprisoned and beaten by the army of a foreign tyrant. Those who survived enshrined their hardwon liberty in a written Constitution guaranteeing to the American people, through their elected representatives, the power to determine the laws and policies of their own nation.

Two hundred years later, we are forgetting how hard sovereignty is won, and how easily it is lost Here is a story to remember by:

Opposite Sides of the Sea

Imagine two nations on opposite sides of a sea. On one side is Goodland; on the other is Badland. Goodland is a republic. All law-abiding adults in Goodland have a right to vote for the representatives who make their laws. But those representatives are limited in what they can do. The basic law of Goodland protects the rights of the people to life (universally, until recently), property (including fire arms), speech (including about government), assembly (even in the public squares of the capital city), the free practice of religion (even if it is a denomination that only a small minority believes), trial by jury (made up of a person's peers in the person's home community), and freedom from cruel punishment.

Badland, by contrast, is a despotism. It is run by members of a single party, whose governing doctrine denies the existence of God and of an objective moral law. It has never held a free election. The law of the land is what the party bosses say the law is. It routinely kills large numbers of people, including political dissidents and unborn children, especially unborn little girls, who are coercively aborted to keep the population of Badland within arbitrary, party-set limits. The government itself lays claim to most property. Only the police and the military are allowed to have guns. People who say the wrong thing, especially about the government, are put in slave labor camps. People who practice independent religions are arrested and imprisoned. Priests and monks regularly disappear, never to return. Trials are at government option, and are generally held for propaganda purposes, and prisoners are frequently shot in the head so their internal organs can be carved out while still fresh and sold for transplant.

In Goodland, operating in freedom, under the rule of law enshrined in the Constitution, Airplane Inc., Microchip Inc., and Missile Parts Inc., grow great and prosperous, in part by selling the Goodland government the weaponry it needs to protect the freedom of Goodlanders from people like the party bosses of Badland.

By and by, Airplane, Microchip and Missile Parts decide they want to sell their wares in Badland. But the Badland party bosses have massive tariffs on all goods coming into their country from Goodland. Also, since the government of Badland controls all of Badlands major industries, the only consumer for Airplane, Microchip and Missile Parts in Badland is the Badland government itself. The Badland bosses, however, do indeed want to purchase foreign products like Goodland's airplanes, microchips and missile parts, and more importantly, they want to learn how to make airplanes, microchips and missile parts themselves. So they offer the Goodland companies a deal: If they will join the government of Badland in a partnership, and build some of their factories in Badland, Badland will buy some of their products.

Airplane, Microchip and Missile Parts sign on the.dotted line. Goodland's defense contractors are now partners with Badlands government. Airplane, Microchip and Missile Parts call this a triumph for free trade.

Now some of the people in Goodland are disturbed by these deals. They point out that the Badland party bosses have been working relentlessly for a decade to build a war machine capable of conquering Badlands closest neighbor. Worse, these bosses have threatened to vaporize the most populous city in Goodland (a threat that will become ominously credible as soon as they get a missile or an airplane with the range, and the high-end microchips, to deliver a nuclear warhead there). These Goodlanders say it is not a good thing to help Badland build airplanes, microchips and missiles. They question whether it is wise to build up the party bosses of a despotic regime. Besides, they say, Badland still imposes huge tariffs on all nonmilitary goods entering the country from Goodland. Because of this Badland earns $60 billion in cash from its annual trade surplus with Goodland, which it uses to buy the military machinery and technology it cannot yet build at home.