Do We Still Have Government of the People, By the People, and For the People?

Most of our elected representatives around the nation seem to have forgotten that we are supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. They seem to believe that our government is responsible only for responding to the special interests and the interests of their respective political parties. According to the constitution of the United States, our government is responsible only for providing for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.

Article I, Section VIII outlines the powers granted to Congress, and Article II, Section II outlines the powers granted to the President. In neither place, does the Constitution grant the power to our government to run roughshod over us. Nowhere does the Constitution grant to our government the power to force down our collective throat a healthcare plan which allows the government to control our very healthcare decisions. Some of the decisions may very well determine whether we live or die.

Nowhere in those articles will you find the granting of power to any branch of our government to decide that a politically correct agenda of going green should control how we drive to work, to the grocery store, or church or synagogue, or other place of worship. Nowhere in our Constitution does it grant to our government the right to use Al Gore’s junk science of climate change to force us to change our way of living.

Instead of simply deciding what they think is best for us, it is time our government listen to us, we the people. Instead of comparing our government to the governments of Europe, we should remember the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said, in 1787, that a comparison of our government with the governments of Europe “is like a comparison of heaven and hell.”

Based on the behavior of most of the Democrat members of Congress who have held town hall meetings, I believe they fear and distrust the people who dare to question their “judgment”. Well, let’s look again at Thomas Jefferson who said in 1824, “Men…are naturally divided into two parties. Those who fear and distrust the people… Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe…depository of the public interest.” In 1787, Jefferson stated, “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers…alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”

On the other hand, Alexander Hamilton seemed to subscribe to the attitude of so many members of the liberal wing of today’s Democrat party. He said in 1787, “The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right.” He went on to say, “Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy. Their turbulent and uncontrolling disposition requires checks. Take mankind in general, they are vicious—their passions may be operated upon… Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.” In 1783, Hamilton said, “I have an indifferent (low) opinion of the honesty of this country, and ill forebodings as to its future system.”

When our government assumes it has the right to assume power to do whatever it deems possible, it should again learn what Thomas Jefferson said on February 17, 1791. He said, “I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground—that all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.” In 1787, Jefferson had stated, “I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. It places the governors (those doing the governing) indeed more at their ease, at the expense of the people.”

My fellow citizens, this is not the way to govern in a democratic republic such as the United States. The way our government has chosen to govern is more akin to the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) than it is to anything our founding fathers ever envisioned! Ask your Senator or Representative if he or she believes that our government should govern strictly according to our Constitution. If the answer is anything other than a resounding, “Yes!” then you need to replace that person in the next election.

Blessings…