Declare Your Independence!

"When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."

These words are just as true today as they were in 1776. We have suffered a long train of abuses and usurpations at the hands of this President and it has become necessary to dissolve the political bands that have bound us to him, but unlike in 1776, we have a framework to work within that will allow us to dissolve our political ties without having to wage a war. But mankind are disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, even, apparently, when the remedy is relatively easy. We don’t have to take up arms like our forefathers did in order to secure our freedom, we only have to participate and arm ourselves with the knowledge of our tyrant’s crimes against us and exercise our rights granted not only by our Creator, but also by our Constitution. The evils are becoming less and less sufferable to more and more people, the only question is, will we use the vote that our ancestors died to secure for us, or will we let apathy secure a win for evil?

We may not have yet reached the point of a constitutional crisis, but Republican voters must understand that their ties to a corrupt Republican Party have indeed become critical, and not just for them, but for the rest of us as well. It is time to stand up and declare your independence from a Party that abuses its power, protects its criminal elements, rules from greed and that once in power, abdicates its constitutional responsibilities and neglects the needs and desires of the people that (supposedly) granted them their power in the first place. Whatever failings we may ascribe to the Democrats, they are not the tyrants in power. The Republicans are responsible for the $8 trillion dollar debt, for “staying the course” in Iraq, for making torture and American value, for suspending habeas corpus, for allowing North Korea to become a nuclear nation, for allowing US citizens to be spied upon by our government without consequences, and for outsourcing our jobs while turning America into a consumer state with the highest health care costs in the world. Today’s Republican Party is evil and no longer sufferable. We must strip them of power, with our vote, with our voices and through our direct involvement with our government. It’s not 1776, we have a political process, all we have to do is use it.