Think of the founding fathers. Men such as Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton and so many others. Common men and intellectual giants they all possessed great courage and character. They proved themselves eminently worthy in the leadership of a new nation.
Now consider our “leaders” of today. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barney Frank, Harry Reid and the rest of the wannabes in congress. Man, are we in trouble!
The founders gave us one of the most profound documents in the history of man, the Declaration of Independence. What if the “leaders” of today possessed the courage to honestly put forth their concept of the proper relationship between citizen and government? Below is the text of the original Declaration of Independence. It is lengthy but it will do you good to read it again. Following that is my version of what I think today’s “leaders” would come up with.
Declaration of Independence-July 4, 1776
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 shown 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 invasions from without and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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 benefits of trial by jury;
For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses;
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 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, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and 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 insurrection among us, and has endeavored 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 our 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 the 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 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.
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 shown 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 invasions from without and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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 benefits of trial by jury;
For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses;
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 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, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and 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 insurrection among us, and has endeavored 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 our 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 the 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 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.
And now a new version as I see our contemporary "Floundering Fathers" would have it.
Declaration of Dependence-September, 2009
When in the course of elitist frustration it becomes necessary for the ruling class to dissolve the constitutional constraints which have rendered them subservient to the common people and to assume among the tyrants of the earth, the separate and equal suppression of our people to which the will of the State and of the State’s legislature entitle them, a decent attempt at rationalization requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to this power grab.
We hold these truths to be self evident to us, that all survivors of Roe vs. Wade are created equal but some are more equal than others, that they are endowed by the State with sundry rights, subject to the caprice of the legislature. That among these are free education, free housing, free health care, a clean environment, a living wage, eight weeks paid vacation and card check. That to secure these rights, the State will confiscate the guns of the American citizen and the wealth of those that produce, deriving their just powers from the consent of a plurality of qualified voters as determined by ACORN. Convenience, indeed, will dictate that this State, newly established, shall not be challenged for light and transient causes such as liberty and self determination; and accordingly all experience hath shown that freedom is insufferable to the ruling elite. So when a long train of advancements, pursuing invariably the same object of individual freedom and happiness evinces a design to reduce the State to a condition of mere servitude to the people, it is the ruling elites duty to throw off such pursuits of the individual, and to provide new guards for their future subjugation. Such has been the patient sufferance of these elitists; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present American Republic is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations of State power, all having in direct object the establishment of absolute freedom from tyranny. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a sleeping world.
We hold these truths to be self evident to us, that all survivors of Roe vs. Wade are created equal but some are more equal than others, that they are endowed by the State with sundry rights, subject to the caprice of the legislature. That among these are free education, free housing, free health care, a clean environment, a living wage, eight weeks paid vacation and card check. That to secure these rights, the State will confiscate the guns of the American citizen and the wealth of those that produce, deriving their just powers from the consent of a plurality of qualified voters as determined by ACORN. Convenience, indeed, will dictate that this State, newly established, shall not be challenged for light and transient causes such as liberty and self determination; and accordingly all experience hath shown that freedom is insufferable to the ruling elite. So when a long train of advancements, pursuing invariably the same object of individual freedom and happiness evinces a design to reduce the State to a condition of mere servitude to the people, it is the ruling elites duty to throw off such pursuits of the individual, and to provide new guards for their future subjugation. Such has been the patient sufferance of these elitists; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present American Republic is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations of State power, all having in direct object the establishment of absolute freedom from tyranny. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a sleeping world.
The American Patriot:
Has continued to read the Bible and make assertions that there is a power higher than the State.
Continues to believe that individual autonomy supersedes the collective good, as determined by the State.
Has insisted on his right to own guns thereby scaring the crap out of liberal wienies everywhere.
Continues to insist he is entitled to the fruits of his labor.
Has objected to our establishment of a multitude of new offices and has resisted the swarms of bureaucrats we have sent hither to harass him and eat out his substance.
Desires to destroy evil rather than compromise with it.
Believes people in this country illegally should be treated as if they have broken the law.
Believes it is right and proper to execute murderers but would deny a mother the “right” to kill her unborn child.
Objects when the judiciary creates new law, out of whole cloth, merely because such law would never be codified by the legislature with the consent of the people.
Would rather kill our enemies than try to understand them.
Believes it takes a mom and dad, not a village, to raise a child.
Continues to question the credibility of Al Gore just because he has a carbon footprint the size of Texas.
Prefers freedom to the illusion of security we so graciously provide.
In every stage of these annoyances we have petitioned the common people to just shut up and behave. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by the obstinate behavior of free men. A people, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define an American Patriot, needs to be taught a lesson. We must, therefore, hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in freedom, in chains servants. We, therefore, the self anointed elite of the Ruling Class, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Main Stream Media for the distortion of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of our own hubris, solemnly publish and declare, that these United States are, and if they swallow this, ought to be, subservient to the Central Government, that they are absolved from all allegiance to any concept of States Rights, and that all divine connections between U.S. Citizens and freedom is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the timid acquiescence of the masses, we mutually pledge the vacuum of our honor and conscience.
