The Revolution

The Revolution

Unless you have been living off the grid, or are a hippie, you know the current state of affairs in the U.S. government is a tad wonky to put it lightly. Several things became clear to me the other day. Why have we, as a people, allowed this to happen? How can we stand by and let the government walk all over us like we were nothing but a mere annoyance, someone who is only important at election time easily won over by promises and bribes.

Not only our founding fathers, but the founding people of the United States as a whole would be more than ashamed if they saw what we allow to happen in these times. The sad part is I know the truth. I know why. Our people have their ears glued to their cell phones, they have their fingers tapping out five-hundred words a minute on an iPhone text messaging their bff Jill. Most people would fail a simple civics quiz such as “who is your congressmen” and “What is the second amendment”. This saddens me, because the people in office know this and use our collective short term memories to play their little game of power with each other, scrambling over the backs of their so-called constituents. It’s so sad, that I have to laugh. But that laugh comes out more like the maniacal laugh of a madman. Let me illustrate.

As a people:
We asked for more security on our borders.
Government said ‘no’

We asked for enforcement of immigration laws.
Government said ‘no’

We fight for our 2nd amendment rights.
Government tries to pass a weapons ban

We said no to a massive government bailout of failing companies.
Government ignored us and passed it anyway.

We said no to a massive spending ‘stimulus’ package.
Government ignored us and passed it anyway.

The list continues on from there. Yet we keep voting these people into congress because they basically bring us blood money into the state, via their pork barrel projects or in the case of Iowa they keep re-upping the farm bill, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog. Should congress have term limits? Our president does, yet our congressmen can theoretically run for life. Should they be allowed to vote on their own raises? Did you even know they voted for their own raises? I don’t know about you but if I was able to vote for my own raise you better believe I would be for it every single time, lol. Or the biggest slap in the face, should congress people get to vote on bills they haven’t even read. Oh, yes this is a regular practice. Can’t blame them though, have you ever tried to read one of those things? Hundreds, sometimes thousands of pages written in legaleze, politicseze, ancient sumarian, there’s no way any sane person could read them and understand them. This needs to change.

So what am I asking for? I’m not saying you have to read every bill that goes through congress, or start campaigning for someone. What I do ask is this: Be aware. Be aware of what is going on with your government, local, state and national. When election time rolls around, at least browse the webpage of each of the candidates and find out what they actually stand for. And finally, don’t let the government placate you with baubles, silver tongues and bribes. Make them make the hard choices, and when a bill comes up that hits the news and you disagree with, for the love of God let them know! Believe it or not your emails and letters and phone calls are not ignored when we do it en masse. We need to act as a people, and make the government work for us as the framers intended.

I feel there is a revolution coming. Not in the immediate future but soon. If things continue the way they are going I see the public finally tearing themselves away from their text messaging long enough to rise up and let it be known they will not be taken advantage anymore. The only question is, will it be a peaceful revolution or a bloody one. Hopefully it’s the former, because look at the French revolution. That did not end so well. The revolution that I hope happens, is widespread protests at all of our injustices. Widespread voting rallies where instead of a paltry 20 some odd percent of people vote, we see 60% or 80%. I would like to see mass pressure for campaign reform, lobby reform and more transparency in the government. I’d like to see a big push to place government back in the hands of the states rather than the fed. Who knows, maybe things will end badly, maybe too many will choose the route of the French revolution where fighting and bloodshed will be unleashed. I think that would end very badly for us.

The question I pose to you is; if the revolution comes will you take action? Search your soul and ask yourself whether you would become active and awake from your slumber or will you be happy to remain complacent and keep your head in the sand. The world of tomorrow is going to look a lot different than what it does today. Lets just hope that its better. Lets hope that one day we can look up at our flag and be proud of our country and proud of our leadership. We shouldn’t have to apologize for our leaders anymore. (George Dubya anyone?)