Coalition for a Conservative Majority – Phoenix Chapter
Date: June 8, 2009 Time: 7:00pm
Location: American Italian Club, 7509 N 12th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85020
General Meeting Minutes
Opening: Pledge of Allegiance & Opening Prayer
We began today’s meeting with a video presentation created by the John Birch Society titled Overview of America. This overview is focused on Americanism and the American form of government as envisioned by the founders. It is available on You Tube over the internet and is approximately 30 minutes in duration.
The Overview of America asks, “What made America great?” The answer according to the JBS is limited government, individual freedom and personal morality. Starting with the Declaration of Independence, the founders recognized we all are endowed with certain unalienable rights given to us by our Creator. A limited government was instituted to secure these rights and protect individuals from each other and foreign governments. As such, government acts as a negative force, protecting these rights, and not as a positive force, doing things for people.
Between the end of the Revolutionary War and 1787, the federal government under the Articles of Confederation was very weak. In 1787, the Constitutional Convention was convened and a new government was formed. Interestingly, this overview states the Constitution was written to govern the government, not the people. The Federalist’s Papers were written to explain and garner support for the ratification of the Constitution. The Bill of Rights added additional limits on governmental authority and were intended to further safeguard states’ and individual’s God given rights.
The overview highlights the founder’s notion of the political spectrum with total government, tyranny, on the left and anarchy, no government, on the right. Five forms of government are discussed: Monarchy, rule by one; Oligarchy, rule by a few; Democracy, rule by majority; Republic, rule by law; and Anarchy, no rule. The overview explains that of these five forms of government, only two are stable and lasting – an Oligarchy and a Republic. Throughout history and even today, most people have been and currently are ruled by an Oligarchy. Our founders chose a Republic with limited government and the Rule of Law, i.e., the constitutionally moderate center of the political spectrum.
This overview also discusses the economic systems which are associated with various forms of government. Helping to clear the confusion, we understand the proper definition of the term capital is “the means of production.” We also understand that all economic systems are capitalistic. However, what correctly differentiates economic systems is the ownership of capital. Communism is the far left economic system which has a monopolistic, state-control and ownership of all capital. What is commonly referred to as Capitalism, is actually competitive free-enterprise.
Free-enterprise is a free market system with individual ownership of private property. A free market is virtually self-regulating and requires government intervention only when force, fraud or injury damages one party which then requires punishment of and reparation by the party committing the damage to the injured party. Property is only truly privately owned when four conditions are met. To own private property one must have title, control and use of their property as well as the right to dispose of that property. “True ownership of property and freedom go hand-in-hand.”
This overview stresses time is running out to decide what type of country we are going to leave to future generations. We are told there are really only two viable and lasting choices – an Oligarchy with some form of state-controlled economy or a Republic with a competitive free-enterprise economy, i.e., simply put, the choice is between tyranny and liberty. The JBS suggests “all that is needed is for a sufficient number of Americans to get involved in the fight for freedom and to return our country to less government, more responsibility and with God’s help, a better world.”
Following the video presentation, Robert Zuluaga, chapter president, updated us on several other topics. CCM’s Phoenix chapter has a new website which is now available. The site’s address is www.ccmphoenix.org and is still under construction. There are two important pieces of information currently available on the website. The first is Our Mission and Our Vision found under the About CCM tab. The other is the link to Robert’s Constitution and Civic Boot Camp found by clicking on the Civic Education tab.
Other Topics:
We spent time examining some of the content of Robert’s boot camp. Robert suggests we use this resource as a checklist of information to better understand and educate ourselves on the founding principles of the constitution. Some of the information included is available free via the internet and some information requires purchasing.
Robert provided an update on the Liberty Caucus – weekly meetings between the executive members of our chapter of CCM and a constitutionally oriented group of state legislators.
A testimonial was given to the uplifting, positive and inspirational nature of the video course associated with the book titled The 5000 Year Leap, written by Dr. W. Cleon Skousen, produced by the National Center for Constitutional Studies and taught by Earl Taylor, Jr. - www.nccs.net
We watched a video by NCCS on the Political Spectrum. This video can be viewed on NCCS’s website, www.nccs.net, among the fourteen free samples taken from the video course associated with The 5000 Year Leap.
Due to financial constraints, each chapter of the Coalition for a Conservative Majority is now an autonomous and independent group.
Robert’s Challenge – Bring in a list of organizations we each network with to the next meeting.
Next Month’s Meeting:
Date: July 13, 2009
Time: 7:00pm (6:30pm sign-in and social half-hour)
Location: American Italian Club, 7509 N 12th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85020