Our new interpreters of law.Alan Keyes is one of those people who creates his own language and then talks in that language, as if we are supposed to understand him.  I mean, it sounds great and all - but is he really saying anything or is he just blowing smoke out of his ass.  I am inclined to go for the latter.  His most recent column demonstrates my point.  I am hoping I get this right.  Keyes basically chastises "Ron Paul nationalists" for focusing too much on the state and freedom as the source of rights, and not God.  That is what I get from this passage:

Thanks to the summary of republican principle contained in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, we have a succinct basis for doing both. The defining goal of republican government is to secure the unalienable rights with which their Creator has endowed all human beings. . . But it's also on account of the salutary reminder it involves, that every particular quest for justice must be tempered by respect for justice itself, so that no claim of just purpose in itself calls for or justifies the exercise of morally unconstrained power. I learned that liberty involves more than freedom, even as justice involves more than getting good results. Both have an intrinsic source and foundation, to which respect is due at every step along the way. So I came to the paramount truth on which the substance of republican government depends: the presence and authority of the Creator God. This is the truth in which America's identity truly abides: "in all places, and against all foes, and at whatever cost."

The emphasis is mine.  Keyes obsesses about the Declaration of Independence and the line about our rights being endowed by our Creator.   Read the passage:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

This is nothing more that an acknowledgment of the social contract theory from Rousseau and Locke.   Keyes bastardizes this notion and claims that God is the source of our liberty and that we must follow his law in order to enjoy our liberty.  Freedom outside of God's law is not liberty.

Is this man serious?  And, how does this jive with a Republic?  Who is to determine the law of God?  Well, man of course.  And probably people like Keyes, I am sure.  Supporters of Ron Paul are correct to focus on freedom so man can enjoy liberty.  Keyes, by contrast, takes a line from the Declaration of Independence, and ignores the fact that the Constitution does not mention the word God, Creator or the like.  Keyes theory makes no sense and pretty much promotes a theocratic republic based on the word of God.  How is this much different that the Iranian Constitution, which is technically a Republic also.  It is good to see Alan Keyes pick the Republic of Iran when setting up his ideal civil society.  Great work!!