America is not meant to have a “ruling class.” The Declaration of Independence takes direct aim at an entrenched aristocracy by stating a “self-evident” truth that “all men are created equal.” People, of course, are not naturally equal. They are blessed with individual talents and carry through their lives individual burdens, but no person is born with a divine right to rule over others. On the contrary, through God’s gifts of life and liberty to each one of us, we are capable of governing ourselves. That is harder than it sounds because self-government is a responsibility that requires work and vigilance.
Unscrupulous individuals intent on seizing greater power for themselves take advantage of self-government’s labors by promising to do the heavy lifting for others in exchange for their liberty. I’ll protect you. I’ll keep you safe and secure. I’ll make you happy. Just do exactly what I say. It is a Faustian bargain that has led generations of once-free peoples to discover only years later that they have been left imprisoned in chains.
There is no human form of government that does not become corrupt over time. As soon as any political system is erected to govern a population, the clock starts ticking toward its demise. The principal reason this is true is that humans are naturally sinful — a burden common to us all — and, therefore, any human-created system will tend to reflect that sinful nature on the path toward its own destruction. Even governments founded on the noblest of principles and respect for civic virtues — such as the truth that we are endowed “with certain unalienable rights” that no legitimate government may infringe — will come to undermine those foundations as corrupt individuals acquire ever more influence over government’s reins.
Because the least virtuous people are most attracted to power, the longer that any political system persists, the more corrupt it will become. In order for good people to reclaim their God-given rights to life and liberty, they must eventually accept the responsibilities of self-government again. This is what Thomas Jefferson meant when he wrote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s [sic] natural manure.”
When is a government so corrupt as to render it illegitimate? There are many telltale signs: unconstitutional assertions of authority, widespread criminality, currency debasement, coercive intimidation, selective prosecution, purposeful failure to protect its own borders, and rampant censorship — to name just a few.