America's Layers of Strength. (At a Glance).

Referring to the struggle to preserve American freedom, John Birch Society founder Robert Welch observed in 1958. "We do not have to be too late, and we do not have to lose the fight... We have many layers of strength not yet rotted by all of the infiltration and political sabotage to which we have been subjected. Our danger is both immense and imminent; but it is not beyond the possibility of being overcome by the resistance that is still available."

Since Mr. Welch spoke these words, tae international terror network has replaced Communism as the most visible threat to our liberties. If he were alive today, Mr. Welch would warn that both threats are products of a single Conspiracy to create a dystopian world government. He would also point out that the very real threat of terrorism is being used as a pretext to amass police state powers and to empower the United Nations at the expense of American independence.

The "layers of strength" cited by Robert Welch still exist, providing America with strong defenses against encroaching tyranny.

The layers of strength protecting American liberties include our heritage of freedom, our priceless Constitution, and our free institutions.

Would-be totalitarians could never successfully establish an "instant dictatorship" in this country. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 succeeded only because the Russian people never possessed a tradition of freedom. The American people, on the other hand, have a strong attachment to the freedoms they have inherited and are still largely self-reliant. If the American republic falls, it will be the result of stealth and patient gradualism, not a sudden, overt revolution.

The Constitution that the Founding Fathers drafted in 1787 is the oldest such document still in use in the world today. The U.S. Constitution is the law of the land, and federal office holders have merely to abide by its strictures in order to restore good government.

Congress is arguably the most important of our free institutions. It provides the people with the means to control their government within the framework of the Constitution. It is, of course, true that much of what the government does today is unconstitutional. But that will change as soon as sufficient understanding is created and newly informed Americans insist on a return to constitutional principles.

America possesses several layers of strength that block the path to a police state. Those layers include federalism, local police forces, and the right to keep and bear arms.

Under our federal system of government, powers are divided not only horizontally among various branches (legislative, executive, and judicial) but vertically between the federal government and the states. Thus we have, in effect, a compound republic that provides us with a double barrier against usurpation and the concentration of power.

Law enforcement has been a local function, carried out by tens of thousands of independent police forces throughout the country. Those police forces are beholden to the communities they protect and serve. How different this is from the Nazi Gestapo, which was beholden to Hitler and which was used, not to protect the people, but to keep the hated Nazi regime in power.

The right to bear arms, which insures that the government does not possess a monopoly of power, has been a part of our history since the embattled farmer stood at Concord bridge and "fired the shot heard 'round the world." That right is still being transmitted from one generation to the next and is still enshrined in the Constitution in the form of the Second Amendment.

The American system is extremely resilient. One manifestation of this resiliency is how we were recently able to survive eight years of the Clinton administration with our freedoms still intact. Other systems, lacking the layers of strength we possess, would have been destroyed by a regime as corrupt and dangerous as Clinton's. But in America, Clinton was impeached and disgraced. He may not have been driven from office, but the brakes were applied to his accelerating power grab.

Another example of the resiliency of the American system is the prosperity we have been able to enjoy in spite of all the socialism to which we have been subjected. The technological revolution -- a product of American entrepreneurship -- is a key reason for that prosperity. That technology gives the average person tremendous labor-saving, informational, and communications capabilities. One obvious example is the Internet, still uncontrolled by the government.

Americans still possess freedom of the press, of speech, and of assembly. They can still use these freedoms to protect their liberty.

A final layer of strength that enemies of our free Republic would have to subvert is the basic morality of the American people. Although that morality has been attacked and ridiculed through our cultural and entertainment institutions, the American people are still more moral than Hollywood or the MTV subculture. The overwhelmingly patriotic, loving, and charitable response to September 11th proved that!

Nor is the basic character of the American people about to be destroyed anytime soon. The homeschool movement, in large part a response to the morally and academically challenged public school system, has grown from a counter-culture phenomenon to a vibrant mainstream movement in the time span of less than a generation. Well over a million children are now home-schooled according to even conservative estimates, and by and large they are brought up to believe in the three great human loyalties: God, family, and country. Moreover, many public and private school children are also clinging to the old morality in spite of all the moral temptations to which they are subjected through television and our other cultural organs. A growing number of young people have decided to remain chaste until marriage and have participated in prayer meetings on public school property -- in spite of the Supreme Court decision banning school prayer.