Month: July 2009

Who They Are

In my last post, I let loose a rant about Who We Are.Well, if that’s who we are (and yeah, I know that what I wrote is a bit of a stereotype, but aren’t all such descriptions, really?) then who are they who are not us.

They’re Control Freaks, basically. They aren’t all on the Left, either. The right-wing Control Freaks, for the most part, wave a book around and demand that everybody live their lives by their own particular interpretation of what the words in that book means. As such, right wing Control Freaks are usually fairly easy to identify and, if necessary, avoid.

Leftie control freaks are more subtle. (Subtlety is bad here, by the way. Substitute sneaky or disingenuous.) Control freaks on the left want to control your entire life too, but they hide their core desire behind high-minded words and causes–“War on Poverty,” “Fight climate change,” “universal health care.” The list is long and ignominious. But boil it all down, and all Leftist causes reduce do “I know better than you do how you should live your life, and I’m willing to use the force of government to make you behave.”

If you have ever said “you need to . . .” then you are a Control Freak, a danger to others, and should be opposed by all people of good will. Nobody likes a busybody. If you have ever said “we need to . . . ” then you’re showing your inner Control Freak, and need to think long and hard about your deep psychological need to control the actions (and money) of others. If your thoughts tend to run to “I need to do . . .” then you’re probably a normal, sane person, who people tend to like, or at least not dislike too intensely.

I’m not sure, but it looks to me that most colleges, but Ivy League schools especially, have remedial classes in How To Be A Control Freak For Fun And Profit. The major national media is almost completely infested with Control Freaks–people who went to Journalism School to “make a difference.” The phrase “make a difference” is another code word for “make you behave the way I want you to.” It is a marker to indicate that the person using that phrase may be a Control Freak.

Everybody has their Control Freak moments, of course. Truly mature people learn to control themselves first, however, and curb their juvenile impulses to control everybody else. The Founding Fathers were mature and rational people. Our political leadership today–not so much.

Politicians are, by their very nature, Control Freaks. That’s why the Constitution was set up the way it was–to throw obstacles in front of the Control Freaks to make it more difficult for Them to control Us. That’s why Control Freaks want to ignore the plain words of the Constitution at every turn.

The current group of politicians in Washington are an extreme example of Control Freaks. (Yes, I know, it’s tempting to drop the word “Control” when referring to Congress, especially.” President Obama is nothing more or less than a particularly extreme example of a Control Freak–and the warning signs were there for all to see during the 2008 campaign.

Who We Are

I’m about to post this over on Free Republic, in response to yet another Sarah Palin thread:

Sarah Palin doesn’t need to take over the Republican Party. We do.

We, the people. The real majority of this country. The people who didn’t go to Ivy League schools, the people who had better things to do than get a law degree. The people who didn’t drink the Marxist cool-aid at Berkeley or the post-modernist crap at Duke, the people who just want to live their lives and love their families and be left alone to do that. The people who aren’t invited onto CNN or Fox News to give their opinions. The people who don’t even know what Current TV is, let alone have so much time on their hands as to make a show for Al Gore’s network.

We’re the people who sit around a fire in the woods or the back yard, drinking beer and making s’mores, not the people who dress up and go to swanky dinner parties where they sip white wine and nibble on exotic cheese. We like cheese, too, but prefer cheddar to gouda, and if we’re feeling a bit rambunctious, some pepper jack.

In fact, most of us don’t like ties at all (if we’re male). Give us a t-shirt, or a polo, if we want to dress up.

We believe that hard work is a virtue, and getting benefits from the government is not–regardless of any other consideration.

We think that Congress should actually read the bills they pass into law.

We think that Congress, for that matter, should actually read and comprehend the Constitution that they swear to uphold.

When we think of our history, and the Boston Tea Party, the first thing that comes to mind is NOT a homosexual sex act.

We understand “Take this job and shove it.” We occasionally sing it loudly and off-key, when we’re having a bit too much fun at the local watering hole.

We understand charity. We are willing to give to those who need it. We are not willing to do that at gunpoint, however.

We understand stewardship. We expect it from our elected officials. We do not often see it from them, however.

What we want more than anything else is to leave our fellow citizens alone, and be left alone to live our own lives without bowing down to some Ivy League lawyer who says he or she knows better than we do how to spend our money.

The Democratic Party elites don’t speak for us. The Republican Party elites don’t speak for us. The media doesn’t speak for us.

Nobody speaks for us, in fact. Nobody with any kind of power, that is. So we talk amongst ourselves, after church, at happy hour, at Free Republic and some other places on the Internet.

We are Flyover Country. We are the Little People. We are Americans.

And we’re getting very angry.

Efficient Canada healthcare? It’s a dog’s life

John Stossel[*1] , writing at Reason:

We saw this in Canada, where we did find one area of medicine that offers easy access to cutting-edge technology—CT scan, endoscopy, thoracoscopy, laparoscopy, etc. It was open 24/7. Patients didn’t have to wait.

But you have to bark or meow to get that kind of treatment. Animal care is the one area of medicine that hasn’t been taken over by the government. Dogs can get a CT scan in one day. For people, the waiting list is a month.

I think this really says it all, doesn’t it? If you want to kill people by making them wait for months for treatment, then by all means, pass “health care reform.”

First, do no harm.

My Energy Plan

Retrieve and use all the gas and coal we can find, build modern nuclear reactors as fast as possible (especially in the Third World), get fusion (especially Polywell) on-line as quick as we can to eventually replace all of the previous.

Build lots of big, un-economical windmills to keep the Greens happy.

Hit global warming alarmists over the head repeatedly with carbon-neutral ash wood baseball bats. Cap and trade THIS.

For the children.

The first Bleeding didn’t work–so let’s drain another quart!

Physicians once believed that draining the blood out of a sick person[*1] would make them better. Eventually, they figured out that instead of helping their patients get better, they were actually killing them faster.

But politicians haven’t figured out[*2] that draining cash out of a sick economy won’t make it any better than bleeding the medieval patient.

Rhode Island’s U.S. senators are discussing the possibility of a second economic stimulus package, a position that puts them at odds with President Obama.

Mr. Obama has said that the $787-billion stimulus, approved four months ago, needs more time to filter through the economy and reverse job losses. On Sunday, the vice president, Joe Biden, argued that it is “premature to make the judgment” on the massive recovery package.

But Rhode Island’s senators may be running out of patience. Since Mr. Obama signed the stimulus, the jobless rate in Rhode Island has risen from 10.5 percent to 12.1 percent.

It’s the 21st Century, guys. Paleolithic economic theories like “government stimulus spending” don’t work any better than bloodletting did–unless the object is to line the pockets of your political cronies and allies, that is. If that’s what the American Democratic National Socialists want to do, then another stimulus would be SWEET!

Palin Resigns–The story in her own words

Since everybody seems to want to dance on Sarah Palin’s political grave right now, it may be wise to read her full statement[*1] on why she’s stepping down as Alaska’s Governor:

Hi Alaska, I appreciate speaking directly TO you, the people I serve, as your Governor.

People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing’s more important to me than our beloved Alaska. Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine.

I want Alaskans to grasp what can be in store for our state. We were purchased as a territory because a member of President Abe Lincoln’s cabinet, William Seward, providentially saw in this great land, vast riches, beauty, strategic placement on the globe, and opportunity. He boldly looked “North to the Future”. But he endured such ridicule and mocking for his vision for Alaska, remember the adversaries scoffed, calling this “Seward’s Folly”. Seward withstood such disdain as he chose the uncomfortable, unconventional, but RIGHT path to secure Alaska, so Alaska could help secure the United States.

People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing’s more important to me than our beloved Alaska.

Alaska’s mission – to contribute to America. We’re strategic IN the world as the air crossroads OF the world, as a gatekeeper of the continent. Bold visionaries knew this – Alaska would be part of America’s great destiny.

Our destiny to be reached by responsibly developing our natural resources. This land, blessed with clean air, water, wildlife, minerals, AND oil and gas. It’s energy! God gave us energy.

So to serve the state is a humbling responsibility, because I know in my soul that Alaska is of such import, for America’s security, in our very volatile world. And you know me by now, I promised even four years ago to show MY independence… no more conventional “politics as usual”.

And we are doing well! My administration’s accomplishments speak for themselves. We work tirelessly for Alaskans.

We aggressively and responsibly develop our resources because they were created to be used to better our world… to HELP people… and we protect the environment and Alaskans (the resource owners) foremost with our policies.

Here’s some of the things we’ve done:

We created a petroleum integrity office to oversee safe development. We held the line FOR Alaskans on Point Thomson – and finally for the first time in decades – they’re drilling for oil and gas.

We have AGIA, the gasline project – a massive bi-partisan victory (the vote was 58 to 1!) – also succeeding as intended – protecting Alaskans as our clean natural gas will flow to energize us, and America, through a competitive, pro-private sector project. This is the largest private sector energy project, ever. THIS is energy independence.

And ACES – another bipartisan effort – is working as intended and industry is publicly acknowledging its success. Our new oil and gas “clear and equitable formula” is so Alaskans will no longer be taken advantage of. ACES incentivizes NEW exploration and development and JOBS that were previously not going to happen with a monopolized North Slope oil basin.

We cleaned up previously accepted unethical actions; we ushered in bi-partisan Ethics Reform.

We also slowed the rate of government growth, we worked with the Legislature to save billions of dollars for the future, and I made no lobbyist friends with my hundreds of millions of dollars in budget vetoes… but living beyond our means today is irresponsible for tomorrow.

We took government out of the dairy business and put it back into private-sector hands – where it should be.

We provided unprecedented support for education initiatives, and with the right leadership, finally filled long-vacant public safety positions. We built a sub-Cabinet on Climate Change and took heat from Outside special interests for our biologically-sound wildlife management for abundance.

We broke ground on the new prison.

And we made common sense conservative choices to eliminate personal luxuries like the jet, the chef, the junkets… the entourage.

And the Lt. Governor and I said “no” to our pay raises. So much success in this first term – and with this success I am proud to take credit… for hiring the right people! Our goal was to achieve a gasline project, more fair oil and gas valuation, and ethics reform in four years. We did it in two. It’s because of the people… good public servants surrounding the Governor’s office, with servants’ hearts and astounding work ethic… THEY are Alaska’s success!

We are doing well! I wish you’d hear MORE from the media of your state’s progress and how we tackle Outside interests – daily – SPECIAL interests that would stymie our state. Even those debt-ridden stimulus dollars that would force the heavy hand of federal government into our communities with an “all-knowing attitude” – I have taken the slings and arrows with that unpopular move to veto because I know being right is better than being popular. Some of those dollars would harm Alaska and harm America – I resisted those dollars because of the obscene national debt we’re forcing our children to pay, because of today’s Big Government spending; it’s immoral and doesn’t even make economic sense!

Another accomplishment – our Law Department protected states’ rights – TWO huge U.S. Supreme Court reversals came down against that liberal Ninth Circuit, deciding in OUR state’s favor over the last two weeks. We’re protectors of our Constitution – federalists protect states’ rights as mandated in 10th amendment.

But you don’t hear much of the good stuff in the press anymore, do you?

Some say things changed for me on August 29th last year – the day John McCain tapped me to be his running-mate – I say others changed.

Let me speak to that for a minute.

Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I’ve been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations – such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters’ questions.

Every one – all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We’ve won! But it hasn’t been cheap – the State has wasted THOUSANDS of hours of YOUR time and shelled out some two million of YOUR dollars to respond to “opposition research” – that’s money NOT going to fund teachers or troopers – or safer roads. And this political absurdity, the “politics of personal destruction” … Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn’t cost them a dime so they’re not going to stop draining public resources – spending other peoples’ money in their game.

It’s pretty insane – my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with THIS instead of progressing our state now. I know I promised no more “politics as usual,” but THIS isn’t what anyone had in mind for ALASKA.

If I have learned one thing: LIFE is about choices!

And one chooses how to react to circumstances. You can choose to engage in things that tear down, or build up. I choose to work very hard on a path for fruitfulness and productivity. I choose NOT to tear down and waste precious time; but to build UP this state and our country, and her industrious, generous, patriotic, free people!

Life is too short to compromise time and resources… it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: “Sit down and shut up”, but that’s the worthless, easy path; that’s a quitter’s way out. And a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just hunker down and “go with the flow”.

Nah, only dead fish “go with the flow”.

No. Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time… to BUILD UP.

And there is such a need to BUILD up and FIGHT for our state and our country. I choose to FIGHT for it! And I’ll work hard for others who still believe in free enterprise and smaller government; strong national security for our country and support for our troops; energy independence; and for those who will protect freedom and equality and LIFE… I’ll work for and campaign for those PROUD to be American, and those who are INSPIRED by our ideals and won’t deride them.

I WILL support others who seek to serve, in or out of office, for the RIGHT reasons, and I don’t care what party they’re in or no party at all. Inside Alaska – or Outside Alaska.

But I won’t do it from the Governor’s desk.

I’ve never believed that I, nor anyone else, needs a title to do this – to make a difference… to HELP people. So I choose, for my State and my family, more “freedom” to progress, all the way around… so that Alaska may progress… I will not seek re-election as Governor.

And so as I thought about this announcement that I wouldn’t run for re-election and what it means for Alaska, I thought about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks… travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade – as so many politicians do. And then I thought – that’s what’s wrong – many just accept that lame duck status, hit the road, draw the paycheck, and “milk it”. I’m not putting Alaska through that – I promised efficiencies and effectiveness! ? That’s not how I am wired. I am not wired to operate under the same old “politics as usual.” I promised that four years ago – and I meant it.

It’s not what is best for Alaska.

I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is unconventional and not so comfortable.

With this announcement that I am not seeking re-election… I’ve determined it’s best to transfer the authority of governor to Lieutenant Governor Parnell; and I am willing to do so, so that this administration – with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future – can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success.

My choice is to take a stand and effect change – not hit our heads against the wall and watch valuable state time and money, millions of your dollars, go down the drain in this new environment. Rather, we know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time, on another scale, and actually make a difference for our priorities – and so we will, for Alaskans and for Americans.

Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me – sports… basketball. I use it because you’re naïve if you don’t see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket… and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I’m doing that – keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities – smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it’s time to pass the ball – for victory.

I have given my reasons candidly and truthfully… and my last day won’t be for another few weeks so the transition will be very smooth. In fact, we will look to swear Sean in – in Fairbanks at the conclusion of our Governor’s picnics.

I do not want to disappoint anyone with my decision; all I can ask is that you TRUST me with this decision – but it’s no more “politics as usual”.

Some Alaskans don’t mind wasting public dollars and state time. I do. I cannot stand here as your Governor and allow millions upon millions of our dollars go to waste just so I can hold the title of Governor. And my children won’t allow it either. ? Some will question the timing. ? Let’s just say, this decision has been in the works for awhile…

In fact, this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life – my children (where the count was unanimous… well, in response to asking: “Want me to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our children’s future from OUTSIDE the Governor’s office?” It was four “yes’s” and one “hell yeah!” The “hell yeah” sealed it – and someday I’ll talk about the details of that… I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently.) Um, by the way, sure wish folks could ever, ever understand that we ALL could learn so much from someone like Trig – I know he needs me, but I need him even more… what a child can offer to set priorities RIGHT – that time is precious… the world needs more “Trigs”, not fewer.

My decision was also fortified during this most recent trip to Kosovo and Landstuhl, to visit our wounded soldiers overseas, those who sacrifice themselves in war for OUR freedom and security… we can ALL learn from our selfless Troops… they’re bold, they don’t give up, they take a stand and know that LIFE is short so they choose to NOT waste time. They choose to be productive and to serve something greater than SELF… and to build up their families, their states, our country. These Troops and their important missions – those are truly the worthy causes in this world and should be the public priority with time and resources and NOT this local / superficial wasteful political bloodsport.

May we ALL learn from them!

*((Gotta put First Things First))*

First things first: as Governor, I love my job and I love Alaska. It hurts to make this choice but I am doing what’s best for Alaska. I’ve explained why… though I think of the saying on my parents’ refrigerator that says “Don’t explain: your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe you anyway.”

But I have given my reasons… no more “politics as usual” and I am taking my fight for what’s right – for Alaska – in a new direction.

Now, despite this, I don’t want any Alaskan dissuaded from entering politics after seeing this REAL “climate change” that began in August… no, we NEED hardworking, average Americans fighting for what’s right! And I will support you because we need YOU and YOU can effect change, and I can too on the outside.

We need those who will respect our Constitution where government’s supposed to serve from the BOTTOM UP, not move toward this TOP DOWN big government take-over… but rather, will be protectors of individual rights – who also have enough common sense to acknowledge when conditions have drastically changed and are willing to call an audible and pass the ball when it’s time so the team can win! And that is what I’m doing!

Remember Alaska… America is now, more than ever, looking North to the Future. It’ll be good. So God bless you, and from me and my family – to ALL Alaska – you have my heart.

And we will be in the capable hands of our Lieutenant Governor, Sean Parnell. And Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will assume the role of Lieutenant Governor. And it is my promise to you that I will always be standing by, ready to assist. We have a good, positive agenda for Alaska.

In the words of General MacArthur said, “We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”

I’ve always said that I don’t trust anyone for President who acts like they want the office. I don’t think this is the statement of a person for whom becoming President is the primary objective.

Update: “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine. ”

What’s Wrong

Heritage Foundation publishes Tea Party Talking Points[*1] :

Big Government Getting Bigger

* Spending, Spending, Spending: President Obama spent nearly $800 billion on the stimulus bill and then proposed a budget that would increase spending by another $1 trillion over the next 10 years. Spending in 2009 has increased 25%, which is the largest non-war government expansion since the New Deal.

* Creating or Saving Jobs? The President set a benchmark of a 138.6 million jobs in the U.S. economy by the end of 2010. He is currently 6.4 million jobs short. Yet with rising unemployment, the White House continues to take credit for jobs “saved” without any empirical evidence to suggest this is true. The stimulus bill did create jobs in one sector–the government–by nearly doubling the size of several federal agencies and creating a huge bureaucracy.

* A Second Stimulus? The President stated that the stimulus would start helping the economy within months if not weeks of passage, but his advisors are now saying the real effect won’t take place until later this year, maybe. Meanwhile, the White House is now openly considering a second stimulus spending bill. The first stimulus already dumped $9,400 of debt into every American’s lap. Why double down?

American Families Paying More, Choosing Less

* The Public Health Care Plan: Independent analysis projects that as many as 119 million Americans could lose the coverage they have today if a government plan is introduced. Employers would be incentivized to drop private coverage, regardless of individual preferences in the matter. The end result would be bureaucrats and politicians, not families, controlling health care choices and decisions. Even the White House says the President’s rhetoric shouldn’t be taken “literally” when he promises you won’t lose your current plan.

* An Economy Killing Energy Tax: The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill in June, which will kill millions of jobs, cost American families over $3,000 a year, cause electricity rates to “skyrocket” according the President, cause gas and heating oil prices to rise, outsource jobs to China and India, hurt senior citizens and the poor the worst, and be highly susceptible to fraud and corruption–all without making any substantive impact on the environment.

Better Priorities for America

* Health Care Reform: Instead of introducing a massive government-run health care plan, Congress should consider alternatives that give families control of their health care by making insurance plans portable, reform the tax system to allow the same tax incentives for all insurance purchasers, and deliver real competition through innovative state-based solutions.

* Budget Reform: Instead of higher taxes and a second stimulus, President Obama should embrace real tax and entitlement reform by lowering business taxes, permanently repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax, reducing individual tax rates, and introducing serious Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security reform so future generations aren’t buried in excessive debt.

* Our Nation’s Defense: The world remains a dangerous place, populated with rogue states and terrorist organizations that pose an imminent threat to our nation. Instead of cutting defense spending, the Administration should restore missile defense funding and maintain a minimum defense budget of 4% of GDP for the next 10 years, not including war funding.

Compare and contrast, a history lesson from more than 200 years ago[*2] :

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

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. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

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

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.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris,Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr, Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

We’re nowhere near there yet, obviously, but the 52% currently having their way, running roughshod over the economy of this country and the rights of the people should remember that the American Revolution was never popular with more than about a third of the Colonial population at the time, and 52 should also remember that the Constitution is primarily designed to preserve the rights of the minority.

Don’t tread on me. Live free or die.