Topic # 1 Declaration of Independence

Lesson # 2 – Government derives their just powers from the consent of the governed…

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to
alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation
on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The “Tea Party” movement of today is being criticized and labeled radical by many progressives and people that believe our constitution is a “living” document, or outdated. But in reality the critics are the root of the many problems we face today. When you read this excerpt from the declaration it is clear that the founders believed that it was the right of the governed, when faced with a government that was destructive to the underlying principles of the governed, that government would be subject to being abolished or changed by the governed.

The critics of the tea party folks are the group that must be seen as outside the norm of the American principle. When the federal government takes over the financial industry, the car industry, student loans, and healthcare, and refuses to perform its constitutional duty to protect our borders or treat terrorism as the real threat to our lives that it is, it is incumbent upon us to abolish, reform, or replace that government with one that reflects the values of Americans. I submit that what the tea party movement is about is the restoration of our constitutional republic form of government.

Today is different in only one way with the time of our founding, at the time our Declaration was new, and our constitutional government was being crafted. Because of the founder’s dedication and foresight, today we are blessed with the wisdom of those already proven documents in hand. So we as a people only have to re-commit to our constitution. That is all of the revolution we need. That is only accomplished when enough Americans understand the founding documents.

Schools today do not teach this concept well or at all in public schools. It has been taught for generations that America is a democracy, which it is not, we are no longer taught the underlying strength of the republican form of government compared to a democracy, and are often left with the perception that the federal government is the all powerful part of government when it was truly limited to be the smallest link in our lives. As we continue to delve into the founding documents, we will see how upside down our education system is when it comes to teaching the structure of our government. I encourage you to visit the Tenth Amendment website (www.tenthamendmentcenter.com) to get a true understanding of the role of the states in our republic and the defined role of our federal government.

Today we are faced with a failing economy, high unemployment, huge deficits, a fast growing debt, the loss of our freedoms, and absolute chaos on so many levels due to the fact we have ignored our founding principles. The people that are working toward a return to our constitutional principles are not revolutionaries - they simply understand our history and the importance our founding principles have on the future success or even survival of our nation.

The people that are ignoring the constitution and increasing the power of the central government over us are truly the revolutionaries. If they were honest and wanted to change our government in a constitutional manner, they would be working toward constitutional amendments we could all debate. Instead they are unlawfully implementing programs to change our form of government right in front of our eyes. They get away with it because people have not taken the time to understand the history and founding documents of our country. The education system gets an F in the history of America. They are busy teaching kids how great the rest of the world is when the miracle of the world is truly the American “experiment”.

Homework: Read about the republican form of government and the democratic form of government. Our founders chose a republic for many reasons but in my opinion the most important reason was the republic defines the power of government close to the people and away from a central government. Centralized governments are inefficient, a threat to liberty, and most importantly unconstitutional. Look at the federal government’s proposals today and compare them to the defined responsibilities in Article I section 8 of the constitution. Try to find the constitutional authority for federal healthcare, social security, private industry takeovers, or any of the recent infringements against the private sector and citizens. They will be nowhere to be found except in the minds of progressive revolutionaries.

Topic #1 - The Declaration of Independence

Lesson #1 - The Importance of God in Our Republic…

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to
assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which
the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.

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.

This is the opening salvo of a revolution that changed the course of world history. The lesson we take away from this passage in the Declaration is the foundation of our civil society. The lesson is that our rights are derived not from any man but from God. This is not about religion but a faith in a higher being that takes away the right of any man to control our destiny here on earth.

We separated from the King on the grounds that the King was at an “equal station” in life as any other man on earth. Equality was not based on any man’s definition, but in the definition of the “Laws of Nature.” There was no question in our founder’s mind about these rights as stated in “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” No argument or debate about each and every human beings rights to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The government in charge in 1776 was as dominant and suffocating as the federal government we face today. These words were penned to an out of control King, but if we look carefully at the circumstances we find ourselves in today, we could find the very grievances of 1776 in 2010. Our federal representatives are applying legislation against the will of a majority of the people they swear to serve. The corruption, cronyism, unfairly applied regulations and taxation are all again at the forefront of our struggle to maintain our freedom and a relationship with a central “authority”.

There has been a systematic pattern of the removal of God from our public discourse by those that understand how important the removal of God is to undermining our constitution and form of government. It is not a separation that the people in charge today attempt to attain, it is their goal to remove God completely. Who are they? Progressives and people that believe the “people” are not smart enough to rule themselves. The same people that want to force McDonald’s to stop putting toys in a happy meal, protecting us from "ruthless" lenders and credit card fees, and the people that want to end our use of fossil fuels. They all know better than us and understand that God and a moral foundation undermine their credibility and power.

Homework: Read the Declaration and think about why God and a moral society were so important to our founders and think about why God continues to be our source of freedom. Think about if these people are successful in removing faith in a God from future generations or make any reference to God uncomfortable. How would that impact the application of our constitution and our rights? If there is no God, someone has to fill the void to determine how society is structured. Without God as our foundation we must be ruled by humans and who are the humans that can fill this role? I suggest the people that have already tried removing God from society and the public discourse have given us a vision to our future if we choose to forget our past and the importance of God in a moral society. I place in evidence; Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. I suggest the current government today is following in a very dangerous path. Knowing history is the key to a better future…

Thank you for your support!

For the past eight months or so I have been an unaffiliated candidate for Governor of Colorado. I will be officially ending my effort and will be off the Secretary of State’s candidate list once I find time to do the necessary paperwork to end the campaign. I learned a few lessons, validated some things I suspected, and now know what is needed to be a candidate in today’s political climate and culture.

I would like to thank all of you that worked on the petition drive and visited my Blog on a regular basis. I hope you continue to come back here as I change my focus to education rather than a political campaign. The Blog will take on current affairs from the perspective of the constitution. I don’t expect to change the world here but I want to do my part to keep the constitution in our political conversation as a nation. We have lost our way because we no longer utilize the constitution as our guide. Both political parties are guilty.

Lessons learned:

• Political campaigns are a full time job which means if you are a an executive at a start-up firm building a business and jobs you will not have time to run for office. This is why we get the politicians we do, rich, retired, or living off the dole.
  
• Politics is broken because we the people have stopped paying attention. The Tea Party movement is changing that but my prediction is that too will fade.
  
• Money is the root of the evil in politics. I don’t care what anyone says politicians today spend most of their time cow towing to political donors and don’t stand on principle anymore.
  
• Term limits now.
  
• The two parties are both corrupt and self interested and we should continue all efforts to end the way our parties control the process.
  

Validations:

• People hate politics in general and suspect politicians have ulterior motives.
  
• We are in big trouble because the people we need with real experience to run for government have too much sense to get into the cesspool we call politics.
  
• The media is derelict in their duties to cover politics in a way that gives citizens a true picture of the political landscape. The media should be ashamed of themselves. They are lazy and part of the corruption.
  
• Family always comes first.
  

What you need to know if you run for office:

• You will be ignored by everyone but your friends and family. It will get lonely.
  
• People will support you privately but most will not lift a finger to help until the bandwagon is rolling.
  
• You can do one thing and one thing only; sell yourself and your campaign
  
• The people that are in politics are mostly good people but the system is so broken it will frustrate you to no end.
  
• Money is the root of evil in politics but it is the only way right now to make a difference. It is why most people hate politics.
  

I am off to educate now. I love teaching my kids about the constitution and anyone else that will listen. It is the key to our future and what we need to fix this nation. Always consider the constitution in every conversation about the government. Always ask; where is the government getting the authority to address this issue (put any issue here)? Show me the place in the constitution…

The constitution and our founders were given to us by God. Always remember without morality and law, we are the same as every two bit dictator and communist nation around the world. It is individual freedom and free markets that have made us the envy of the world not government. Capitalism is the greatest economic system in the world when we operate on moral grounds. Take away morality and every system fails. We must return to a government that was outlined in our founding documents.

The more government grows, the less free we are as individuals, the more bankrupt we become, and the closer we get to tyranny… Our founders knew how to fend this off with the framing of the constitution; now you can too…

Freedom of the Press VS. Subsidizing Newspapers…

The founders knew the best check on government was the ability of the people and press to speak out against the government and its representatives freely. At the time of our founding, the press (newspapers, pamphlets, letters, etc…) were the only organized vehicles to speak through at the time. Without the “press” of the time, the general public’s ability to get information about issues would have been crippled if not for the traditional means of communications was not protected.

Subsidizing the “business” of the press was not their intention. The only consideration for the founders was protecting liberty by protecting the ability of individuals and organizations like the press to speak out against an oppressive government, and by limiting the power of the government to control the speech against the same government. To suggest that the government should have any role in ensuring a media company’s success in the market place is a total distortion of original intent.

Today, we have the internet, radio, TV, all what the founders would have labeled as the press. Every one of the new medium unknown to the founders at the time is a support for the original intent which was protecting speech and limiting the power of government. Because the traditional press has squandered their prestige by becoming political arms of party politics is the reason they are failing. They have greater competition, yes, but the real reason for their failure is their drifting from truth and facts to opinion and advocacy. Once you take a side you limit your audience. A very simple concept to understand.

So for the tax payer to subsidize a press that is no longer objective and separate from the government it is supposed to “protect” us from is in absolute contradiction to the original intent of our founders. We don’t need the traditional press, although I believe they still have an opportunity to reform themselves, we have what the founders were trying to truly protect which was the ability to speak out against our government through the expanded mediums we have today. Today’s technology has made speech safer from the perspective of holding government accountable. That is why the argument has shifted to protecting the internet from government control. Because the internet is more like the original press our founders wanted protected. A free interchange of ideas without government influence.

Let the traditional press models fail if they can’t compete, we have an outlet to speak against our government. Once the government is subsidizing the traditional press, we no longer have an independent advocate protecting our liberties. They will become an arm of the government, and that is definitely not what the founders intended when protecting the press in our constitution.

President Obama promising our kid’s future to our enemy:

“While we work with our partners in the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Egypt, and the international community to put such a strategy in place, these projects represent a down payment on the United States’ commitment to Palestinians in Gaza, who deserve a better life and expanded opportunities, and the chance to take part in building a viable, independent state of Palestine, together with those who live in the West Bank.”

The radical Palestinians deserve nothing from our nation’s treasure. We have the highest unemployment rate for teenager’s ever, the highest unemployment rate in decades, a debt that is threatening our very existence and this president is promising $400 million to a people that hate us, despise us, and cheered in the streets at 911.

I feel for the children; MY CHILDREN and yours! This man doesn’t have an ounce of American soul in his body. We need him gone and replaced with a President that is proud of America and understands that we come first foremost and always. We need an American president…

Bribes, Bribes, and Lies…

The president will bribe senior citizens again with a conveniently timed “campaign” to sell a very unpopular healthcare program that was passed with an unprecedented list of bribes, and even more lies. He is sending $250 checks to seniors on Medicare to bribe people to accept this program that is actually bankrupt because if we are honest, the entire federal government is truly bankrupt. The definition of bankruptcy; someone who has insufficient assets to cover their debts. If not for the power to print money, no one in their right mind would invest in our bonds today.

We have one trillion four hundred billion more debt then we have in Tax Revenue (assets). The federal government is borrowing and using our credit and their power to tax us to cover this debt but that is the big lie. We as a people are not willing to pay more for the debt being created and the truth is we as a people want the spending cut. Sending $250 checks to seniors with this kind of debt will outrage everyone including seniors because we are all onto the federal governments biggest of lies; that we can spend our way into prosperity.

I believe this administration is creating the chaos necessary to break even more laws to institute more powers that the people don’t want. We are at the most critical turning point in our history since the civil war. We are being lied to and bribed to go along with unconstitutional programs, and unsustainable welfare programs designed to buy votes and power.

We need to be aware that any bribe you are offered by the federal government is unconstitutional but more importantly a nail in the coffin of freedom and our republic. How long before we have to actually claim bankruptcy? And then what will that bribe be worth?

Total Incompetence…

The incompetence of our federal government is exactly why the constitution is focused on protecting individual rights and liberties. The founders knew that big, centralized, collective, communal groups would undermine the ability for our states and citizens to be prosperous. It is a lesson history taught our founders well, but we seemed to have forgotten.

As we watch our debt accumulate, our free markets assaulted with regulation and forced crisis, our schools failing our kids, and government programs stifling incentive, rewarding failure, and creating entitlement, we see the wisdom of our founder’s solid reasoning to promote individuals over groups.

The federal government is incompetent with the best leaders never mind a group that has nothing but academic experience at the helm. If we reduce the federal government by 50% no one will notice a bit of difference except for a reduction of incompetence. Not because of an increase in competence but simply less for the federal government to screw up…