-By Frank Salvato
I have long said that we, the citizens of the United States, must demand good government over politics from our elected officials. The need for this demand has grown exponentially over the past four decades. While We the People were pre-occupied with the trappings of the self-centered 1960s, the self-absorption of the 1970s, the greed culture of the 1980s and the falsely elevated self-esteem culture of the 1990s, political opportunists and special interest operatives, cloaked in the façade of public service, quietly took control of our federal government. Now we are paying the price of cronyism politics over good government.
The Founders and the Framers conceived of and created our Constitutional Republic with the understanding that every American citizen would cherish the Charters of Freedom – The Declaration of Independence, The US Constitution and The Bill of Rights – as a contract, a covenant between citizen and government. In keeping up our end of the contract, the Framers took for granted that we would work to be constitutionally literate while providing governmental oversight. It never occurred to them that we would abdicate our responsibility to liberty, to freedom, the gifts they fought a Revolutionary War to attain for themselves, for us and for future generations of free Americans. It never occurred to them that those who would be bequeathed liberty and freedom would ignore their maintenance in deference to a culture of narcissism.
Today, looking upon what our government has become – a gaggle of political opportunists, special interest courtesans and revolutionary neo-Marxists – the Founders, Framers and revolutionaries would have to wonder if it was all worth their sacrifices and the sacrifices made by their families.
An unknown author, as cited by the BethlehemPA.com, website observes:
“What happened to the signers of the Declaration of Independence?
“Five signers were captured by the British and brutally tortured as traitors. Nine fought in the War for Independence and died from wounds or from hardships they suffered. Two lost their sons in the Continental Army. Another two had sons captured. At least a dozen of the fifty-six had their homes pillaged and burned.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-five were lawyers or jurists. Eleven were merchants. Nine were farmers or large plantation owners. One was a teacher, one a musician, and one a printer. These were men of means and education, yet they signed the Declaration of Independence, knowing full well that the penalty could be death if they were captured.”
It begs to be asked, would we of this generation have had the courage to enter into such a harrowing reality? Judging from the number of American citizens who routinely exclaim that they are “apolitical” or “too busy with their personal lives to find time to spend on politics” I would have to answer no. This is not to say that there aren’t a significant number of American citizens who are engaged or that all elected officials in Washington DC are delinquent in their duties. In fact, with the advent of the Tea Party Movement, the creation of Capitol Hill groups dedicated to sovereignty and the Constitution, and more and more people wanting to find out “what they can do” to – as Glenn Beck would say – “re-found” our nation, I believe there is hope for our Constitutional Republic. Still, until we can achieve a politically educated electorate and voter turnouts that exceed those of Iraq and Afghanistan we shouldn’t break our arms patting ourselves on the back.
There are two passages from two of the Charters of Freedom that are universally recognizable for their brilliance and truth. From 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.”
And from the US Constitution:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
These two passages define the essence of Americanism. They outline the truths we believe in and what we, as a nation, hope to achieve through our government. Today, these tenets of Americanism are in disrepair:
- While the politically correct among us screech about racism and discrimination, laws meant to have sunset the likes of affirmative action punish one group of people in retribution for evils committed by generations past.
- With much of the proposed legislation – in particular the proposed healthcare legislation – we face the very real possibility of diminishing existing healthcare opportunities for the productive, even to the point of rationing treatment due to budgetary constraints, to redistribute the benefits of taxpayer revenue to the unproductive.
- In the cultural embrace of political correctness we have witnessed the institution of a shadow set of unlegislated laws that usurp the unalienable right of Liberty to all, in deference to special interest groups.
- Our currently seated president – who has been quoted as saying that our Constitution is fundamentally flawed – and his administration quest for “social justice” instead of “justice for all,” as many among them strive to achieve “fundamental change” while achieving the antithesis of “domestic tranquility.”
- And while the neo-Marxists in Washington mistake the “general Welfare” for social welfare, the anti-capitalists are achieving the degradation of our “prosperity.”
With healthcare legislation looming, which promises to see government’s further encroachment into the private sector, and two even more explosive issues in immigration reform and energy legislation (Cap & Trade) coming down the pike, it is time for all good men and women to engage our elected officials in defense of our Charters of Freedom; in defense of Americanism. It is time to make time.
If you are still unmoved to embrace your civic responsibility, ask yourself these questions:
Have we – each and every one of us who exist under the protection of those who serve in defense of our country in their expenditure of blood and treasure, have we embraced our obligation to freedom and liberty so that our children and their children would have the opportunity to maintain and defend these generational gifts for their children?
Have we made time to understand who serves (if that is even the correct notion anymore) in our federal government?
Are we making time to comprehend, not only the legislation being crafted by Congress but the ramifications of said legislation for our generation and the next?
Have we done all we can to live up to our obligations so that the Preambles to the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution still mean something?
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
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Frank Salvato is the managing editor for The New Media Journal . He serves at the Executive Director of the Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(C)(3) research and education initiative. His pieces are regularly featured in over 100 publications both nationally and internationally. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, and is a regular guest on The Right Balance with Greg Allen on the Accent Radio Network, as well as an occasional guest on numerous radio shows coast to coast. He recently partnered in producing the first-ever symposium on the threat of radical Islamist terrorism in Washington, DC. His pieces have been recognized by the House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict. He can be contacted at oped@newmediajournal.us
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