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.
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