reprinted from July 8, 2004

  Every morning, I check a variety of new stories, mostly political. It's getting to be damned depressing. Whoever claimed that "Ignorance is Bliss" must have been doing something similar. I suspect that most Americans have adopted that slogan in relation to politics. If I'm right, they're certainly not reading No Force, No Fraud, so I won't bother ragging on them.

To those of you who ARE still undertaking the grievous, depressing, frustrating task of paying attention to American politics, here are some thoughts and questions:

During the current administration's reign, government has reached a peak in unconstitutional activity. It's a peak... perhaps not the highest peak in our history, but a peak that is likely to serve as precedent for a continuation of unconstitutional activity. I think it's clear that Abraham Lincoln first, and then Franklin Delano Roosevelt were the most villainous in attacks on our Constitution. Many writers have claimed that every one of the Bill of Rights has been raped to the point of being meaningless... and I can't argue with them.

What I think is far more important than understanding how badly we've been violated is the question of what we can do about it.

Let me remind all of us that this nation was, without question, fought for and established as a nation of the people. We must not ever forget that our predecessors... those responsible for making this nation possible, took great personal risks and endured conditions that are difficult for us to even imagine. Despite all that has gone wrong since then, America is a powerful, relatively free nation only because it was given a great beginning. Recall also that those who fought our Revolutionary War were not just fighting the most powerful government on earth, they were fighting their own government.

Those colonists were not so different from us... they were people from a variety of occupations, with families, responsibilities, and dreams for the future. They, like us, hoped for nothing more than the chance to live and work to build a future for themselves. In the colonies of America, they had the freedom of being distant from the seat and direct control of their own government. Naturally, that government became greedy... envious and wanting a piece of what the colonists were building.

It took surprisingly little disagreement with the British government to arouse the colonists and inflame enough escalation to result in the Revolutionary War. Our Declaration of Independence, the war, and the subsequent establishment of the United States of America inspired people around the globe who felt oppressed by their own government. Until that point in history, people had been subjects of their government, but this new nation demanded that government would instead be the subject of the people.

Such is our heritage. It's one that should make us swell with pride, and it does, I think, carry a responsibility for each of us.

I don't know how any American can justify simply watching as our government continues to swell like a massive, smothering toxic cloud, picking us off one at a time until the only remaining citizens will be those who refuse to notice, those who are too afraid to rock the boat, and those who have become complicit insiders.

The time has come for each of us to take action... to take our nation's plight seriously... to become politically active in some serious way... to do our part.

As I've said so many times, the simplest action is to emphatically reject the two political parties who have, for many decades, stolen our earnings and used that money to increase government's power against us. We must break the stranglehold those two parties have on our nation. All it takes is rejecting their lies and voting to send a message.

That very simple action is a good start, and it's possible that if enough voters do it, it will start a powerful trend. Remember, over half of eligible voters don't vote. A lot of those absent voters are young people who will inherit this mess, but who have little hope that they can affect it. If we can rouse enough voters, show them a hope that this vicious cycle can be broken, we can, at the very least, demonstrate that Americans can no longer be taken for granted... that there is a limit to how far we can be pushed before we push back.

I call on everyone reading this to vote in November, and to vote for none of the Democrats or Republicans. It's the only message that will be understood and meaningful. Further, I urge each of you to convince your friends and neighbors to do the same.

Here's a little support and encouragement from Thomas Jefferson:

"All authority belongs to the people"

"Every generation needs a new revolution"

It's time for a political revolution... we're long past due, and the consequences are obvious.