I too see a storm on the horizon, and from the looks of things, I fear what it may bring to our nation. However, the storm I see is not one brought about by nature, rather a storm of political, social and civil nature.

I see it coming, yet I seem to be able to do nothing to stop it. I feel as though I am sitting on a beach, watching a tidal wave approaching, knowing that it will bring devastation with it, yet powerless to prevent it.

The thing is, unlike storms generated by nature, this storm could have been prevented. In response to my last article, someone posted a quote to my blog which, for me, captures the essence of what is wrong with this country.

The quote reads as follows, “The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”

I cannot be sure if the author of that quote intended it to apply solely to those who support Barack Obama, but as for me, I could quite easily have exchanged his name for Bush or Clinton and the quote would have applied equally as well.

If you have been paying any attention at all to what has been going on, you cannot help but see that people are angry and frustrated with their government. Statistics show the approval ratings of our elected representatives are at an all time low.

Unfortunately, there remain far too many who believe that we can fix all our nation’s problems at the voting booth. They believe that if we could just vote out all the incumbents then things would return to normal, and everything would once again be just fine in America.

People are fed up with the status quo, they want things to change in our nation‘s capital. Maybe that is why Obama succeeded, because of his promise for “change we can believe in”.

The problem today is that the majority of Americans vote based not upon facts, but upon emotional responses to issues that are important to them. People are under the misconception that government is there to solve all their problems and to ensure everyone gets the same chance at success as everyone else.

If they had taken the time to read, and understand the intent, of our founding documents, they would realize that they couldn’t be further from the truth. The purpose of government, as written in our Declaration of Independence, is, “…to secure these rights…” It was for their liberty and their rights that our founders went to war with to regain.

No where in our founding documents, or in the writings of the founders, is it mentioned that government was instituted to ensure that everyone succeeds in life. In fact, Ben Franklin clearly stated, “The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”

I often get the impression that people think I hate this country. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, I value my rights above my loyalty to any political party, or the will of the people as imposed upon me by those elected to represent the people.

In a letter to her husband John, Abigail Adams once wrote, “I have sometimes been ready to think that the passion for Liberty cannot be Equally Strong in the breasts of those who have been accustomed to deprive their fellow creatures of theirs.”

Two months later, John Adams wrote the following in a letter to James Sullivan, “It is certain in Theory, that the only moral Foundation of Government is the Consent of the People. But to what an Extent Shall We carry this Principle? Shall We Say, that every Individual of the Community, old and young, male and female, as well as rich and poor, must consent, expressly to every Act of Legislation? No, you will Say. This is impossible. How then does the Right arise in the Majority to govern the Minority, against their Will?”

It is my belief, and I find myself in a minority, that the government has no right, nor legal power to deprive me of my God-given rights. Nor do I feel attachment, nor loyalty, to a government that does so.

In 1775, Thomas Jefferson and John Dickerson expressed the same sentiment, found in the following quote from the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, “…our attachment to no nation upon earth should supplant our attachment to liberty.”

Our problems exists because we have strayed from the principles which form the foundation for our system of government. If people would just take some time, and read the writings of our founders, they could not help but notice the word liberty used quite frequently throughout those writings. Today, liberty is just another word that people use, without knowing what it truly means.

The people of this country are too occupied in their own little worlds, seeking entertainment and self gratification. John Adams once wrote about this in a letter to his wife, Abigail, “Whenever vanity and gaiety, a love of pomp and dress, furniture, equipage, buildings, great company, expensive diversions and elegant entertainments get the better of the principles and judgments of men or women, there is no knowing where they will stop, nor into what evils, natural, moral or political they will lead us.”

Liberty and rights are words that are tossed about without people understanding what they truly mean. The dictionary defines liberty as the freedom to think or act without being constrained by necessity or force.

In 1859 John Stuart Mill wrote an essay entitled, On Liberty. In his work, Mill asserted that the only valid restrictions upon the rights of individuals were those that protected the rights of others.

Our founders understood these principles as they had read extensively about politics and philosophy.

In 1783, as George Washington was about to relinquish command of the Continental Army, and begin the retirement he so looked forward to, he wrote a Circular to the State Governments.

From that document I quote, “The foundation of our empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epocha when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period; the researches of the human mind, after social happiness, have been carried to a great extent; the Treasures of knowledge, acquired through a long succession of years, by the labors of Philosophers, Sages and Legislatures, are laid open for our use, and their collected wisdom may be happily applied in the Establishment of our forms of Government…”

I defy anyone to find one elected official currently occupying a seat in our government, or in any of the political parties from whence they come, who that could be said about.

I defy anyone to provide me with one name of one member of Congress who, has shown by their actions, believes that the purpose of government is to leave us alone to do as we please without a dozen regulations or some form of taxation upon our activities.

You can’t do it, because there aren’t any. That concept is repulsive to government because their desire is to control every aspect of our lives. However, Congress is not alone in that aspect. Many people in this country find the concept of people being free to do as they please radical.

However, that is exactly what Thomas Jefferson meant when he wrote, “The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.”

Jefferson was not alone. Our fourth President, James Madison, wrote, “The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.”

Once again, from George Washington’s Circular to the State Governments, I quote, “These are the Pillars on which the glorious Fabric of our Independency and National Character must be supported; Liberty is the Basis, and whoever would dare to sap the foundation, or overturn the Structure, under whatever specious pretexts he may attempt it, will merit the bitterest execration, and the severest punishment which can be inflicted by his injured Country.”

After reading the preceding quotes, one cannot deny that the protection of our rights and our liberty were the primary reason our founders established our system of government.

Yet compare that vision to our government today and you cannot help but conclude that our government is no longer cares about protecting the rights of the individual.

We are controlled and regulated, given just enough freedom to think that we are free. Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe once wrote, “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” He could have been quoting directly to Americans today.

So, in returning to the quote which began this article, our problems are created by those whom we elect to represent us. But who are those officials ultimately accountable to? We the people. If we the people elect fools, it is because we choose our representatives foolishly.

As long as people look for government to enact new laws to ‘fix’ things in this country, then we will continue to see things get worse. With each new law that is passed, our government adds another link to the chains that bind you to them as slaves.

As Jefferson said, “Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate and systematical plan of reducing us to slavery.”
I honestly don’t know if we can save this country from the damage that has been done to it. The damage done, the cancer that has spread throughout government, may be too extensive for us to repair by simply voting out all incumbents.

I am a relative newcomer to the political arena, but there are others who have been fighting this battle for decades. They have cried out for people to wake up and listen before it is too late. Their voices have consistently fallen upon deaf ears.

So, here we sit, facing crisis after crisis, all the while looking to those who caused these crises to solve them for us. All the while those who have been trying to warn you of the real problem are labeled as radicals, extremists, mad dog militia members, and even domestic terrorists.

The very same thing happened over two hundred years ago in the Declaration and the Causes of the Necessity of Taking Up Arms, “The general, further emulating his ministerial masters, by a proclamation bearing date on the 12th day of June, after venting the grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of these colonies, proceeds to “declare them all, either by name or description, to be rebels and traitors, to supercede the course of the common law, and instead thereof to publish and order the use and exercise of the law martial.”

Yet their love of liberty was of more importance to them than life itself. They held fast to their beliefs, and the result was that we were given the birthright of being born in a country where our liberties and our rights were the foundation upon which our government was built.

They believed, as do a few of us today, that “We are reduced to the alternative of chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. — The latter is our choice. — We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. — Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.”

The ignorance and apathy of the American people, is the ONLY place upon which the blame may be placed. As long as we continue to seek out leaders to solve our problems, our problems will continue. It is only when government stops meddling in areas it was never intended they meddle, that our nation can stand a chance of recovering.

As much as I pray for the people to realize this simple principle, I am not holding my breath for it to happen. As William Lloyd Garrison once wrote, “The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.”