THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION

This week, Americans went to the polls in an off-year election and, as in the previous election, “threw out” most of the incumbent legislators in Washington. The “Tea Party,” an extreme right wing Republican splinter group, who had a number of their candidates elected (many who were somewhat less than qualified) has trumpeted their success as a conservative victory. The Democrats, having lost their majority in the House of Representatives and nearly losing their Senate majority, lament that they were not able to effectively communicate their accomplishments of the last two years to the public.

Both sides are wrong!

In 1776, when a group of “extremists” signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, their grievances were many but their slogan, “No Taxation Without Representation”, echoes through the years as the real issue that separated the majority of loyal British colonists from their parent country. Parliament had passed act after act without any real thought as to how it would affect the colonists. Taxes were levied without recourse to the colonial legislatures, and no colonial representation in Parliament. Judges and administrators that strove for fairness rather than blind obedience to the Crown were eliminated and others appointed in their places, while free American seamen were hijacked from their ships and conscripted into the British Navy. With a few exceptions, the colonists never really wanted independence; they wanted their rights as British citizens and loyal subjects of the Crown. Independence and the war that followed were the result of British politicians refusing to listen to or consider the plight of their brethren in the colonies. It was the only course that remained open.

The American election in 2008 was a “wake-up call” to the incumbents in Congress that the people were fed up, incredibly angry and wanted a change. They were tired of partisan gridlock and attention being given only to well funded corporate and foreign lobbyists. They wanted their elected officials to work together to solve THEIR problems. In the ensuing two years, Republican obstructionism and Democratic intransigence has maintained the gridlock, or required enactment of such complex and serpentine legislation that most of it will not only be unworkable and expensive, but ultimately will solve no problems. The “blood bath” of 2010 has been a result of that anger and frustration.

WAKE UP CONGRESS! This is 1774 all over again and there is little time left to stave off a second American Revolution. Although this one will be fought at the ballot boxes rather than on the field of battle, it will be a revolution none the less. Unless you begin working together to solve the problems of ALL the people, then when 2012 comes around, you can expect an electoral “blood bath” that will leave no incumbent standing. THAT is your only mandate, and you have little time to act.

Re-read and remember the words upon which this nation was founded; “. . . whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends [the needs and rights of the people], it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government . . .”

These are the final words of

WE THE PEOPLE!