Posted by
John Fricke on Monday, December 21, 2009 5:13:55 PM
A Patriots Campaign Speech.
This great nation is so young there have only been a dozen or so generations since it's founding. Just a dozen or so. We now find ourselves seeking stable footing from which we can live up to the promises laid out by the first generation of those that could call themselves “Americans“. Of Washington and Jefferson. Of Franklin and Madison. Of all those who committed their personal honor and fortune to the establishment of the freedoms we enjoy in spending and using our lives in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness.
Declaring our national independence did not, does not, simply refer to being able to make our own laws and determine our own course. It meant more than that because of the way we went about it. Had we fought a war of independence from the British crown only to establish our own crown - that would have been one thing. We did not. We fought to open a new kind of society that would extend liberty to all. To limit government intrusion, to secure the rights of the free people of the nation above all else.
Those first principles are, at this moment in our American history, in direct danger.
Since there was no template, no map on how to create this kind of society, we surely would, and did, make mistakes in that quest. Some of those mistakes were serious. One of them serious enough to ignite a horrific civil war that nearly tore the experiment apart. Another failure ,eighty some years thereafter, that created tremendous internal strife. A nation of the founders and of those in defense, of Lincoln and King and the soldiers of Americas armies.
Once more the battle for the soul and direction of this nation is upon us. This time we fight not with bullets, but with ballots.
We must stand firm in our knowledge of what was expected of us should this situation arise again. One where an issue, really a single issue, threatened to rip out the core of the union. This time that threat is the growth of nearly unchecked power of our central government. This is what we fought against in creating this nation. Against a central government that would have the authority to tell individuals how to live their lives in so many varied ways as to own control over the most basic choices of that individual. A central government that would create, for itself, the power(s) to dictate whether an individual was at liberty to choose freedom.
We know from history that freedom is not an easy thing. It requires effort. It requires responsibility. Sometimes it requires an ultimate sacrifice in blood and treasure. It also demands dogged determination on the part of all who support it to defend it.
Right now, again, we are being called in that defense. Not from a foreign threat, but from ourselves. A lazy and selfish view of what it means to have and defend liberty. A nation that currently does not hold truths to be self-evident. Worse by some currently in power who hold those truths in contempt.
We propose to offer a renewed Declaration of Independence. One, in writing, that commits us to the core principles of this grand experiment called America.
Therefore:
To insure liberty and freedom among all Americans;
We stand not just in honor of, but in direct actionable support of those that gave us the land, liberty, ability to secure and documents to support the cause of “unalienable” rights.
We immediately seek to reduce the scope, size and power(s) of the central Federal government. Whereas the Federal government has attached to itself powers not intended by the founding of this nation we seek to not just limit those powers but to ,in fact and action, strip them. To reduce the scope, size and power(s) of the Federal government by at least 75 (seventy-five) percent of what it is currently. To not just halt the growth but to, in fact, reverse it.
We resolve for original intent. To put Federal government in charge of what it was intended for. To raise armies in defense of this nation, to negotiate internationally on behalf of all the peoples of the individual states and to regulate between those individual states.
To limit the expansion of Federal powers from the gross intrusions created by the Judicial branch. A branch that has become unequal in finding rights that do not exist and powers that are misused. To reduce the ability of the Federal government to intrude into such areas as unbridled eminent domain, punishing penalties under the guise of the commerce clause, and warrantless actions against individual American citizens.
Further we seek to establish again a balance of power. To allow the people to have the final say, not the courts. To enact laws that clarify the limits of judicial power and to halt the end run of using the judiciary to rule in favor of itself to grant itself the power to override the will and desire of the people of this country.
We seek to place the power of the purse back into the hands of the people. To eliminate unfair taxation. More specifically to eradicate the current Federal tax system in whole and replace it with a new system, one that does not include a regressive income tax, a punitive gains tax, or a punishing estate tax that is wholly unconstitutional in its aims to deprive families of a large portion of what their heirs worked to build.
In addition we seek to pass a law to eliminate the appropriations committee of the Federal government and to outlaw all non-essential Federal spending. To limit Federal spending solely to defense of the nation, to fulfill it's current direct standing obligations to the people and its own internal budget; an internal budget which shall be reduced immediately by a minimum of 90% (ninety) of current levels.
We seek to eliminate Federal control through damaging regulation and fiat in areas to include, among others, education and health. To allow education to return to local hands where school choice and oversight are handled to the benefit of the community and its future. To ensure that personal decisions about an individuals health are made by that individual and not by governmental decree.
Whereas this nation was founded on the concept of "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people" we intend to enforce this Constitutional provision. To return to the states and the people that power.
To ensure all Americans are treated equally we must solidify in writing the rights of free people to equality of access and opportunity and to eliminate government encroachment to establish a false equality of outcome. That seeking equality of outcome is the single most anti-American concept ripping through the American electorate at this time. A concept, and actions towards it, that stands so opposed to liberty as to rise to the level of treason against the first principles of this nation.
To further ensure equal opportunity and the rule of success through personal choice we must re-establish the sovereign nature of this great country. An immediate move to protect and ensure our borders against any kind of incursion. Against direct physical attack and against world bodies that would seek to restrict or control our national choices or own any power over our monetary independence. That our borders are not simply defined as land, sea and air . That our sovereignty extends across the globe in any and all actions of Americans or any representatives of Americans.
We affirm that we, and we alone, have the God given right to self determination and that we exercise that right at the exclusion of any force external or internal that would seek to inhibit it.
What will the future generations, the second dozen or so, say of how we stood during this time in history? Will they say we held fast to the core and ideals? Or will they point to this period as the end of the promise of the founders? Do we seek to follow in the footsteps of the world or to cut a path to liberty others can tread upon behind our lead?
The course we seek now is not one of separation from an unjust power, but of reaffirmation of what it is America is designed and intended for.
We are tasked with the demands now placed on our generation. To directly return to the American people what has slowly crumbled. To reinforce that foundation. Failure to do so strongly and immediately will do serious harm to the honor, blood and treasure those before us gave in defense of this nation. Whether that defense was in direct war to initiate or defend those foundational concepts, whether those wars were foreign or domestic or whether those battles, as this one, are fought with ideas.
Our charge is to, now and forever, secure the power of the consent of the governed.
We take ownership of our history. We stand in defense of life and liberty. We fight for freedom. We do so, right now.