Every month or so, I wind up reading the entire Declaration of Independence. Sometimes for a reason, sometimes for no reason at all, but each time I read it, I am reminded how well that 247 year-old document translates to today.
I posted part of it yesterday in a comment that included something Jefferson wrote that keeps running through my mind, and it is this:
"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
It struck me how well the statists have used this thought to stave off change and rebellion.
One of the first things governments always do is to try to make it illegal to oppose it. Sounds great when the government adheres to its limits and stays in its lane - but they never do. Governments made up of corruptible people eventually become corrupt. As Lord Acton said, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Couple that with John Adams’ admonition that our Constitution is only for a “moral and religious people”, and you have a pot set on to boil that must be constantly watched.
The American people stopped watching that pot a long time ago.
Shocker, I know.
The Democrats understand the nature of people to long suffer without action, that's why an inarguably violent episode at our Capitol that postponed Congress for a few hours was dubbed an "insurrection" rather than what it was, a legitimate protest that a small percentage of the protesters turned into isolated violence.
Because "insurrections" are illegal, protests are not.
It's also how Woodrow Wilson could use the power of government power to shut down opposition to his regime.
It's why the Federalist dominated Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. The Sedition Act made it a crime for American citizens to "print, utter, or publish...any false, scandalous, and malicious writing" about the government.
How can this be since the First Amendment guarantees us the right to speak out against government, to peaceably assemble in protest of it and to petition for redress of grievances?
It is because the people are "disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable".
As much as I detest Saul Alinsky, he was right when he penned his "13 Rules". Rule #1 is:
"Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have."
Just because he was evil doesn’t mean he was wrong.
That is what the “powerful” have used to keep people in check, when in truth, they don’t have that much power. What power they have is from the consent of the governed – or in our times, it comes from the apathy of the governed. That is why the left is so afraid of speech and why they want to censor anything they decide is “disinformation’ or “misinformation”. They can’t afford to allow apathy to convert into action.
Herb Stein, head of Nixon’s Council of Economic Advisors, promulgated a law. Stein’s Law simply states that:
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
The question is when the American people decide they have had enough.
Criminals, allied with radical leftist, Soros/Open Society funded District Attorneys already have. There is a rising tide of lawlessness in our major cities. Leftists in Congress, like AOC, are encouraging this regime to ignore court decisions they don’t like, even as the federal government continues to ignore laws they don’t want to enforce and apply the ones they choose to enforce in arbitrary and capricious ways. The recent release of classified intel proves the Biden regime is violating laws in their obsession with Ukraine and the proxy war with Russia.
Our government, through its actions, has proven to be at war with the people it governs.
Revolution doesn’t need to be violent. It can be as simple as Americans saying “I’ve had enough. I’m not going to comply.” Our government is only powerful because we treat it as if it is. It will have no power when we stop treating it that way. We are fast approaching the time when Stein’s Law becomes operational.
Jefferson enshrined our rights and duties in this situation when he wrote:
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
I am a lone voice in the wilderness when I say that I withdraw my consent to be governed and it is time to provide new guards for our future security.
The America we knew is over.
We have a plan given to us by our Founders. Like Marty McFly, it is time to go back to the future.
It is time to begin again.
Spot on. If the people do not listen any longer, and decide in mass to go another path, then the current powerful will have no power.
Oh, and as was said in Bug's life - those puny little ants outnumber us 100 to 1, and if they ever figure that out - then there goes our way of life. It's not about food - it's about keeping those Ants in line.
It's no longer about laws and what's right - it's about keeping us in line so that they can keep THEIR way of life!
I'm not questioning your authority, I'm denying it's existence.
I will not comply.
If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.
They've lost my consent.
No, you're not a lone voice in the wilderness, but we are slow to move, but once going, the momentum will be contagious.