Self-evident Truth

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.

-The Declaration of Independence

I read the Declaration of Independence this morning.  I think I was hoping to feel better about politics and things, but, as it turns out, it just made me feel worse.  I wanted to think about the true purpose of government, and I chose the Declaration because it is the bold and clear statement of purpose that brought forth upon this continent a great nation.  The Constitution is important too, but I don't have that kind of time.  I had in my mind certain apocryphal facts about the Declaration, like the fact that the "original" wording was "life, liberty and the pursuit of wealth," but that it was changed when even the rich white guys who wrote it thought it sounded a little crass.  And I know, by the way, that it represents the thoughts of rich white men fairly exclusively and when they say "all men are created equal," they literally mean males, and pretty much exclusively land-owning white males at that.

That being said, I couldn't help but be impressed by the guts it took a them to say what they said in the face of an imperial power like Great Britain.  It's like the speech that Shakespeare's Henry V gives before the battle of Agincourt (you know when they were aiming their imperial aspirations at France instead of the New World), it makes you want to take up arms and fight for liberty and justice for all.

Then I read the list of grievances they had against good old King George, particularly the first two on the list:

1. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
2. 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.

At which point my head almost exploded.  Those come way before taxation without representation, military conscription and trade embargoes, you know the things that most of us remember as the reasons why we don't all still speak the Queen's English and drink tea every afternoon.  These are things that can't help but remind a reasonable person of the behavior of certain factions of congress, notably the Tea Party Republicans, who have actually taken their name from something that happened during the struggle for American independence.  Have they actually read the Declaration of Independence?
I know, I know, they would probably tell you that President Obama is actually the bad guy here, but in order to believe that you need to have an utter lack of understanding of how our government functions.  If the current President, or any other President for that matter, was capable of the type of tyranny that ignorance and paranoia cause some to imagine, our Constitution would be an abject failure.  The fact of the matter is that many of the same guys who wrote and signed the Declaration, did work on the Constitution, and they had, as a sort of MAJOR PRINCIPLE the idea that one guy should not have that much power.
The whole idea of democracy is that you spread out the power so that one person can't simply bully the rest into doing what they want.  For all it's faults, it's meant to be a majority rule sort of system.  So what does it say when things that the majority approve, and try to institute, gets sandbagged and waylaid by a minority on the grounds that they don't THINK it's going to work?
I'm not proposing armed insurrection, but I am proposing that we the people have the "right to alter or abolish" a system of government that has become "destructive" and toxic to our nation.  Luckily for us, a long time ago, a bunch of guys with muskets and canons fought a war so that we don't have to roll out a revolutionary army, all we have to do is vote them out of office.  I hope we have the stomach for that fight.