Recently someone posted a quote to my blog that I found interesting. I don’t know who the author is, but whoever it is, they captured the essence of what is wrong in this country.

The quote is 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 don’t know how the author of that quote feels, but I could just as easily replace Obama’s name with either Bush or Clinton and the rest of the quote would apply as well.

People these days are angry at their government. Statistics show that the approval ratings of our elected representatives are at an all time low. There are some who believe that if we could just get rid of all the incumbents then things would return to normal, and everything would once again be just fine in America.

People want things to change. Maybe that is why Obama succeeded, because he offered them change. The problem is that far too many people don’t understand how our system of government was supposed to work. They are under the impression that governments are instituted to take care of our every need.

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.

In 1775, Thomas Jefferson and John Dickerson co-wrote the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. In that treatise they stated, “…our attachment to no nation upon earth should supplant our attachment to liberty.”

The way I read that, no nation would include my own as well. That does not mean I hate my country, far from it. What it means is that my attachment to liberty is more important to me than whatever sentiments I have for my country.

If people would take the time to read the writings of our founders, they could not help but find 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 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.

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 following, “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 you to find one elected official currently occupying a seat in our government, or in any of the political parties from which they come, who that can be said about. I defy you to provide me with one name a member of Congress who believes that the purpose of government is to leave us alone to do as we please without some regulation or form of taxation upon our activities.

You can’t do it, can you? Besides, the concept that people should be free to do as they please sounds pretty radical to you, doesn’t it? Yet that is exactly what our founders intended when they created our system of government.

Thomas Jefferson stated if simply when he wrote, “The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.”

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 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 what we have today and you cannot help but conclude that our government is no longer one which protects 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.”

So, in returning to the quote which began this article, yes the problem in this country does not lie with those we elect, it lies with our lack of understanding as to the purpose of government.

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, or cancer, that has been done may be too extensive for any change made in our nation’s capital for it to be repairable.

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

The people of this country were too occupied in their own little worlds, seeking entertainment and self gratification. John Adams once wrote about that 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.”

Well, here we are, facing crisis after crisis, all the while looking to those who caused these crises to solve them. 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.

Our ignorance, and our apathy, are the ONLY things upon which the blame may be placed. As long as we seek 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.”

Often people say that there is a storm on the horizon when they are predicting rough times ahead. I too see that storm coming, and I dread what that storm is bringing to this country.

In the meantime, all I can do is prepare for that storm, and continue to cry out to warn people. It will be up to them to either listen, or disregard my warnings. And if you choose to disregard the warnings, just think back to what happened in New Orleans when people refused to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina struck. They had plenty of warning, but they were still caught unprepared when it hit. It is my sincere hope that you won’t be caught unprepared.

~ The Author ~
Neal Ross can be reached for comments at bonsai@syix.com. Visit Neal’s Blog at http://www.zombie-slayer.com/neal