“… That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…”
- The Declaration of Independence
Americans by their nature are patient and they are also optimistic. We bob and weave through life’s frustrations, the good times and the difficult. Uncertainty goes with the territory, but etched in our DNA is a faith that regardless of the curve balls thrown at us – natural disasters, economic hardships, or war – America and Americans will not only get through it, but we’ll be better on the back side of any challenge that we face.
We know there are some rules in life that everybody has to follow, but we sure like our independence and to be left alone. Americans are tolerant of a lot, but if pushed far enough they’ll push back – especially when core principle is involved.
King George III pushed our Founders beyond the breaking point, and they risked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to establish a government that derived its “just powers from the Consent of the Governed” – a unique moment in history.
We went to war with ourselves less than a hundred years later to preserve rather than destroy the union of that “nation so conceived” and to rid America of the scourge of slavery.
Although it wasn’t “our” war, we came to the aid of our friends in World War I and kept the light of freedom burning. The Great Depression tested our fabric and changed government in America forever. Still, we came through it stronger, wiser, more determined, and with a greater role as the world’s greatest advocate and protector of Freedom.
Too patient for too long, America tolerated the evil of the Nazis and their allies, wanting to believe the war was “over there” and that evil could be ignored as somebody else’s problem. But, when evil decided to hit us at Pearl Harbor, America struck back with an insurmountable force and determination.
We’ve made our mistakes, for sure. However, as Winston Churchill observed, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.” But, America always has found a way to get through the hard times and be the better for it. Often as not, countless millions around the world also benefit from what we call “American Exceptionalism” They end up healthier, wealthier, safer, freer.
Today it seems different. For the first time ever in our history, parents doubt that their children are really going to have it better than they did. They see the once omnipotent United States completely impotent at stopping a madman named Ahmadinejad from acquiring a nuclear bomb in Iran. They hear an American President apologize for America’s sins and transgressions, claiming that to secure our border is too big of a job for America to accomplish and that no nation, including America, is or should be superior to any other nation in the world.
They see private industry seized, boards of directors removed, and secured creditor’s rights vanquished.
Navy Seals are put on trial for capturing a terrorist, while lawyers that voluntarily defend terrorists are given jobs at the Department of Justice.
They see Congress pass legislation against the will of the people, and are told by the Speaker of the House that they are too stupid to know better. “We have to pass it, so you can find out what’s in it.”
They see a Democrat majority elected on a promise to end “deficits as far as the eye can see” implement spending policies that have tripled the previous largest deficit in history with absolutely no end in sight of the increased debt which our own government accountants warn is “unsustainable.”
They see $800 billion of economic stimulus that doesn’t stimulate, and 15 million Americans out of work. Two out of three Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and that the economic hole we are in is going to get even deeper. The folks back home know the policies aren’t working, but the President says all is well and Congress presses forward with more of the same.
Arizonans duly elected their representatives, and those representatives out of frustration with the incompetence of the federal government, passed laws to protect the lives, property, and right to peaceful existence of their citizens. Their action is overwhelmingly supported by Arizona citizens – and a huge majority of Americans - but the federal government sues the state – and wins!
A lone judge in California, changes the definition of marriage that has existed since the Garden of Eden and was confirmed through Proposition 8 by 7 million Californians. In his findings, the judge essentially says the only reason for the traditional definition of marriage is a myth perpetrated by religiously zealot homophobes.
Once again America’s patience is being tested. For the first time in our history, Congress has passed legislation that imposes a tax for NOT buying something (health insurance). TARP was supposed to purchase the “toxic” mortgage backed securities to clean up banks’ balance sheets, but in the blink of an eye it was being used to take ownership positions in banks – and auto companies. Congress can’t seem to muster the votes to pass the President’s prize Cap-and-Trade legislation, so the EPA just implements it by regulation. And then when congress can’t pass a “comprehensive” immigration reform bill – they say not a problem, they’ll just provide amnesty with a “non-legislative solution.”
Nearly half of the state attorneys general are suing the government claiming the ObamaCare mandate is a constitutional breach. Numerous governors, state legislatures, and citizen initiatives are pushing back as well. In Missouri, 71 percent of voters supported an opt-out ballot referendum.
The groundswell of anger directed at this President and Congressional Leadership hasn’t gone unnoticed. Obama’s public opinion approval rating has plummeted downward over his first year in office from a margin of +44 in January, 2009 to a -5 approval rating today. Americans disapprove of the job the Democrat led congress is doing by a staggering 72:20 margin.
Giving voice to the people, Charles Krauthammer says,” this is not how a constitutional democracy should operate.” Further, Krauthammer blasts the “lawlessness” of this Administration for the rogue disregard of the Constitution and Separation of Powers doctrine.
“People are asking, ‘Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?’” according to Ernest Christian and Gary Robbins, veterans of the Treasury Department in the Ford and Reagan Administrations respectively. They say that the biggest problem is the “imperial presidency,” and wonder aloud if the unrest may lead to a “Second Revolution.”
Peggy Noonan, the Reagan speech writer and Wall Street Journal columnist, thinks America is “at risk of boiling over.” The Obama Administration, she says, continually manages to “keep things at a high boil. And this at a time when people are already in about as much hot water as they can take.”
Americans aren’t just worried. They are afraid. Frightened for the America that once was, the America our ancestors sacrificed for, and so many died for. They see the lights dimming in the “shining city on a hill”, and they want to reverse course.
Americans feel violated. Our soul is being attacked. Our dignity abused. The closest thing to a national religion is our reverence for the Constitution and our Heritage, and we see sacrilege being committed against it.
What is happening feels dirty, vile, and obscene. Our principles, values, and traditions are being assaulted. Our government is arrogant to the point of a flaunting disregard of any thought of “the consent of the governed.”
In Federalist #45 James Madison wrote, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” Madison, our 4th President and “Father of the Constitution” cannot be resting comfortably these days.
Instead of a sacred reverence for the Constitution, Barack Obama laments the sacred document as a “charter of negative liberties” and has already put two Justices on the Supreme Court committed to relieving him of the “essential constraints” that were quite intentionally placed on government by the Madison and the Founding Fathers. They understood that a federal government with expansive, coercive power was the greatest threat to individual liberty and they devised a series of check and balances to protect the individual liberty of “We the People” for a coercive government.
The “transformational” agenda of the current leadership is awakening the usually silent, accepting, tolerant giant. The American people are backed into a corner again – we’ve just about tried everything else, as Churchill said. It’s time to do the right thing.
Americans want their honor restored; they want to feel proud again; to trust that the American Dream lives on. It’s time to once again strike a blow for Freedom.
