So How Do We Fix Our Government?

[Clete]

Our forefathers, who were children of the Enlightment, envisioned a republic free of kings and governed by a democratic process. Unfortunately, like the ancient Greeks before them, democracy did not extend to all who resided within those countries.

The framers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution allowed only the literate landholding males of European extraction the exclusive privilege of voting and holding public office. In the centuries that followed, things improved. We freed the slaves. We empowered them and women to vote. We welcomed immigrants to our shores as potential new citizens. We moved closer to a more inclusive democracy for all. So why have things gone so wrong?

In our efforts to create the greatest economic and industrial nation ever known in the history of the world, we have lost our purpose as stated in the body of the Declaration of Independence:

“—We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—“

It is also stated in the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Nowhere is it mentioned that the ends justifies the means, that special corporate interests override the interests of the individual, and that party politics should rule government policy to the detriment of the populace, the environment and even ordinary common sense.

It has become crystal clear that those in power in the highest offices of the land have abandoned their obligation to work the welfare of the people of the United States and their duty to strive for world peace. If they continue on their destructive path, our Constitution will soon lay in tatters under our feet to be used as a doormat by the new uncrowned leaders, who are setting themselves up as kings in everything but name.

So, this brings me to the question of how will we take back our government? After what has happened in the last two years, we the people can’t afford to allow the drain of our personal freedoms and prosperity to continue or we may no longer find the nation, founded in the spirit of 1776, to exist. Vote for what you think is the best solution to our national dilemma.

[indepat]

1. For the government of the people, by the people, and for the people

to be fixed, first the people, or at least sufficient numbers of them, must be fixed.