THE rIGHT/lEFT IS NOWHERE MORE SIMILAR THAN IN THE HATRED OF THE rEPUBLIC:

The pseudonymous Founder Cato hit this concern squarely on its head when writing that "government, to an American, is the science of his political safety," meaning that government exists to protect an individual's liberty from predation, including from the government, while supporting those private institutions that allow them to flourish.

Instead of common good by diktat, early Americans believed that a minimalistic set of laws focused on ensuring a basic set of rights within society would allow civil society to order itself into appropriately arranged groups and thereby achieve whatever measure of good it could. They predicated this plan upon the people's ability to exercise self-restraint in following the law and wisdom in drafting it and dedication to the principle of self-government (both of the literal self and community), which was the challenge (still highly controversial as the Common Gooders demonstrate) of popular sovereignty. The coordinated functioning of this ideal is ordered liberty.

How do we know the above story is correct? Beyond history and primary-source indicators, the Republic's four causes demonstrate it. The government is a restrained body, with governing institutions possessing increased authority, not as one ascends the federal system, with most power concentrated in the fewest hands, but as one goes down to the lowest levels. That is the doctrine of delegated powers where states, the smallest sovereign unit, are left to manage their individual common goods. This structure is opposite to what we would expect from a government oriented toward the Common Good, which should be strong to support those policies. One that merely orders liberty, however, should be weak so as not to overwhelm its citizens.

The fact that the Constitution speaks of limitations and is short; separates rather than concentrates powers; makes legislation difficult and forces compromise; reinforces federalism; constricts the power of judges from making decisions through recognizing juries; forces the Executive to consult the Senate and approves only the House to create budgets, indicates weakness rather than strength. If the state were a crusading agent of goodness, this is the opposite structure one would create. If one wished to create a power that could only draft broad laws, would allow citizens to resolve conflicts on their own, and only enact decisions after consensus, it is ideal. That ideal is ordered liberty.

The fact that the people ratified the Constitution, as indicated by the Preamble; elect their representatives through its power; can change the Constitution; there aren't distinctions in power or dignity among the citizenry; there aren't qualifications for office based on virtue or even knowledge; the poorest or the richest, the most vile or the most virtuous, remain eligible for office, are proofs that the American government isn't itself a steward of the good but a protector of the interests of the people to achieve (or not) that good for themselves, which is ordered liberty.

That all of these things add up, when exercised by a virtuous citizenry, to the common good, despite none aiming directly at it. This is the final proof that our order's end, its final cause, isn't that good itself, but the ordered liberty enabling people to obtain it. In other words, while the end of our government is liberty, the end of liberty is the common good. Insofar as our government is built to achieve the good, it does so only by enabling liberty. As history has shown, and the greatness of our Republic proves, ensuring liberty is the best way to achieve all the goods, be they common or particular.

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