by Kerry Thomas
June 23, 2010
As America prepares to celebrate Independence Day, it is
only fitting that we take a moment to review that historic document we call the
Declaration
of Independence.
I admit, even as a political junkie, not even I have
memorized the whole of the Declaration.
But I do have some favorite passages that seem to me to be even more poignant
and relevant today than they were in 1776.
“We hold these Truths to
be self-evident, that all Men are created equal….” It would be refreshing if our Congress embraced this belief in the
equality of all. We should not have separate
laws for special classes of Citizens, based on differences in race or income. Laws which grant special privileges to one
class of Citizens over another are inherently wrong, and violate the very
essence of our founding principles.
“…they are endowed by their Creator….” Our Rights come from God, not from the
government. This same principle is codified
into law in our Constitution,
in which We, the People, grant certain specific limited powers to our
government. As the Tenth
Amendment so clearly states, “The
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
“…deriving their just
Powers from the Consent of the Governed.”
Right or wrong, We, the People, expect those who govern us to exercise
their limited Constitutional powers in such a way so as not to force us to submit
to unjust laws. Can you say
ObamaCare? How many different ways did
Americans say we did not want this legislation forced into law, a new law which
the majority of us strongly disagree with?
“…whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it….” Our form of government, a republic, is sound; those whom we have chosen to govern our Republic are the problem.
“All Experience hath shewn
that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.” Indeed.
“When a long Train of
Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design
to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty,
to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
Security.”
A long train of abuses, designed to reduce us
under absolute despotism? Hmm, let’s
see. The liberals Democrats controlling
Congress have forced the American Taxpayers to pay for the $700 Billion TARP
program, the $787 Billion “stimulus” program, the cash for clunkers program,
and the cap-n-tax energy program and ObamaCare, the costs of both of which are
literally incalculable. We have a tax
code no one can understand. We have a
President issuing Executive Orders which have no basis in law. We have witnessed this administration
confiscating private property without due process of law, nationalizing one
major industry after another, while a compliant Congress acquiesces to such
unconstitutional acts of despotism.
I’m not advocating a bloody revolution. But I have been writing for the last couple
years about the New American Revolution in which we find ourselves. One by one, Americans are waking up to the fact
that our great Republic has been betrayed by the very people who swore an oath
to support and defend our Constitution.
We’ve elected career politicians over and over again who are more
interested in the next election than in defending the Constitution. They play their political games, going along
to get along. The lobbyists in
Washington have gotten rich selling backscratchers to Members of Congress.
It’s time we return to a Republic governed by
Citizen legislators, not career politicians.
The men who signed the Declaration were men of
honour, ordinary citizens who had had enough of the despotic rule of an
unelected monarch. The Declaration
itself was and is a document of honour, which states “a
decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the
Causes which impel them to the Separation.”
“We mutually pledge to each other our
Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour.”
Imagine if the Members of Congress were required to pledge such an oath
today.