As our current presidential fiasco draws to its inevitable conclusion, we should take stock of what remains of our once brilliant and original Republic. It still hangs but in tatters, all but destroyed, not by foreign powers, a plague or natural disaster, but from within, by its own political aristocracy and, by extension, its citizenry. By withdrawing their concern, their attention, from the actions and devious shenanigans of their "elected" representatives and placing blind trust in their government while they pursue fleeting entertainment, the citizens have allowed their government elites to follow an agenda of personal wealth, cronyism and the erosion of the rights illuminated by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This situation has resulted in the nation we now live in, where groups like the NSA and ATF can watch you with impunity and enter your private property on a whim, where the free election system has devolved to the point that the American public is faced with the choice between a sociopathic career politician with a socialistic agenda and an entitled attitude toward the power she desire or a hate-filled demagogue with no real policies apart from division, rhetoric and empty promises.
The dissenting minority sees little opportunity to effect change since, due to manipulation of the electoral college and extensive gerrymandering, most individuals know that their votes are meaningless. And the rights our forefathers acknowledged as necessary to allow a populace to confront tyranny have been steadily assaulted for decades while the entrenched bureaucracy has grown out of proportion or understanding.
The indoctrination of the nation's children at the hands of a propaganda machine that has supplanted the public education system as well as an entertainment complex that has continuously degraded the level of intelligence of the viewing public as well as reduced the attention span of the average viewer to something on the order of eight seconds has created a perfect culture to promote either a pseudo-Socialist wasteland or a tryrannical dictatorship. By removing music, art, home economics, shop, or any other constructive teaching while neglecting such staples as functional math, English, factual history and (a pet issue of mine) cursive writing, we are creating a nation of entitled, narcissistic, undereducated individuals with no ethics or ability to deal with any situation that does not conform to their world view or sense of fairness.
The harsh governmental regulations, taxation, inducements to foreign importers and other interferences have driven most of the manufacturing businesses overseas leaving a nation of consumers and an ever-mounting national debt.
Things look dim, while other countries are marching on their capitals, demanding change and unseating political leaders who do not represent the will of the people, the American public complains about the abysmal, untenable actions of its so called elected officials, bitch about their tax burden and argue amongst themselves about which political party will solve the seemingly endless list of problems suffered by our Republic without stopping to realize that neither party has ever done anything constructive for them but at best maintains the status quo and at worst creates a multitude of new issues.
How will we, the people, ever extract ourselves from this morass of an entrenched minority controlling the majority of the wealth, a crumbling infrastructure that doesn't seem to improve despite a tax burden that is crushing the average household, and a government so corrupt that mayors convicted of crimes can be reelected, governors can practice nepotism openly, and presidential candidates can lead in the polls despite multiple criminal acts that would land an average citizen in prison or possibly our modern, western equivalent of a Soviet gulag, Guantanamo bay? We must withdraw our consent. We must make it known, unequivocally, that the situation as it stands is not acceptable. We will not continue to allow the government that supposedly works for us to take away our money, rights, arms, privacy, pride or future. We must refuse to submit, resist the lies and terror tactics instigated by the powerful and amplified by the media, dismiss the hate-filled propaganda designed to separate us, and unite in our strength to tell them all, "No more".