“Unless the people, through unified action, arise and take charge of their government, they will find that their government has taken charge of them. Independence and liberty will be gone, and the general public will find itself in a condition of servitude to an aggregation of organized and selfish interest."
Calvin Coolidge
Our system of government in America draws its authority from the consent of the people. It was not handed down by a governing body and imposed upon the people. Now, some will say the Constitution was essentially written by a committee and presented as a fait accompli to the states, not directly to the people, and thus imposed from the top down.
That ratification voting was done by state legislatures does not take away the will of the people. State legislatures of the day, Virginia is a good example, saw themselves as a shield of the people against potential federal tyranny. When leading Virginians corresponded during the ratification convention, they referred to their homeland not as their state, but as their country—an entity distinct and separate from the federal government whose overreach they feared.
Men like Patrick Henry, George Mason. and Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee III adamantly opposed ratification until the Constitution was amended to provide protection to the people and the individual countries (states) joining the union. Thus, the present-day Tenth Amendment limits the federal government to the delegated powers outlined in the Constitution and reserves all other powers to the states and people.
The state representatives in the legislatures were as close to the people as representatives could get and as such as responsive to their constituents as elected men might be. As recent subjects of a king, these representatives were zealous in the preservation of personal liberty.
American colonists were unhappy that they had no representation in Parliament. The reason given for denying representation was that the members of Parliament represented all British subjects. That sounds very much like the present members of Congress who turn a deaf ear to their district “for the good of all”.
Your representatives in Congress are to be the voice of the people of your district, not the entire country. Your Senator is the voice of your state, not the fifty states. Neither is meant to be the voice of a political party. If they are not faithfully representing the people who sent them to Washington, they need to go and go quickly.
The abysmal failure of modern red state governments in mounting a defense of personal liberty is appalling. Democrat-led blue states have successfully engineered nullification of federal law in agreement with their liberal constituents. Republicans and Independents need to be asking where their representatives are.
For good or ill, local and state governments are our best means of united action and the place for the people to take charge in order to effect change. We the People must come together once more in the face of tyranny and take the actions necessary to take charge of the government—up to and including revolution.
It starts at home. Federal lackeys in governor’s mansions must go. The good ole boys and girls making a living in statehouses and Congress must be held accountable for every vote and questioned constantly.
Public outcries can be ignored for a season, but new elections are always just around the corner. This has failed on a national scale but is still possible on state and local levels. Certainly, the decision to take charge or bow down takes place at the source of government—the spirit of the people.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
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