When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution they did so with a shared understanding of the Social Compact theory. 

John Locke and Thomas Hobbs developed that theory in light of their own perilous times and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution. Locke’s theories especially influenced our form of government. Governments, he said, were formed from a Social Compact requiring the consent of the governed.

People in this Compact gave up the right to kill one another, giving the government a monopoly of the use of force in society. In return the government would use this monopoly to provide security and to protect people’s rights. 

In civilized societies everywhere, only governments may legitimately use force to enforce its decisions. That’s why the death penalty is not considered murder. All other acts of violence from child abuse to gang violence to actual murder can be punished by the government.

Recently, members of the Moorish Nation Sovereign Citizens group were arrested on the interstate in Virginia, drawing attention once again to a growing problem in the U.S. From the Branch Davidians to Posse Comitatus to the Proud Boys, Sovereign Citizens groups are multiplying. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center has estimated that there are 556 such groups in the U.S. with about 100,000 members. Members of these Sovereign Citizens groups were among those who attacked the capitol.

Whatever they call themselves, they have one thing in common. They reject Article VI of the Constitution, the Supremacy Clause. This is the clause that places the Constitution above all other laws whether passed by Congress or the states. They reject other provisions of the Constitution according to their individual grievances, the Fourteenth Amendment being a favorite among them, but federal authority derived from the Constitution is uniformly rejected.

They believe they have seceded from the U.S. and are no longer citizens of it. Therefore they don’t have to obey any federal or even state laws. They won’t pay taxes. They refuse to get Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses or birth certificates. 

Their excuse for using services provided by the government, like highways, is that their group has a treaty with the federal government allowing them to do so. Nobody’s ever seen the treaty of course and the IRS and U.S. courts take a dim view of their attempts to avoid taxes.

Another thing they have in common is guns. They reject outright the government’s obligation to enforce its laws and embrace their right to violently resist those attempts. In the West, this has led to armed confrontations with sheriffs who are trying to enforce liens against property, traffic tickets, child support payments. 

Judges have been intimidated and local residents terrorized by those who believe the law does not apply to them.

Not all these groups are white supremacists, but most are. All of them are convinced that there will be civil war in the U.S. and they must maintain an arsenal so they can fight off the federal government. 

They oppose any gun legislation because of this, arguing that the Second Amendment gives them the right to defend themselves against tyrants. They have already defined the federal government as the tyrant they must defend against. The FBI considers them to be domestic terrorists.

There is however an even greater threat to our Social Compact. Our acceptance of the principles inherent in the Constitution is what makes us a nation. The Constitution created a government, but our commitment to those principles and values shaped a whole. We are in fact a Creedal nation. That means that we are Americans not by region, race, religion, ethnicity, but by acceptance of the American Creed.

That Creed espouses a respect for the individual no matter his/her status, a commitment to equality under the law and a strong belief in the right of the people to govern themselves. 

We are a nation of misfits and malcontents. Everybody who hates anybody has immigrated here. We would be constantly at one another’s throats if we did not embrace this Creed. We recognize ourselves as Americans, a whole worthy of our allegiance. We are all in this together, working toward the fulfillment of those constitutional principles.

The COVID 19 pandemic has highlighted a deep division in this country. Nearly half the country refused to go masked or to get vaccines. Their disdain for the authority of the government to tell them what to do is a rip in the Social Compact. 

Their rejection of the needs of the whole for their individual fears is exactly what Locke and Hobbes wanted to avoid by the creation of government.

A friend of mine asked a student to wear a mask and the student refused. “Don’t you care about the rest of us?” my friend asked and the student said, “No.” 

That’s the rip in the Social Compact. 

That’s the rip more likely to tear the country apart than the Capitol-attacking Sovereign Citizens.

Dr. Jane Elza, Ph.D., retired, is a resident of Valdosta.