An Open Letter To Congress

Dear Friends,

Below is a letter to Congress. These should not just be my words, but the words of every liberty loving American in this country. What I would like you to do is take this letter, copy and paste it into a word document, fill out your Congressman/woman's and/or senators names (choosing the correct prefix of sir or madam) and then find out their fax numbers and then print and fax this letter in to them. I would recommend sending it to your representative or senator who you know will vote for the impending health care bill. But also write, call or fax your rep. or senator if they are against it, and thank them for standing for liberty in this country. We are the power of government in this country, and some in Congress must be called to account. That is your duty, my friends. Hold them to their jobs, and let them know your displeasure if they are not doing it. Let them know they are there by the good graces of us, the good people of the United States of America, and let them know we will not be dictated too! Stand up for your rights! Stand firm in your resolve! Do not yield one inch of your moral rectitude! We will be heard!

Publius

 

To the Honorable _____________________

Dear Sir/Madam,

I sincerely believe, as an American citizen, that by passing this health care "reform" bill through Congress, you will have destroyed every principle that this country was founded upon. This is a country of liberty, of freedom, and of the choice to take whatever path in life that one wants to take. Government was not instituted in this country by the generation of 1776 to impose upon people what they were going to do. That is exactly what the Founding Fathers separated from England to get away from.

In 1765, the Stamp Act, one of a long line of reprehensible taxes, and one that caused an uproar throughout the colonies, was passed, placing a tax on a commodity, in this case, paper. No newspaper, letter, legal document, and other papers, were legal unless it had the stamp, meaning the tax had been paid. This caused mass protest among the colonists, as this tax was placed upon them without their consent, and they saw it as unlawful and infringing on their rights as Englishmen. This would start the cries of "No Taxation Without Representation." The act was later to repealed, only to be followed soon after by the Townshend Acts of 1767, which placed taxes on tea, glass, and other such commodities. Once again, this was imposed upon the colonists without their consent, and they once again protested, leading to a partial repeal of the Acts. However, Parliament again did not learn their lesson, and when the colonists protested against the remaining tax on tea, by throwing the Boston Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts were passed, taking away from the citizens of Boston and to a larger extent, the colonies, certain rights that they were guaranteed as British citizens. When it was realized that they would never get fair treatment, because Parliament did not represent their interests, they stood for their rights, fought and created the country that we live in today.

When the Founders created government, they created it for a very explicit purpose, which can be found throughout the writings of many of these brave and wise men. Thomas Jefferson said it best in his First Inaugural, when he stated: "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. That is the sum of good government." (emphasis added) That statement, from the man who so eloquently stated the cause of freedom in the Declaration of Independence, sums up what the purpose of the men and women we send to Congress is.

Unfortunately, the purpose of government has seen a change over the two hundred years since it was founded. Instead of citizen legislators who have been elected by their constituents to represent their interests as a nation in Congress assembled, it has become about power and pushing one's own agenda, instead of listening to the people of this great nation. The Founders did not mean for the power to rest in the hands of 435 House members and 100 Senators; they left the power in the hands of the citizens of the United States. Thomas Jefferson wrote that "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." George Mason wrote in the Virginia Declaration of Rights that "all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the People; that magistrates are their trustees, and servants, and at all times amenable to them." John Adams said that it was a '"most excellent maxim that the original and fountain of all just power and government is in the people."' Do you know why that is? Because we the people of this country know what is best for us. I as an individual know what is best for me, and I have the God given right to make the decisions that affect my life. I did not vote for a person to go to Washington to tell me what is best for me; only I know what is best for me. If I make a bad decision, and there are adverse effects, that is on me. I will hopefully learn from my mistakes, and be a better person for it. But I need to make that decision, not some politician in Washington. It is on each individual person to make the decisions that affect their lives. That is not your job. That is not what you were elected to do.

James Madison stated: "Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the sovereign in every free one." If this is to be so, then why do you not listen to the people of this country? Why do you instead insult them as being a group of uneducated, dispassionate and hateful people who cling to their "guns and religion?" Are they not doing what it is their Constitutional right to do, and dissenting? Are they not allowed to make their voice heard as to what they think of the national government? It is a fundamental right that cannot be denied. To refute it is a footstep onto the path of despotism. All year, thousands upon thousands of Americans have made their voices heard, from protests all across the country, to standing up at town hall meetings and making their opinions known. Yet they are maligned, told that they are a mob, uninformed, and stupid, by the ones that claim to represent them. When the approval rating of Congress stands at 25%, and when 56% of Americans think that this country is headed in the wrong direction, it is time to listen to them, instead of attempting to force upon the people a partisan agenda that it is quite clear a majority of American citizens disagree with.

You are in your position by the good graces of the people of your district and/or state. They put you in the office, and they can remove you from it just as easily. By attempting to push a partisan, political, and all too often personal agenda upon the people, you have failed in your duty as a national legislator. You have lost the confidence of the American people, as is becoming quite clear. It is time that you stepped back from this agenda of legislating how people should live, and start doing what is right for this country, by getting us back on the right track to the liberty that we were endowed with by our Creator. Only then can you regain the confidence of America. Only then can we be the country that we were created to be.

Sincerely,

A Concerned American Citizen.

 

 

I Have Been Silent Far Too Long

I have been silent for too long. But today, as I was watching the television, I had my eyes opened to what is going on in this country. And it is truly and utterly despicable. I am sickened by watching what is becoming of the country that I so dearly love, and that our Founding Fathers fought and died so hard for. But sadly, too many Americans do not listen any more to their words. Those words spoke truth, and it came from a knowledge that what we have and what was given to us comes from a higher power, one not of this earth. "Freedom," Benjamin Franklin said, "is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature." But nobody acknowledges this wisdom any more. It is forgotten and ignored by far too many, and remembered by so few.

Too many Americans are buying into the thought that only the government can bestow freedom upon the people. Have they not read the Declaration of Independence which states that we are endowed by our Creator with certain, unalienable rights? And yet they expect a group of people who have promised them "Hope" and "Change" to secure that freedom to all Americans, when all that these people are going to do is try and level the playing field, so to speak, and make all people "equal." That is not what freedom is about. Equality is not freedom! Equality is being the same as the person next to you, and every single person having everything in common. That is what the Soviets tried. Everybody had the same kind of clothes, and the same type of housing, and, if they could afford it, the same kind of car! Is that freedom? No!!!!!!

Freedom, or liberty, as it is also known, is about having choices, and the ability to live one's life without outside interference from others. John Adams said: "I would define liberty to be a power to do as we would be done by." That is how this country was founded! The men who founded it believed that freedom was the ability to do what we want to do, and to make a better life for oneself, and not have anybody else tell us otherwise. Adams then goes on to say that the "definition of liberty to be the power of doing whatever the law permits, meaning the civil laws, does not seem satisfactory." To Adams, and to the other Founders, freedom through the law isn't enough, because laws aren't meant to give freedom! Laws are meant to restrict. That is their purpose. But that is exactly what the majority in government want to do. They want to pass laws that give freedom to all. For example, they want to pass a massive health care bill that gives everybody the right to health care. But what they will not say is through this law, if you make a certain amount of money, well, we are going to take more of it from you, because you are impeding on other people's rights. How are they infringing? They can't give a real reason, because there isn't one. What they are doing is impeding, through laws, on a person's right to be successful and make a living for themselves. Laws can't give freedom folks. It is not only improbable, but impossible. Don't buy into it.

But unfortunately, too many Americans are buying into it, and the ones that are standing up for their Constitutional freedoms and remembering the words of our Founders are being ridiculed, and called a mob, and accused to clinging to their guns and religion. What so many Americans don't understand can be best stated in the words of James Madison. He said: "I believe that there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." And it is true! We are not seeing a violent overthrow of the Founders ideals and what this country was founded on. No, we have been watching this happen slowly for almost a century, starting with the trust busting of Teddy Roosevelt, the era of Woodrow Wilson, the New Era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and then moving to the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson, and now, we come to the modern era. The government is now trying to tell us, the American people, how to live, and what to say. They are trying to pass bills to make certain things that were once "commodities" into "rights." But by doing that, they are taking other freedoms away from other individuals. And that is not liberty at all. That is tyranny.

These politicians are also attempting to silence those who do not agree with them by trying to push forward a revamped "Fairness Doctrine" and trying to create so-called "net neutrality" by governing the usage of the internet. This also is another blatant, though quiet, attempt at infringement on American liberty. Thomas Jefferson wrote that our "liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot by limited without being lost." It does not matter that a certain newspaper, talk show host or news network does not agree with your political point of view. They have the right to their opinion, just as the opposing party has the right to theirs. It is the right of every American to hold and form their own opinions without being told that they cannot think that way. It goes back to what Adams said about liberty being the right to do as you would be done by. If you want to have your opinion, that is great. You have that right, as do all 300 million Americans, and those other 299,999,999 have the right to disagree with you as well. That is how liberty works.

Those who are undertaking this underhanded usurpation of American liberties do not want you to know what they are doing. They are holding backroom meetings and shutting anybody who opposes them out. But once again, that goes completely contrary to what the Founders intended, because John Adams said that "Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right . . . and a desire to know, but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers." But they don't want you to know their conduct, because they know that if you knew, they would be voted out as soon as the next election cycle comes around. And there would go their grasp on power. And they don't want to lose the power that the Founders never meant for the national legislature to have.

So, my dear friends, we must all stand up to the, dare I say, tyranny of government that has arisen in Washington, and say that enough is enough! We must tell them that we are tired of them telling us what we should do, and instead they need to listen to us, the people who vote, and who are the real authority in this country. They are there representing us, and they need to do their job, or they are getting the proverbial pink slip next November. Let us do what John Adams said, and "dare to read, think, speak, and write." Because, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the immortal words that define what this nation was founded to be: "The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." It doesn't rest in the halls of Congress, friends, but in your hands alone.

Publius

You Should Not Fix What Is Not Broken

The Democrats in Congress are now beginning their push for one of the most socialist programs yet to come out of that august body in forty years. Their plan: to broaden healthcare coverage so that by the year 2019, 97% of all Americans would be covered under public socialized healthcare. By doing this, President Obama says that we will "begin the process of fixing what is broken." The question is: What is broken?

 

The answer is nothing! There is nothing that is broken in the healthcare system that needs to be fixed. What does need to be fixed are American values. The values of hard work that this nation was built upon are beginning to vanish, and this has led us to this moment. Too many Americans now have the attitude that "everything should be given to me; I don't want to work for something that I can easily just ask the government for." And they know that the government will indeed give it to them, for if they don't, these people will, like little children, begin to cry, kick and scream if they do not get their way.

 

In order to appease these temper-tantrum throwing "children" that make up a part of American society, the government must give them what they want. So they give the child what they beg for, in this case government provided healthcare. And it isn't enough to just give a treat to one child, but they must give one to all of the children to keep them from throwing a fit as well. And by doing this, they defuse the situation, and everybody is happy, right?

 

That is what this push toward socialized medicine really is. It is a way to gain the upper hand over the average American citizen. The government telling us that they are looking out for our best interests. But are they really? I submit that they are not. They are not looking out for the interests of the people, but their own interests instead! They are looking only to push their political agenda and to hold onto the power that they have as a member of the American government, so that they can stay there as the all caring Big Brother.

 

How might Congress pay for this program of progressively socialized healthcare, one might ask? The answer is quite simple, really: they will increase taxes on those Americans who make a living through hard work, of course. They are going to punish the successful in order to fund this "solution" to the so-called healthcare "crisis." Congress's plan is to add on a 5.4% surtax on those households that bring in $1 million or more per annum. On households that bring in between $500,000 and $1 million per year, there will be a 1.5% tax increase. And for houses that bring in $350,000 per year, their taxes will increase by 1%. And if that is not enough, if this tax increase does not bring in the target $544 billion by the year 2019, then there will be a second tax increase down the road in order to fund socialized healthcare. So not only are they going to punish those who are successful, but if it isn't enough, they are going to appropriate more from the American people in the future!

    

By doing this, Congress is stifling the ability of Americans to achieve the American Dream of being successful and making a better life for themselves. Isn't this the reason that so many people want to come to this country in the first place? To fulfill their dream of making money so that they can live a better life than in the country they were living in previously? Instead, by becoming successful and living out the American Dream, they are going to have to actually shell out money that they have worked hard to earn in order to help fund another person's laziness. By punishing people who have been successful in business, or other trades, they will create a dearth of people who want to actually become successful business men and women. When they realize that they are going to have a great majority of their hard earned gains to the government, just because of their success, they will decide that there is nothing wrong with subpar. They will make the maximum they can without having to pay the tax. And by doing this, it will have an adverse affect on our economy. Without the monetarily wealthy, a society will deteriorate. Soviet Russia is a perfect example. Everyone becomes (supposedly) equal, and the country fails.

    

So instead of Congress further pushing this country down the road to socialism and destroying the American Dream, it is time that they took their hands off and let Americans live as they want to. Let us be successful and make a way for ourselves! Let us make the decisions that affect the lives of us and our families! Let those who set themselves up for failure fail! Do not destroy the free-market system because through it some succeed and some fail. That is the way it was meant to work! The American government must realize that you can please some people some of the time, but it is absolutely impossible to please all of the people all of time. Until they realize that, they are going to continue leading this country down the path to destruction, for by taking this road, that is where we are unfortunately headed.

    

This is not to say that all people who need help are lazy. Do not think that is where I am going with this. There are the elderly who need some help, as they no longer can work, the physically and mentally handicapped, and others. We should be benevolent to them, and do what we can to help, and the government can, and should, reach out a hand to its helpless citizens. But there must be a strict demarcation of who gets help, and who doesn't. If a person who is perfectly capable of working isn't, benefits may be withheld. The problem of children paying for the sins of the parents is sad, and something should be done, but that is a topic for another post. Something can and should be done. That is a given. But rewarding one group by punishing another is unacceptable. We cannot let a one party autocracy take over this country. And if we let this bill pass, that is what is going to happen.

America, It Is Time to Wake Up!

It is time for American's to wake up and smell the proverbial roses, because, quite honestly, they stink to high heavens! It seems that we really don't care as a country anymore what direction we are going in. My friends, America is on the decline, and unless something is done about it, it will soon fall.

America has become a laughing stock to the world. No countries can take us seriously anymore. Our currency has become greatly devalued. Our morals and standards have become vastly degraded. And our politicians are just downright laughable. It does not seem that any of them can seriously stand up there and be a beacon of morality and virtue anymore. None of them have that ability. In the past week we have had two high ranking Republicans admit to affairs and resign the lofty stations they once held. We have seen men and women who have been nominated for high positions within the government have to decline the nomination because they have been delinquent on their taxes, some to the tune of over $100,000, a gross violation of the law. And that is just the tip of the ice berg.

The Constitution was put in place for more than building a government. There is so much more behind it that people don't see. If one were to pick up a copy of The Federalist and read what the men who wrote it said about the function of the Constitution and how government was to be run, you would also find a part which talked about the Constitution's higher purpose, one that goes beyond government structure. In Federalist 57, Publius, who is listed as James Madison, but could possibly have been Alexander Hamilton, writes this: "The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust." The whole purpose of a document such as the Constitution is to hold the politicians accountable to the office that they hold. When a man or woman is elected to hold an office of public trust, whether it is on a local council or as a member of the federal government, they are now accountable for their actions, and when they do something that is wrong and not in keeping with the standards of virtue, how can they be trusted?

How can the public trust a governor, senator, congressman/woman who has an affair and cheats on their spouse? How can we trust a person who has been appointed over a certain government office, or committee in Congress, if they have cheated on their taxes when the rest of us hard working Americans have been shelling out hundreds of dollars of our pay checks every April 15? How can we trust a government official who takes bribes in order to line their pockets with money? The answer is quite simple: we cannot. They have betrayed the public's trust and are now no longer deserving at all of the office that they hold. It does not matter if they be Republican, Democrat, American Socialist, Green, or whatever party. The fact of the matter is that they should no longer hold that office. Now, impeachment is not necessary if no law is broken, but if they run again, do not elect them back into office. How can you trust them? The answer is, you cannot.

Virtue has got to make a comeback in American politics if this country is to get back on the right footing. I am not saying that it is the only thing that will bring this nation back from the brink, but it is one factor that desperately must be looked at. Americans no longer trust their politicians. As the old joke goes, the definition of politics comes for the Greek "poly," meaning many, and tics, blood sucking creatures. Americans don't trust politicians and hence, they don't go out and vote, because they know it will likely just lead to one more corrupt person in Washington DC who is in it only for the power and the glory. Politicians are truly seen as blood sucking party hacks that are in it only to pass an agenda, and not to do what is best for their country or their constituents back home. And there is only one way for virtue to make a comeback in politics, and that is if men and women run for office who promise to uphold the values they stand for, and who are accountable. And the only way they can get into office is if the people recognize that this is what the country needs most, and they vote for those candidates. It is time to say no to the money grubbing, corrupt, immoral, non-virtuous politicians and yes to those who will stand up for what is right and bring America back to where it once was.

Time for the European Love Affair to Die

It is high time that the Statist Democrats love affair for all things European was set aside for good and that America go in the direction that it was meant to from the beginning. In 1776, the United States declared independence from a foreign power that was holding back the potential that they saw for the country that they, not their colonial masters in England, had worked so hard to achieve. And now, the men and women who seem to think that they hold all the power of the American government want to revert back to the European way of thinking. They want to follow a European model of government that really is not necessary for the United States, and will only do more to drag it down than to lift it up.

The countries of Europe are of a different ilk than the United States. They are smaller, and as their populations grow, there is less and less space for them to expand. They can go to other countries within the EU, but then there is a language barrier that must be overcome and immigration laws that must be adhered too. In the United States, we still have a great deal of space that can be utilized for expansion if it is needed, which it most likely will be, as the population has doubled in the past half century. Different needs require different solutions, and our needs are not the same as those of Europe. So why look to them when we don't need to?

What does America need most of all in these troubled times? We need to return to the model of the Founders, though somewhat modernized. But this modernization, mind you, should not detract from the fundamental principles of liberty and popular authority that those men held so dearly to. While times have changed, the idea of a free society has not, nor should. All American citizens should be free to make a life that helps them to succeed (within legal bounds, mind you) and to make their own decisions, not have the government make them instead and dictate how a person should live. It seems that those who hold the majority think that in order for this nation to prosper, they are the ones who must have control over everything, and that is simply fallacious. When the government dictates to the people how they should live, liberty dies, and tyranny reigns supreme.

Let us look at economic regulation, for example. Now, one must understand that there will always be rules that must be adhered to, such as workplace safety standards, just wages and the like. However, then the government begins to intrude into businesses, such as the automakers, and tell them what they are going to do and how they are going to do it, then you begin to have problems. You have situations like that of General Motors, which for all intents and purposes has become Government Motors. The president of the United States actually forced out the former CEO and had him replaced by a man who has no experience working in the business he now runs. They are forcing standards upon the automakers to make the cars more fuel efficient. Now, do not get me wrong, I don't mind a car that can get more miles to the gallon, as long as the quality does not suffer because of it. But that is exactly what is going to happen, due to the fact that Congress has presented a time table to make cars get over 35.5 miles/gallon or more by the year 2012.

So they have three years to figure out a solution to this "problem": How do they make a car that is fuel efficient and will still keep the occupants safe in a collision? Let us go back in time real quick to the first oil crisis in the 1970's. During this crisis, something called Corporate Average Fuel Economy (or CAFE for short) Standards were passed in 1975. Now, while this increased the fuel economy of vehicles in America, it also meant that car makers had to begin making smaller, lighter cars, because they could not meet these standards with the larger, heavy metal cars they previously made. After this, cars began to have many more plastic parts that break easier (and for some reason are more expensive, it seems) and the bodies were constructed of lighter metals. And while this helped with meeting the CAFE standards, it also had an unintentional side effect, and that was the increase in deaths due to vehicular collisions, which, if one looks at the statistics, have been on the rise since CAFE standards were put in place. Now, let us come back to the present and put this situation in a modern light. In order to meet the 35.5 MPG, what are American automakers going to do? Instead of making a secure, safe car and creating an engine that has power and fuel efficiency, they will lighten the car so that the engine can remain the same and yet still meet the fuel efficiency standards. Another side effect is that though one will be purchasing a car with less substance, the price tag will increase, on average, by $1,300.

This is only one example of European style regulations that the Statist Democrats are attempting to implement in the United States today. They are doing their best to end the free market economy that has propelled America for decades and to replace it with a government run economy that does not allow for free thinking and the making of a profit for the business owner. Is this the liberty that the Founding Fathers were thinking of when they created this nation? I think not. Even the citizens of the European countries that have these forms of government that the Democrats are so enamored by are fed up with them. They are seemingly all for an economic union between the countries of Europe, but when it comes to all of the land use regulations and increasing calls to hand over more and more of their rights to the European Union, they are much more skeptical. And if they are skeptical of their own forms of government, shouldn't Americans be even more so if this is what the majority in power want for us?

It is time that this love affair for all things European was buried six feet in the ground, in an unmarked grave, to be forgotten forever. The men who met in Philadelphia in 1787 gave us a form of government that works, and they came from a generation of men who fought for freedom, and not just political freedom, but economic as well. The regulation and over taxation of American industry must be put aside and the free market, capitalist economy that this nation was built upon must be allowed, once more, to roam free and be allowed to flourish, or else this country will eventually fall away into the annals of history as a has been, a once mighty superpower that is not longer what it used to be. Is this truly what we want for our country? I should think, and hope, not.

Ancient Advice for Modern Times

    So many people today ignore the words of men who lived centuries, even millennia, before us. This is such a shame, for they offer words of wisdom that should well be heeded. Their words echo from ages past with advice we could well use today.

    One of these great thinkers in particular comes to mind. Pericles was a renowned Greek general, politician and orator. He made a speech to the people of Athens in honor of the men who had recently fallen in battle, and he said something in that oration that applies to us today in America. He said:

 

"We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it. Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters, for, unlike any other nation, regarding him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensible preliminary to any wise action at all."

 

    These are words which many of our Founding Fathers would most likely have been familiar with, as they were all intimately aware of what the ancients had said, and were well versed in the classics. Some probably had even read Thucydides, from whose writings we have the account of what Pericles said. And it should have an impact on us today as it did to those men over two hundred years ago. America could very well look to the example of the ancient Greeks as to how we should live today, and how we should be involved in all things that pertain to society and politics.

    Since its founding, America has come to be one of the most prosperous nations on earth, as was Greece in the days of Pericles. This nation has a better standard of living than many other modern nations, and that is a great blessing. However, Americans can be prosperous without showing it off. This has become a habit for those who have come into money. But we do not need to buy multi-million dollar homes and $100,000 cars to show off our prosperity. There is just no need for it. It shows that Americans are putting precedence on material wealth, and not on the good things that wealth brings and the responsibility it holds. By showing off ones prosperity, it shows that a person is immature and likes to show off, and not do good things with the blessings they have been bestowed with. Do not think that what is being said here is that prosperity is a bad thing, because it is not. What is being said is that living an opulent life is not a necessity, for it gets a person nowhere. You can't take it with you when you die. Instead, use wealth for good and not show. You can live a comfortable life, and have nice things, but extravagance is unnecessary.

    When it comes to poverty, the real disgrace is not being poor, but in not doing all one can to get out of it. So many Americans today throw themselves a pity party because they don't have enough to live comfortably, and instead of trying to work hard to rise above their current economic level by using their God given capacity to overcome, they attempt to pass the blame on to others. They complain that because there are others who have more, those people are in some way being unfair and not giving them their fair share of the American dream. People who do this need to stop wallowing in their self-pity, for this is a nation of vast opportunities. Stop complaining, pick yourself up, get to work and make a better life for yourself. Many Americans have had to work difficult, low paying jobs before they have been able to climb out of the hole of impoverishment. One should not think that they are above working in a low wage job. If that is what it takes to climb to the next level, then that is what must be done. One cannot start climbing a tree in the middle. He or she has to start from the bottom to get to the top.

    When it comes to public matters, we should all be involved in some way. This goes beyond dragging ourselves to the polls in November. Pericles spoke of the Athenians as a people who all had a stake in the government of their city-state. Now, we live in a different day with a similar, yet not entirely the same, form of government. But we should all still be involved in one way or another. We vote for a person to represent us in Congress, but we should continue to make our voices heard after the election is over. All civic minded citizens should pay attention to what is going on in Washington D.C. and voice their opinions. That is what the Founders envisioned. They wanted the people to be involved, because they understood that the everyday citizen knew what he or she wanted and what was best for them better than any politician sitting at a desk, in a capital a thousand miles away. When the people voice their opinions, the government should listen accordingly. Though republican in representation, this is still a democracy; the people still have a say.

    And finally, there is the idea of the free flow of ideas and opinions. This can in no way be stifled or impeded. It is the exchange of thoughts in a free forum that makes a government like that which the Founders created work, and it keeps a nation free. When one person or party attempts to put a stop to another person or party from voicing their views on a matter, it is the beginning of tyranny. Some will claim that halting dissenting voices will put a stop to divisiveness. Others will claim that it will in fact help to encourage instead of hinder the free flow of ideas. Both are wrong, for where one begins to put walls around a person's right to free speech, it breeds discontent and makes only one opinion freely available to the people instead of many. It is like a farmer growing crops. The crop he is planting is liberty. Crops need both sunlight (one opinion on an idea) and water (the opposite opinion) in order for the plant to grow. If either sunlight or water is withheld (the voicing of an opinion is silenced), then the plant liberty cannot grow. Both are a necessity. No matter how much people may disagree on a subject, no person or party has the right to deprive others of the right to voice their disapproval or dissent. As Pericles said in his speech, the free flow of ideas is necessary in order for wise actions to be taken by those who make the decisions that affect our lives.

    Listen to the words of the ancient philosophers and orators. Much of what they said pertaining to virtue, government and freedom still applies today. Their words influenced the men who founded this nation, and they should be an influence on all Americans today as well.

Let the Fear Mongering Begin

Well, it looks as if the new administration has it out for anybody who is opposed to their policies. In a newly declassified report put out by the Department of Homeland Security, their is a "possible" threat of an increase in right-wing extremist groups taking action now that the Democrats have regained power and the White House. The problem is, there is no credible threat.

In a recently declassified and released DHS Intelligence assessment, it was stated that the Department of Homeland Security has "no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues." These "emergent issues" include the economic downturn and the election of Barack Obama to the presidency.

What there is a lack of is proof of anything really happening. There is no real evidence that these extremist groups are planning anything on the scale of Oklahoma City in 1995, which was, by the way, only carried out by two men. Not really a "group" of right wing radicals bent on a violent overthrow of the government. It is just a ploy to say that anybody who is opposed to the policies of the president and Congress are, well, right wing radicals. There is no naming of specific groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, or specific militia groups. There is instead a broad generalization being made. It is not even saying ultra-right wing factions, just right wing. This includes conservatives, libertarians, Constution party members, and the like.

It is time for the government to stop playing on the peoples fears. It is pithy and wholly impolitical for them to be even doing this kind of thing. The left complained about wiretaps and the like during the previous administration, but now the new administration is looking like it is going to do the very thing they decried for eight years. Where is the logic in this? If we are not careful, this nation will turn into a police state, with one party controlling the actions of all citizens. I doubt that is what the Founding Fathers would have wanted for this country.

Link to DHS assessment: http://images.logicsix.com/DHS_RWE.pdf

True Representation Demands Total Responsibility

One thing that has made itself abundantly clear throughout these past years is that the American government is no longer responsible to the people that they represent. The men and women who have been elected to Congress have failed in their role as the representatives of the people of this nation, and instead have begun to take America down the path of government tyranny. And this is a path that America cannot afford to go down.

Today in the United States, the representatives and senators who sit in Washington D.C. have the idea that they have been elected to office so that they can pursue their own agenda of what they think is the path America should take, and that is an absolutely fallacious idea. The original intent of the role of representative was to be there to act in the national interest of the people of their district, and nothing else. Because the Founders realized that a true democracy, like that of ancient Greece, was wholly impractical in a nation the size of the newly formed United States, they formed a democratic republic, in which the people chose the person that they felt would best represent their interests in the national legislature. That person was to speak for them and their interests at a national level. All state level decisions, subsequently, were to be left to the state legislatures. These decisions are many and diverse, as Madison stated in Federalist 45 and were to reside with the states alone. The men who were to be elected to Congress were to decide on matters of a national nature only, such as foreign commerce, the military, the national budget and the like. That was what they were charged with.

In the present Congress, it seems that the men and women who are elected to sit there think that they need to have a hand in manner of business. We have seen in the past years the Congress hold hearings on issues such as steroids in sports, (baseball having gotten the most attention); and even more recently, there have rumors have arisen of backroom meetings discussing trying to get the Bowl Championship Series to change how they select the teams that are sent to play in the college football bowl games. Now, does this really need the attention of Congress when the United States is in dire economic straits? I think not. These are not matters of national importance. Yes, steroids in baseball are bad, but let the consequences be felt by the players who do them when they begin to see the physical effects of the drugs they are using on their bodies. Of course many college football fans hate the BCS system because it seems totally rigged, but let the NCAA figure out a better way to choose the teams. It does not take a congressional committee to decide these things. They are unimportant issues in the grand scheme of things.

Why is the American government acting this way? Why are they pursuing agendas that are harmful to the form of government set in place by the Patriot generation? The reason is that the government is no longer responsible to the people. And on top of that, the American people have become completely lethargic and apathetic when it comes to the government that affects their everyday lives. They don't pay attention anymore. They just go to the polls in November every two years and cast a ballot for their party candidate or the person who looks or sounds the best. They fail to pay attention to the issues. And believe me, these elected officials know it, and have played upon it for years. It is this political laziness in the citizens of America that has been the creator of these mass problems, because they just don't pay attention. And it is a poison that is slowly killing this country.

This is a disease that must be cured, and there is a sure remedy to it, an antidote to the poison, as it were. The people must demand of their representative complete responsibility, because only when the government once more becomes completely accountable to the will of the American people will these problems begin to disappear. The congressmen and women in Washington must understand that they have to listen to the will of the people that they were elected by, for, as has been stated in previous posts, if those people put them there, they can also remove them from their seats in Congress. When the people speak, the government must listen, not the other way around. The people are the political authority of the United States.

And in recent weeks, we have begun to see these demands being voiced by countless thousands around the nation. They are beginning to show that American's are becoming fed up with the unaccountability of the national government. People are gathering at modern day tea parties in the major metropolises of this great nation, and voicing their discontent. And this raises the question of whether the government will listen. And the answer I will give is this: It is highly doubtful. And what is the reason for this pessimism, one might ask? Because the men and women who have become part of the Washington government cabal are too entrenched in their love of power that they will not easily change. But there is one sure way to make them listen.

Vote them out of power my friends. When they are kicked out of Washington and replaced by men and women who actually have the welfare of the common American, and not just a certain minority or interest group in mind, then they will realize that they were there at the will of the people, and not there for their own power and self-aggrandizement. Only when people are elected to national office that hold the interests of the nation and their own constituents first in their minds will this nation begin to rise out of this quagmire that it has fallen into. We must choose men and women who are not just a part of the political establishment, but instead have a genuine desire to do what is best for the country as a whole. They are there because we the people cannot all be there. They are doing the work that all Americans should be willing to do, but can't feasibly do. And we should all be ready to step into the breech when our own elected official is not doing the job that they were selected to do. We cannot idly stand by and watch while the nation is destroyed by power hungry politicians. We must do something, just as the Revolutionary generation did when the tyranny of the British king and Parliament became too much to bear. They should be our examples. Look to them, for they had it right. They had the idea, and knew what they wanted. Follow their lead.

You're Fired!!!

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20625.html

Only a quick post here. Above is a link to a story just coming across the wires. The Obama administration has asked the CEO of General Motors Rick Wagoner to resign and will be making an announcement as to what will happen with the American auto industry as a whole. Have we now gotten to the point that the government is going to put their own people in charge of certain industries? That is not a free market economy. That is socialism. Just think, Joseph Stalin did the same thing.

It’s Not Just a One Party Problem

If one has read through all of my previous posts, and continues to read the ones which are forthcoming, one should notice that I have not passed blame for the American situation on any one party in particular. And there is a very simple reason for this: both parties are to blame. I have mentioned one party in one article to clarify why the name they have taken is a complete and total misnomer, as they do not follow the tenets of the philosophy that the liberal school traditionally holds. But on to my point.

This crisis is not one that was forged by any single political faction. Both have equally been facilitators of this debacle, the only change being the shift in power from one party to the other. But neither is doing anything to help get this country out of the mire that it was fallen into. Instead, there are just trying to outdo the other party across the aisle and pass all the blame on them, claiming that they are not responsible, but the other side is. They launch salvo after salvo and all that they do is destroy their own credibility, and with it goes the respect that this nation once used to hold in the world. They are doing more harm than good to this country.

Across the United States, men and women are rallying at modern day "tea parties," protesting the irresponsibility of our government and their failure to represent the wants, needs and interests of the American people. That have failed in their duty to "promote the general welfare" as the Constitution instructs them to do, and it is time that the American people stand up and actually do something about it.

Whether it be state, gubernatorial or the midterm elections that come up in 2010, it is time that the we, the American people, speak up by going out in droves and voting. Do not go out and just vote a party ticket, because just because that candidate represents the party you are a part of, or agree with, that does not mean they are the best choice to go to Washington. The people need to actually look at the positions and stances that the candidates are holding to. If they are just spouting the same old rhetoric that one party is bad, and they are good, that isn't enough. If they do not purport to represent the peoples interests if they are elected, if they do not really listen to what their constituents have to say and are just looking for a start on the road to political power, then by all means please leave their box on the ballot unchecked. Support the candidate who will promise to represent you in Congress, and not just be another party hack. And if they do get to Washington, hold them to what they said they promised to do. When they do what is not in the best interests of the people, let them know your displeasure. That is the only way to keep them accountable.

If there is any one thing that the American people need to know, it is this: the government is responsible to the people, not vice versa. The only reason those men and women are there are because all Americans can't be. Hold them to their promises. Keep them accountable. Accountability is the key to good representation. Party does not matter, as long as the interests of the people and the good of the country, which should be one and the same, are being met.

Change We Can Truly Believe In

When the Founding Fathers formed the present arrangement for the government of the United States, it was done with the best of intentions and under the presumption that moral and virtuous men would be elected to represent the people in Congress. Unfortunately, time has changed the way the United States government works. And there are some definite changes that must be made.

In the Constitution, there were no term limits set for any of the elected officials, be them Representatives, Senators or the President. Term limits were not instituted for the office of the President until 1951, and as of yet none have been set for either members of the two houses of Congress. And while in the early years of the United States this might not have been seen by some as such a big problem, today, it is becoming one. In those formative years, this country was made up of thirteen states that were all along one coast. Now the United States extends from one coast to the other and contains fifty states, and this has brought about an unseen crisis in the way the government is being run.

The men and women who go to Washington are sent there to represent the people and interests of their district. When an individual is running for office for the first time, they normally have direct contact with the voters of that district they are trying to represent. They listen to the needs of the people and what they want out of their representative in Washington. If they win the election, that person is more likely to do their best to represent their constituents in their first term in office. After two years, they run again, and if the people feel that they were represented well, they may just return the said person to office for a second term.

And herein lies the problem. Continuous election of a person to sit in Congress creates a lust for power and a distancing of oneself from the constituents of the district one represents. One objection that was made to the non-inclusion of term limits on representatives to Congress was made in a series of letters known as the Federalist Farmer. In letter 11, the author says that "in a government consisting of but a few members, elected for long periods, and far removed from the observation of the people, but few changes in the ordinary course of elections take place among the members; they become in some measure a fixed body, and often inattentive to the public good, callous, selfish and the fountain of corruption…Even good men in office, in time, imperceptibly lose sight of the people, and gradually fall into measures prejudicial to them."

Does this not sound at all familiar to the modern day reader? Congress has become so full of long time members that they have forgotten the people that they have come to represent. For example, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland District 5, which is not thirty-five minutes from Washington DC, barely campaigned in his district in the past election, save for some automated voice messages and campaign signs that didn't begin to emerge until shortly before November. There were no public rallies or meetings so he could get a feel for what the citizens of his district wanted. So how does he know what these people want and need? Does he get elected because he has his people in mind? Or does he retain his office because he gets enough party votes and he has just become a fixture to the people? So many of the House members have become so attached to the power they have in Washington DC that for the most part they have lost touch with their base at home. Sure, they put vast numbers of earmarks in bills for some utterly pointless project that they want done in their district and claim that it is for the people. And their constituents eat it up like gullible little fish. What the people fail to realize is that these little bits of pork that their representatives throw to them from Washington will most likely have very little effect or benefit to them in the long run. But it gets them to vote, and to the power hungry politician, that is all that matters.

So what is the solution to this problem of out of touch representatives? It is really quite simple: impose term limits upon them. This was a system that was previously set up in the Articles of Confederation, and was one of the rules that actually made sense, but was dropped when the Constitution was created. If one takes a look at this rule, however, they will see the genius behind it. The rule was that "no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years." This means that in a period of six years, you could be sent as a delegate three times, and then you had to sit out for the remainder. So, if a man was sent three years in a row, he was ineligible for the next three.

Why was this rule established? For the simple reason that the Founders knew that power corrupts. In Federalist Farmer 11, the author makes a very clear case for why there must be term limits imposed upon the representatives of the House. He readily admits that a rotation in office will exclude certain good men from office for a time, but it is hoped that there are other good men (and women in today's case) that will have the people's interests in mind, who can take the seat. However, there is good that comes from rotation in office and term limits. The author states two clear advantages. The first is that it helps to "guard against those pernicious connections, which usually grow up among men left to continue long periods in office…" Simply put, it puts a crimp on the political cabals that are likely to arise between members that might endanger the rights of the people. And the second advantage is that it helps to "increase the number of those who make the laws and return to their constituents; and thereby spread information, and preserve a spirit of activity and investigation among the people…" From these two advantages, a "balance of interests and exertions are preserved, and the ruinous measures of factions rendered more impracticable."

By making it impossible for one person to sit for term after term, the long term political alliances are bypassed and it helps to keep the people in touch with those whom they have sent to Washington to represent them and make the laws that affect their lives. Through this contact, the people can express either their delight or displeasure with the measures this person supported or did not support, and through this, the former lawmaker learns, and if they get the chance to go back, they hopefully know what they need to do differently. It is a win-win situation for both lawmaker and constituent, as well as for the nation as a whole.

Now, the question remains as to how would the American people go about affecting this type of radical change? They would have to call for a change to the Constitution by adding an amendment. Common sense would dictate that it could not be done as an amendment called for on the floor of the House of Representatives, because the men and women who sit there would never vote for, nor ratify, an amendment to the Constitution that curtails their power and their ability to hold onto that power for as long as they can get elected.

That leaves it up to the people of the United States to bring this type of Constitutional change about. As has been stated in previous posts, the American people retain the political authority in the United States, and the men and women who sit in Congress are only their elected delegates who are responsible to those people who put them there. The writers of the Constitution wrote in the provision in Article Five that the people of the United States can call upon their state governments to call a convention in which to propose an amendment to the Constitution, and if three-fourths of the states do this and the legislatures of those same states ratify the proposed amendment, it becomes law. This is the people's prerogative and their right.

When a government that was instituted to protect the people's right to life, liberty and property becomes in any way dangerous to them, it is the "Right of the People to alter or abolish it…" Now, the government of the United States has not become dangerous to the point of needing to abolish it and create a new one. That is not what one should take away from this. What one needs to understand is that it is the people's right to alter the government when they see that it is becoming dangerously powerful. And that is what is happening today. The government is expanding and is moving toward what it was not meant to be, and that is the ultimate political authority in this country. That alone rests with the people. It is the duty of the liberty loving citizens of these United States to step up into the role that was intended for them and let the government know who is really in charge. The government does not take the people seriously because the people don't take their role in government seriously. And it is time that that changed.

The Best Kept Secret

The government has been keeping a secret from the American people. It isn't a new thing; the government has been doing this for years. But this secret is big; so big, in fact, that there is a very clear and cogent reason why the men and women in Washington are keeping this piece of information so close to the vest. And you will never guess what it is.

The big secret is that the real power of government, the true political authority in this country does not rest in Washington DC. It is not in the hands of the majority party in Congress, nor is it vested in the person who sits in the Oval Office. In actuality, the real political power in America rests in the hands of the people. That's right, the everyday voting Americans are really the ones in whom political authority truly rests. And the politicians in Washington do not want any of these people to know it, because if they did, then those same men and women would have everything to fear, for their place in "power" would no longer be secure, because then the people would realize that those who sit in the halls of Congress are accountable to them, and this just will not do.

Those men and women who sit as Representatives or Senators are there to represent the constituents of their districts or states, and the American people cannot be expected to depart with the smallest right in which they have deposited with these same men and women. That have invested them with the power to legislate. This is not a gift, but a duty. The American people have not in any way departed with their political rights by investing power in the government. These same Representatives and Senators have been put in their position by the vote of the people, not by anything they have actually done or accomplished. Without their constituents, they would be nothing. And they were elected for the sole purpose of representing those same men and women who elected them into office. If they deviate in any way, shape or form from the will of the people, then those who hold the political authority have every right to reprimand them, inform them of what their purpose is, and direct them how to vote. Through this, the people shape and determine how this country is run, not the government. Nothing is to be done without the consent of the people, for if this becomes the case, the voters have every right to remove that person from office whom they elected to represent them.

Now it becomes clear why the politicians in Washington do not want this principal foundation of American governance to come to light and to keep it hidden from the American people. They have come to Congress, not with the intention of doing what is right for the voters back home who entrusted them with this position, nor for the betterment of the American people as a whole. Instead, they have taken their seats in Congress in order to satisfy their own lust for power. They are there in order to push forward their own personal agenda, and they have forgotten the men and women who put them there in the first place. These so-called representatives have forgotten the true end of government and why the people actually entrusted them with the responsibility of representation in the first place.

What is the true purpose of government? Why did the people elect someone to represent them? John Locke says that the purpose of government is to do good for the community that it was created to serve, whether that be at a local, state or national level. James Otis, a Massachusetts patriot and a member of our Founding generation said the following: "The end of government being the good of mankind, points out its great duties: It is above all things to provide for the security, the quiet, and happy enjoyment of life, liberty, and property. There is no one act which a government can have a right to make, that does not tend to the advancement of the security, tranquility and prosperity of the people." Simply stated, the government is to ensure that the people who have instituted the said government are to have the full enjoyment of their right to life, liberty and property, and nothing that the government does can infringe upon those rights.

Now, when those who are a part of that government fail in their duty, what is to be done about it? The answer is quite simple: at the next election, they are to be voted out of office. The people gave that representative their job, and they can just as easily remove that person from it. It is that simple. Samuel Adams said that if "the public affairs are illy conducted, if dishonest or incapable men have crept unawares into government, it is happy for us, that under our American Constitutions the remedy is at hand, and in the power of the great Body of People." When the people, after seeing that their representative to the government is not doing the job that they were tasked with, they will hopefully be prescient enough to vote that person out of power at the next election. As Adams went on to say: "It is prudent for the people to keep a watchful eye over the conduct of all who are entrusted with public affairs. Such attention is the people's great security."

Unfortunately, Americans have become all too lax in carrying out their political duty. Why is this? It is quite simple: the American people have been indoctrinated. For years now, ever since it began to emerge as the answer to all of the countries woes during the Great Depression years, it has been pounded into the minds of American children and adults alike that the government is the solution. If the people will just place more and more trust and power in the government, then all of their problems will be solved. And the people have more and more bought into this fallacious line of thought, so much so that now the government has become a veritable hydra, sprouting heads with each new government agency that is created to make their lives supposedly better. But it is fast being realized by many that the government is not the solution. It has become the problem.

However, too many Americans today have become to numb and mindless that they have failed to carry out their political duties to keep the government accountable. Sure, millions of Americans go out and vote, and do their civic duty like good little automatons. But do they truly pay attention to the issues that are being put forward, and to what is at stake if they don't make the best choice possible? After looking at the results of the past couple of elections, the answer would most assuredly be no. The government in Washington today is just full of party hacks and Johnny and Susie Do Nothings that it is beginning to drag America down a slippery slope that only ends at a steep precipice, with jagged boulders at the bottom, and there is not safety line to catch it.

It is time for the American people to once again stand up and begin asserting themselves in the role that was originally intended for them. It is time for Americans to stand up to Congress and the politicians who are running Washington DC who have become more of a hindrance than a help. The needless waste of taxpayer dollars has got to stop. The massive bureaucracy that has become the government must be paired down and trimmed like the out of control weed patch that it now is. It is time for Congress to realize who really and truly does hold the political power in the United States of America.

A Foolish and Spendthrift Government

"…a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

These words, spoken by Thomas Jefferson during his Inaugural Address of 1801, expresses the attitude of one of our most famous, and in some cases, most beloved, Founding Fathers of what the government is supposed to be and how it is to perform. And by just looking at it, one can see how far America has moved from this ideal of good government.

Now, this is not to say that this is how all of the Founders thought of the proper role and purpose of government. Some, such as Alexander Hamilton, saw the need of an energetic government, one that exercised a greater deal of authority and regulated more of how Americans were to live. And while some of his views were in actuality good and necessary (a subject for another time), these were not the ideals of Jefferson, and in reality a hands off government was more the dream of the Patriot generation than anything else. An excessively strong federal government was not the ideal that Jefferson and a number of the Founders who signed the Declaration of Independence had in mind, nor what they fought for.

Jefferson, when he took office, stood for a hands off form of government, one that did not intrude greatly into the everyday lives of Americans, leaving them free to live their lives as they saw fit. To put it succinctly, he stood for a "wise and frugal government…" What exactly did he mean by that? The Founding Fathers had a distinct view of what the government was supposed to be and the purpose and role of elected officials. First and foremost, any elected government official was to be wise and virtuous. The whole point of a person running for office is to do what is best for the constituents of the area that a person is running to represent, whether it is local, state or national. One is not to be running for office for personal gain or aggrandizement. Neither was the role of representative, senator or president ever meant to be lifelong career choice. One was do their part, and when it came time, step down. It was to be a position of service to ones countrymen. One did not go into politics at first for the money. Pay for the congressmen, senators and president was not that much in the beginning. Many of them could have made much more with their pre-politics jobs than with what they were making as congressmen, senators, or even president. And notice how four of the first five presidents, all members of the Patriot generation, actually gave up the office after serving for just two terms. They understood that it was not proper to hold onto the power forever, and that was not what the people wanted. Two of those men, Madison and Monroe, were still fairly young, and could have kept going for at least one more term each if they had wanted it. But they did not. They voluntarily gave up power to propagate the advancement of the government they had founded. They understood the necessity of abdicating power in a republican democracy.

To what end was the government to function? According to Jefferson, as stated in the above quote, the purpose was to "restrain men from injuring one another…" which seems rather obscure if one does not look at the meaning behind it. The men of this time had grown up on the political philosophy of men such as John Locke, Montesquieu, David Hume, and the like. These men saw government as an institution in place to take over from the rule of every man for himself, which was the way it worked in a state of nature. Now, with mankind having left this state and instituted government, there were different rules. The government was there to enforce those rules and to protect the rights of the people, those rights being life, liberty and property. To put it simply, the government is there to ensure that order is kept. For what purpose was the Constitution established? It is all right there in the preamble: to "establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…" This is what the men who met in Philadelphia had in mind when they established the Constitution, short, simple and to the point. Now, the federal government had other jobs to perform to make sure all of this happened, but they were strictly enumerated, and had more to do with the overall scheme of things, and not the little, everyday things that were more attuned to being handled by state and local governments.

Other than what was enumerated as the purpose and job of government? They were to be strictly hands off. They were to leave the citizens "otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement…" What does this mean? Basically, the government cannot tell us how to live our everyday lives. They cannot tell us what kind of jobs we can work. It is not their place to tell us how much money we are allowed to bring in per annum. There is no place for the government to tell us what to read, say, or do, as long as it is lawful (i.e. not treasonous, slanderous or libelous.) The government is to let Americans live their lives how they want to live it, and to put no restrictions on their "pursuit of happiness." When the government begins to tell the citizens how much money they are allowed to make, or begins to disproportionately tax individuals because of what they make annually, then it is becoming a government of tyranny, and not one of freedom. The citizens of this country are to be at liberty, not hostages to the government.

This brings us to the last point made by Jefferson here, which is that the government is to "not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." Now, this does not mean that we should not pay taxes. While Jefferson had a strong aversion to taxing the citizens, and did his best to cut back taxes, our taxes do a certain amount of good for us. They go to things such as fixing roads, making sure that our country is defended properly and ensures that the government is able to function. However, what Jefferson is saying is that the government should not, under any circumstances, overly tax the people and take from them the money that they have worked hard to earn for no good reason. While we should pay a certain tax in order for the country to sustain itself, and so that the states and local jurisdictions can perform properly, Americans today pay tax money that ends up going to wasteful spending programs that just take away the hard earned dollars of Americans and waste them. We have become a welfare state that hands out millions of dollars to people who are doing nothing, and are subsisting on the taxpayers (not the government) to survive, and doing nothing to even try and get out of this rut. There are hundreds of programs like this that are a complete waste. And while there are those who speak out against it, there are those who propagate the system and are trying their hardest to get them expanded. They are attempting to create a country that is wholly dependent upon the government to survive, instead of being independent and subsisting on their own initiative.

And as has already been stated, the government is not to excessively tax the people, tax them unfairly or punish them for having made more money and being more successful than others. Just because a person has had more success than others does not mean that they have been unjust or unfair, nor is it right to assume that because a person has more wealth, they are evil. If a person has the God given talent and intelligence to make the best of their lives and gifts, and they make money in the process, more power to them. If they have done this legally, then they have every right to enjoy the fruits of their labor. If they choose to use that wealth to help those in need, they are free to do that. However, if they choose to hold onto their wealth and use it for themselves, well, that is their prerogative as well. This is an issue of personal morals, and not the domain of the government.

By unjustly taxing the people, a government that was instituted to do good perverts its cause, its purpose. This is one of the reasons that the United States was formed in the first place. The American colonists were being taxed by a government where they had no say, on the things that they used in their everyday lives. The taxes did not directly benefit them; the government benefitted, and it did nothing for the colonists. As was stated by Jefferson in the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms in 1776, the government of Great Britain had "undertaken to give and grant our money without our consent, though we have ever exercised an exclusive right to dispose of our own property." Does this sound similar to something going on today? We are seeing the same things begin to happen today, and it is our very own government that is the agency perpetrating this action. Hard working Americans are being taxed more and more to pay for government programs that are of no benefit to them and help to perpetuate a society rife with idleness and indolence.

Instead of a "wise and frugal" government, what we have now in the United States is one that is foolish and spendthrift, one that is ever willing to pick the pockets of its own people to fund useless projects and to pay for others that benefit the few, and do not promote the general welfare. The dream of the Founders has been shattered to a million pieces. No longer are we guided by their vision of a wise and virtuous government, but by the vision of Europeans whose plans have failed. These so called politicians are becoming a blight upon our society with an inclination for spending the taxpayers money while wheedling their way out of even doing their own part. These men and women are for the most part without virtue or wisdom as to how to run a government. They have foolishly led America down a path that has been gone down by many before it and it is the path to destruction. And instead of it being a government that is far off and distant to us, where we have no say whatsoever, it is our very own government, with the men and women whom we have elected to represent us, who are carrying out this destructive plan. And this is wholly unacceptable.

Representation: Non-Existent

Representation of the people has ceased to exist in Washington as we know it. Nowadays in Congress, the so called representatives of the people represent more of a party agenda than their constituents in their home districts. What we now have in Washington are men and women who represent one party or the other and don't really listen at all to what the people who elected them really have to say or want out of their congressman/woman. Today, it is all about party advancement and power. It is as simple as that. Look at how many of the representatives have been there for more than a decade. It is seemingly obscene, because some of these men and women haven't done anything to deserve the tenure that they have retained.

When the Founding Fathers envisioned representation of the people, the one thing that they could agree on is that these men needed to represent the people, and not a particular party or creed. They were being elected to represent their constituents and to do what was right for the country, keeping in mind that it was in the best interests of the people back home. They were to hold to particular standards and their power was to be limited to the constraints of the Constitution and would be checked by the other branches of government. They were to be virtuous and not be power hungry. The original intent was not for those elected to be finding a career. Though there were not limits placed on how many terms a congressman or senator could serve, it was not supposed to necessarily be a lifetime career. However, nowadays, we see men who have held onto power and who are long past their prime, who don't even get up and take the floor. Their messages are delivered by aides and read to the members in attendance. They do not understand that being a congressman or senator is being called to a position in which they are there for the good of the people, not the good of themselves.

And these men and women who now hold office represent party politics more than they represent the people. The Founders had hoped that a republican form of government would help to stem the rise of factions, but unfortunately, they counted on virtue to stem that tide, and virtue is not a trait that many humans are able to hold to for long. Man is corrupt. As Shakespeare said in Hamlet, "What a piece of work is a man…" Man will hold onto power when they get it in their hands, and when they have it, they will not let go. And over the years, Congress has been granted more and more power, making the position ever more enticing, and ever harder to let go of. And therein lays the problem.

Congress has strict and enumerated powers that were laid out for them in the Constitution of the United States. These powers are quite simply stated. Congress was given the power to create and collect taxes, which is the revenue which the country uses to run itself. They were given the capacity to declare war, raise an army and navy, to draw up the rules for both, and to call into service the militia (National Guard) in times of need. They were given the power to regulate international commerce and to coin money and regulate the value of it and its relation to foreign currency. It was to establish post-offices and the means of getting mail to its destination. These are the basics, as outlined in the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8. At the end of Section 8, Congress is given the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." However, if one goes further into the Constitution, to the Bill of Rights, you will see Amendment 10, which states thusly: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution or prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." In Federalist No. 45, James Madison said it quite simply. He said that the "powers delegated…to the federal government are few and defined." These enumerated powers are to be "exercised principally on external objects as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce…"

However, the necessary and proper clause has been construed to mean that Congress has the power to do whatever is, in their opinion, necessary and proper, for whatever purpose. This clearly violates Amendment 10, which says that what is not delegated to Congress is to be reserved to the states or to the people of the nation. The so called necessary and proper clause only pertains to the enumerated powers outlined in Section 8. Remember that little phrase that follows necessary and proper: "for carrying into execution the foregoing powers." They are allowed to do what is necessary and proper within the limits of the enumerated powers. To go outside of those lines is, well, unconstitutional.

So, why are we not crying out in shear anger about the misrepresentation in Congress? My friends, we should be crying out in outrage about what we are seeing in our government today. Look at the so called American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that has now been passed into law. How is this within Congress's powers? This so called stimulus package is basically a pork filled appropriations bill so that the Socialist Democrats who hold the majority can carry out their pet projects. How is $30 million in funds dedicated to preserving the habitat of the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse supposed to stimulate the economy and pull America out of this recession? The congresswomen who proposed this, none other than the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California, has said that helping to preserve this rodent and its habitat will somehow stimulate the economy of her home district of San Francisco. Or how about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada appropriating $8 billion in order to create a high speed rail link between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, when Amtrak, which used to run trains between the two cities, shut the line down because of low ridership? Is this the proper way for Congress to be spending our taxpayer dollars, the money we give the government in order for it to have some benefit for us, not for some small rat that lives in California?

It is time to stand up my friends. It is time to stand as one united front and say no more will we stand for this misrepresentation that is becoming more and more prevalent in Washington DC. We are now in a new American crisis, and this one is even worse in some ways than the ones before. We are reverting to a European model of living, and that is something that would make Washington, Jefferson and Madison roll in their graves, for they fought to make this country far different from Europe, and now our politicians are trying to make us more like what we fought to separate from. Well no more!! We must say no more! Stand up to the rise of socialism in America and stand firm for the principles of hard work and virtue that our Founding Fathers tried to instill in us. They are reaching out through the years and attempting to tell us to stand tall. Will you?

Government Control Not the Dream

Control of the people's lives was not what the Patriot generation had in mind when they decided to fight the War for Independence and separate from Great Britain. In fact, they were separating for the very fact that they wanted to have control over their lives and money, and not the government. And now the new administration is beginning to go back to the English model, so to speak, of taxing in order to pay for their policies and programs which have not direct benefit to the people of this country whatsoever.

Let's compare these two periods of history. In the 1760's, the government of Great Britain was in some financial trouble. They needed money; badly. So, they began to pass a series of acts that increased taxes on everyday goods in order to raise this capital. They placed a tax on sugar, which the colonists used to make molasses, which in turn was used to make rum (a major commodity in those days). A stamp tax was initiated, and any letter or public paper, even a deck of cards, had to have this stamp on it, or it was illegal. The colonists fought these acts and had them repealed. Then came the Townshend duties. These were duties on everyday things like tea, glass, and other items that the colonists used daily. These taxes were being passed and foisted upon our forefathers and they were seeing no direct benefit from them at all. They were being told it was to help pay for the war that enabled them to still be speaking English and not French, but they weren't seeing anything from the taxes they were paying. And the rest, as we all know, became history when they threw the tea overboard, banded together and fought the English until they gained their independence.

Are we Americans going to begin to see the same things happen in our country two hundred years later? Are we going to begin to be taxed on items we use in our everyday lives because it is in the long run going to "benefit" us, but in essence we will never see any clear betterment of our lives? Congress and the President have not signed into law a so called "stimulus" package that has a running tab of $787 billion and will only go higher if something is not done, and soon. And the cost of this massive spending bill is going to be paid off by our children, our grandchildren, and their children. This is something that we cannot let happen. We must make it stop, and we are the only ones that can do this!

The Socialist government is going to begin reaching into our pockets and telling us that by taking our money, we are helping this country. We are providing for our future, and for our children's future. Aren't these the same propagandistic lies that the Soviets were spouting out to the people of Russia when they took over? The only thing that we will be providing is the enlargement of the national debt and steeper slide toward depression or socialism, and neither of those is a slope that we want to head down. In order to pay for this bill, the income tax on American's today is going to go up. Sure, the socialists in Congress and the White House will say they won't, and they will be giving American's tax cuts across the board (except for the evil rich of course) but we all know that will not happen. Income tax will go up, fairly imperceptibly, and we will see an increase in other taxes, like property tax and sales taxes. State taxes will go up because they will need to pay off their part of the burden, which, of course, will be placed on the citizens of that state. And for what will we be paying for, might one ask?

If one takes a look at the stimulus package, and what it entails, you will find that there isn't much stimulation going on at all. For example, $32 billion is going to transportation projects and another $10 billion to railway and mass transit projects. Now, I can see how this might help things get to people and places faster and more efficiently, but is that really a necessity for an economic stimulus package? And how about $6 billion dollars for projects that bring high-speed internet access to rural and undeserved areas? Okay, so people can buy things online faster and with more ease, but if they don't have the money, how does that help them? Approximately $153 billion alone is going to healthcare projects that will do wonders for promoting nationalized healthcare, but do nothing for the economy. One could go on and on, but the crux of the matter is that Congress has now appropriated 787 billion taxpayer dollars, money that most Americans work very hard to earn, and spending it on things that will have no direct benefit to them whatsoever. The spending of their money will do them no good.

By doing all this, the government is doing exactly what Parliament and King George III did in the 1760's and 70's. They are telling us that we are their piggy bank, and now that they need the money, they are going to break us open and take as much money from us as they need too. And then, with the money that they leave us, they are going to tell us how to spend it. Have you been saving up for that brand new Mustang that you have always wanted? Sorry, that car is not fuel efficient enough. Go out and buy one of those new, environmentally sound cars, like a Prius. And you shouldn't be eating out at McDonalds or Burger King, because their food isn't healthy for you, and if you get fat, well, we just may have to tax you more. Do you see what I am getting at? The government is more and more beginning to intrude upon our private lives and telling us what we can and cannot do. Is that freedom? Does that sound like the words of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution to you? It seems as if the right to life, liberty and property has now been boiled down to life as we want you to live it, the liberty we are willing to give to you, and the property that we the government don't need from you (but we will need most of it. It's for your future!)

Stand up Americans! Don't let the Socialists in Congress and the White House just take your money without any real benefit to you coming out of it. Say enough is enough. It is our money, we worked hard for it, and we deserve to keep what it rightfully ours. This does not mean we should not pay our rightful taxes. Sure, they aren't fun, but a benefit does come out of them. But, when we begin to be excessively taxed for things that give us no benefit whatsoever, and do not improve conditions at all, that is unjust, and we cannot stand for it. These are the same things that Jefferson spoke against in his Declaration, and it is time that we once more take his words to heart and say no to this vastly egregious spending bill that will damage America for years to come.

Why Democrats are not Liberals

I know, shocking isn't it? For years, we have been calling Democrats liberals, when they are really not liberals at all. What they are is socialists who have appropriated the term liberal for the sake of making themselves look better. They are the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing.

America was founded under the political philosophy of liberalism. What word looks very similar to this? If you are thinking 'liberty', well then you are quite correct. The whole basis of liberalism is that man is free to do as he pleases with the life that he is given, save that he respect the law, as long as it does not infringe upon his freedom. F.A. Hayek, an economist whose work has become a basis for libertarian thinking, says it best. He says that the fundamental principle, the root of liberalism, is that "in the ordering of our affairs we should make as much use as possible of the spontaneous forces of society, and resort as little as possible to coercion..." In other words, in our lives, we do what works best, and see where it takes us, and if it doesn't work, we try something else. This is freedom. When we are forced by the powers that be to do what they think is best, then there ceases to be any freedom whatsoever, and the government must resort to coercion in order to get their plan into action. Freedom is not in the Democrats plans at all. They want everybody to do things their way, and they will go about doing this by whatever means possible. But in reality, the only way that they can do that is to destroy the Constitution, bring about one party rule and eventually move to authoritarianism, which will eventually lead to totalitarianism (Hitler's Germany is an example of a totalitarian regime).

Democrats want their plan, and only their plan. They are unwilling to compromise on anything. This all comes from a set of misguided ideals that come straight from the pages of all the socialist writings of the past. Lets look at an example; health care. In the United States today, we have many health care providers, such as Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Kaiser Peramanente, etc, etc. These are all private companies that through their service, make profit. Now, most people will get health care provided for them through their place of employment at a reduced cost that is deducted out of their pay check. Others have to get it by purchasing it themselves, which is more expensive, but still better than having none at all. The Democrats do not like this, and have said as much. They would rather have a national, socialized health care system where people don't have to pay for it, but it is a right that they have. There is no competition, and no incentive to good health care. And it is all placed under one head, so there will be more bureaucracy for people to have to go through just so they can see the doctor or have a procedure done. If the plan isn't adequate, one can't just drop one provider and get another, because the government will have done away with all other providers, and its one or none. And this doesn't even begin to describe the problems that will develop. Just look at Great Britain and other countries with nationalized health care, and you will begin to see the problems that America would face if they instituted it.

Democrats do not want freedom of enterprise, which is one of the basic tenets of true liberalism. This is something that the Founding Fathers fought for; our Founders who were true liberals. England wanted them to trade with England and only England, even if one could have gotten a better deal on say, tobacco, if they shipped it to France. England controlled the market and no freedom was allowed when it came to trade. The colonists got fed up with this and they revolted and created a system that allowed them to trade with whomever they wanted (though it did take awhile for that to come to fruition, it did happen). Democrats have a plan for everything, and what they say is apparently for the good of all. Or so they say.

What we must realize is that what is good for one person is not good for everyone. A basic truth of true liberalism is that we are free to make our own path for our lives, and nobody but us can tell us that we can or can't do it, unless of course, it goes against the law or is in some way harmful to others or restricts their freedom. Democrats do not want this. They are increasingly telling us more and more that we can't do this, or we can't do that. We can't smoke in public anymore, and there are some are trying to pass laws that say you can't smoke in your home either. They are telling us what kind of cars we must drive, and that we are killing our environment when we drive cars that run on gas. There are a plethora of things they are telling us we can and cannot do, and that is not what liberalism is about. That is socialism, my friends, and if we allow the Democrats to take us down that road, it is a slippery slope that we will not be able to easily climb back up.

To close this rather lengthy passage, we must resist. We must know what we must truly stand for, and, as crazy as that sounds, it is liberalism. It is the one and only true liberalism that this country was founded upon, and not the so called liberalism of the socialist left. I will recommend one thing to you. If you have the time, go and pick up three books. First, read John Locke's Second Treatise on Government. Then go and pick up John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. And finally, pick up F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. These three books will show you what true liberalism is, what government is supposed to do for society and how it is to go about it, and finally the dangers of socialism. I know they get dry, but they are important, and you will be glad you did, because then you can refute any socialist Democrat who tries to tell you you are wrong. Good luck, and good reading!