Every year, on July 4th, we commentate our nation’s birth and the ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence. However, this year feels different. What does it mean to be an American, when America seems unrecognizable? In the wake of Supreme Court decisions that are reshaping our form of government and seeking to reshape our sense of conscience, commemorating our nation’s birth and the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence feels hollow.
Who are we as a nation in these troubled days? Never mind self-evident; do we even believe truth exists? Do we understand that God has given us certain rights, and that government’s job is to protect those rights and not infringe upon them?
When the founders drafted the Declaration, they listed 18 grievances where the tyrannical government of England had clearly infringed on such rights. As one reads those grievances, it appears that 11 of the 18 are common transgressions shared with our present government and administration. Consider the following:
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
Remember the Keystone Pipeline? While President Obama personally has only vetoed four bills, this unilateral action has had significant impact. In terms of energy and economic policy, the need for this pipeline remains a national security issue, if not a global security issue. When one considers the economic terrorism exercised by member nations of OPEC & Russia concerning world energy supply, American energy dependence has the potential to serve as a counterweight to such tyrant while breathing a breathe of fresh air into a vital sector of our nations industry. Other vetoes overruled congressional attempts to check the power of the executive branch or remove red tape. [1]
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
Arizona’s Illegal immigration action that was struck down is a key example. The Supreme Court supported the President, and ruled that a state governor could not enforce law on the books if the executive branch desired not to enforce the law. In the mean time, open warfare and refuge crises occupy our border and jeopardize our citizens’ most basic rights.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
While this action has not happened directly, between the abuse of executive order and the supreme court, the representative authority of the people is being bypassed, thereby breaking the Constitutional balance of power.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
There is a most ironic approach in policy, where legal immigrants discouraged, and illegal immigrants are welcomed with tax credits, entitlement benefits, free education, and more.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
Whether in congressional hearings or courts, this administration has most certainly perpetrated obstruction of justice, most notably in “loosing” evidence. Officers of this administration have also openly threated those conducting such proceedings and lied under oath on multiple occasions.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
While this form of harassment has not been used, there are some who suppose certain justices have been blackmailed.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
Obamacare alone has created over 159 new government bureaucracies. However, the growth doesn’t stop there. Through executive order alone, this president has created new offices nearly spanning the alphabet, from the Artic Executive Steering Committee to the National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security.[2] Well over 200 new agencies and offices have been created since 2009, without any legitimate purpose under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
While in many ways our armed forces are being bled dry, there is increasing militarization of the police who are ultimately under control of the federal executive branch, not state or local government.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
While this administration is not solely responsible, such is certainly the present state of affairs; civil powers cannot lawfully posses equivalent resources.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
Again, the present administration is not entirely responsible, but international bodies, like the UN and NATO, as well as countless other treaties, do seriously undermine our Constitution and national autonomy and sovereignty.
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
The NSA and Operation Jade Helm are both serous breeches of the Fourth Amendment.
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
There has certainty been much controversy surrounding this topic, but whether real injustice had transpired remains questionable.
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
While not universally cut off, international trade has certainty been unduly regulated or subjected to embargos, which violate the right of contract.
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
If Obamacare is indeed the tax, this Supreme Court has literally redrafted the legislation in order to dictate its viability. In no way has the representative authority of the people been consulted. And who can forget Former Speaker Pelosi’s statement that, “We have to pass it in order to find out what’s in it.” Countless other bills have been drafted and read only under lock and key, without the people have an opportunity to engage in the debate.
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
Consequences are being meted out before guilty verdicts through asset forfeiture and such measures. The creator of the Mohammed video that allegedly incited the Benghazi incident is in prison, even though the video has since been proven to be unrelated. Countless other examples taint this administration’s record of justice.
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
Last week’s SCOTUS rulings are merely the foremost examples. From the right to conscience to the Tenth Amendment’s protection of state and local authority, good governance has been subverted. With a Court that has presumed legislative responsibilities, the balance of power and representative authority of the people are moot.
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
Between the Supreme Court and the unchecked abuse of Executive Orders, the case can be made that much legislative policy has little to do with the legislature, whose power the Court may void on a whim.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
Our homeland has been declared a warzone and citizens of border states have been denied the protection of our laws, by an executive branch that refuses to enforce those laws or protect the lives and property of those citizens.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
Inside our own borders, ISIS and cartels run by illegal immigrants remain largely unchecked because our government has a non-enforcement policy when it comes to preventing such militant groups from trespassing. Barbaric desolation and tyranny are the result.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
If the rioting and looting in Ferguson, Baltimore, and New York can be considered acts of domestic insurrection, than we have certainly seen some level of encouragement of such action from officials of our government. While such rioters are not to be compared with the native inhabitants of their frontier, they have certainly wrought destruction on a wide scale.
Like the colonists, today’s citizens have often sought redress through diligent petitioning of the powers that be, and victories are far fewer than defeats. Is it time to dissolve the bonds that bind us? That is not the primary point, for we are not the same people or nation that found success in doing so 239 years ago. The last line of the Declaration really is the heart and soul of cause of American liberty:
…with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Until we are a people willing to humble ourselves before God, live by His prefect law of liberty, and sacrifice all we have and are in pursuing that liberty, we cannot prevail in righting our government or our nation.
As 1st Peter 43;4,7-11. “For the time that is past suffices for … living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry…The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
As citizens, in order to find restoration of Creator endowed liberty and self-evident truth, we must serve, we must love, and we must determine to be self-governed. Restoration of independence starts with us.
[1] H.J. Res 64, H.R. 3808, S.J. Res. 8, and Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act.
[2] http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/obama-subjects.html
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