Editor:
As I sit and write this the American people are on the eve of a second Civil War, not one which will be fought with shot, powder, and bayonets but with votes; the polling places of election day 2010 will be the Fort Sumters of this new conflict and Americans need to wield their votes as if they were bayonets to excise the cancer that has infected the body government.
The events leading up to, and the actions of the President and the Congress, on March 21, 2010 underscore the ever widening disconnect between those that govern and those that are governed. It is the exemplar of what happens when those that are elected to be governors and to govern by the consent of the governed morph themselves into rulers that rule against the will of the ruled. Thomas Jefferson warned us of this when he said “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”
As this first battle approaches we need to be clear on the battle lines and of the causes of this rebellion. We should not allow this issue to devolve into a partisan battle; this is the way cynical and corrupt politicians have kept us divided and weakened in the past.
This is not a civil war between Democrats, Republicans, and/or Independents . . . it is rebellion against both corrupt, arrogant, and non-responsive legislators and a Federal central government that continually ignores the delineated limitations on its powers as enumerated in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution and which usurps the powers of the states as granted in the 10th Amendment of the Constitution. President Washington warned us against such usurptions in 1796 when he said “If in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”
The cause of this rebellion isn’t simply an ill-conceived healthcare bill, that’s just the match that lit the fuse. The real cause is not one but many causes. It is found in the steady and consistent progression away from rule by, and perversion by interpretation of, the Constitution; it found in the rabid environmentalism which has crippled the American economy and endangered American sovereignty by denying us the intelligent and beneficial exploitation of our abundant energy sources and has, directly or indirectly, led to the death of thousands of American servicemen and women in the protection of America’s access to foreign sources of energy resources.
It is found in the unprecedented intrusion of the government into every aspect of our lives. I agree with Thomas Jefferson when he said “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government,” and would add that it is time for us to enforce the limits on government by voting out and impeaching those that would expand its invasiveness beyond that which was originally envisioned in the “uninterpreted” Constitution.
It is found in the progressive and repressive creep of the Federal government to the left and towards socialism over the last 100 years with the accompanying cynical economic enslavement of an ever growing segment of the population (and the electorate) through the expansion of “entitlement” programs; it is the growing disgust of the American people to the backroom wheeling and dealing, blatant (legalized?) bribery, the draconian penalization of the most productive members of our society for their productivity while rewarding of the least productive in a thinly veiled attempt to buy votes and retain power that are causative. I fear that today the words spoken by President Jefferson more than 200 years ago are threatening to prove true, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
During the debate over the healthcare bill the statement was made “. . . The system is broken and we need to fix it. . .” This was the only statement made that I found merit in although the “we” the speaker was talking about was Congress and I firmly disagree with that “we”. It’s too late for that “we”, they had their chance and have, over and over again, proven not to be up to the challenge . . . we, the American people, need to take up the task by firing “da bums”. Some need to be fired for what they’ve done (their corruption, incompetency, political correctness, their anti-Americanism) and others, perhaps more importantly, for what they failed to do (stop the corruption, expose the incompetency, kill the political correctness, and perpetuate Americanism). We limit the President of the United States to two four-year terms. Why should we then not set term limits on the Congress and the Supreme Court? For the former, since the expectation that these “fat cat” professional politicians will vote to limit their own terms is unrealistic, we must enforce term limits upon them by never re-electing any candidate that has served two consecutive terms and for the latter by demanding a constitutional amendment that limits a justices’ term to one eight-year term. I look forward to the day the most senior member of Congress has less than eight years under his/her belt. Mr. Jefferson predicted the danger of “professional politicians” when he said, “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
It is time that we, the people and government of the United States, begin to think not as Republicans, Democrats, or Independents but as Americans.
The day the recent healthcare bill passed the anger felt by more than 70 percent of the American people made itself known, my hope is that we do not allow it to dissipate between now and November and we manifest it at the polls. Please remember, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” . . . don’t remain silent . . . Vote.
[dfads params='groups=4969&limit=1&orderby=random']
[dfads params='groups=1745&limit=1&orderby=random']