Last week, I discussed the manner in which the federal government of the United States has taken over our economy, manipulated our money and credit, and turned our once-free nation into a second-class "welfare" state headed towards authoritarian dictatorship - and how our two major-party political candidates, McCain and Obama, are powerless to stop this advance due to the fact that they helped create it.
Are you mad as hell? You need to be; any citizen left in this country who doesn't have the soul of a slave ought to be screaming bloody murder.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that you are merely one person in millions who has no power to alter the course of events; this is exactly what the politicians in power want you to believe. If you swallow it, you have destroyed your own power and thereby transformed yourself into nothing more than social ballast, following the drift of any chance wave that happens to hit you; and the wave that is coming is of tidal proportions.
The ultimate source of these trends of nationalization and control, unfortunately, rests squarely with us: Whether we as voters are seeking an undeserved "free" lunch, or to throttle an economic competitor, or to regulate our neighbor's noncoercive behavior, the politicians have implemented the controls because we have asked for them.
(1) The first step, therefore - and the most important - is to stop asking for government handouts and controls over our lives. Such "handouts" come with a price tag attached: our security and our freedom. We need to reject the serf mentality, stand on our own two feet, and reassert our self-reliance, integrity, and ideological independence. And more:
(2) Strongly consider no longer voting for the Demopublican party machine. Every election year we continue to elect the "lesser of two evils" in the belief that they will change things; such a belief, however, flies in the face of many decades of experience and history and must, in the final analysis, be recognized as misguided. They won't! These power-seekers, quite rightly, will take our vote for a sanction, a "mandate," and give us more of the same. Boycott them! If breaking the bonds of the tyranny perpetuated upon us by the facade of a two-party system is your goal, then vote for one of the third parties that have succeeded in getting onto a majority of the ballots in the upcoming election: the Libertarians, the Constitution Party, the Greens, or Ralph Nader (independent) - although uncompromising advocates of capitalism will want to limit their choices to the Libertarians or the Constitution Party.
(3) Holler good and loud. Holler like your liberty depends on it - because, quite literally, it does. Let the current batch of nannies know that you've had enough. Flood their offices with protest via every medium available: demand an end to the controls and bailouts. Tell your legislators that you are fed up with the "welfare" state and all the destruction, chaos, and poverty that it breeds; threaten to vote out of office any politician who sides with control. We have, ultimately, the kind of government we want; when we want something different, we will have something different.
Use your phone; use the mail; use the Internet and email. Web sites such as Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty (CampaignForLiberty.com), the Libertarian Party (LP.org), the Constitution Party (ConstitutionParty.com), the Green Party (GP.org), and Ralph Nader's independent candidacy (VoteNader.org) possess a rich array of tools and links by which you can contact legislative offices, contact the media, determine who is running for office, and find out what their positions are. And, of course, as the River Cities' Reader published last week, the U.S. Capitol's main switchboard number is (202)224-3121. Use these tools and act.
In another age, another man recognized the crisis that was upon him and the fledgling nation of America as well: Thomas Paine. In "The Crisis" of December 1776, he wrote: "These are the times that try men's souls. ... Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
So: Are we free men and women? Or are we slaves? As Editor Kathleen McCarthy warned us last week, "It will be this generation, we Americans, who lived during this time in history who will bear the legacy of indenturing future Americans - our heirs." Is that really what we want? Servitude for our children?
History will show us, quickly enough, whether we, like Thomas Paine and the rest of our forebears, were up to the task.
Bradley Harrington is a former United States Marine and a freelance writer who lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
