Friday, February 26, 2010

The Consent of the Governed


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. 

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. 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. 

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.


Lest we forget those men who gathered together in Philadelphia so long ago who sent a message to the King.


Let's work diligently to keep that government that we have trimmed within the boundaries circumscribed by the Constitution. Those do not include a government that owns a huge automobile company, wants to swallow 20% of the economy in the form of healthcare, owns insurance companies and banks and seeks to control the lives of all Americans from cradle to grave. The same government that has botched Social Security, Medicare and can't balance it's budget -- even in the best of times -- is not the government we want to have invested in every facet of our daily life.

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