by Diane Rufino, October 1, 2023

On January 11, 1989, President Ronald Reagan delivered, in part, this farewell message to the American people:

“Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words:“We the People.” “We the People” tell the government what to do; it doesn’t tell us. “We the People” are the driver; the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world’s constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which “We the People” tell the government what it is allowed to do. “We the People” are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I’ve tried to do these past 8 years.

But back in the 1960’s, when I began, it seemed to me that we’d begun reversing the order of things — that through more and more rules and regulations and confiscatory taxes, the government was taking more of our money, more of our options, and more of our freedom. I went into politics in part to put up my hand and say, “Stop.” I was a citizen politician, and it seemed the right thing for a citizen to do.

I think we have stopped a lot of what needed stopping. And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.”

The conflict of the mid-60s and 70s between government and the People has returned. It has returned with a vengeance. We read the Declaration of Independence and want to believe what it says. We need to believe what it says. If it is nothing more than a superfluous outdated document, then the foundation upon which the US Constitution was drafted and enforced is essentially eroded and worthless. The American experiment would be over – destroyed within by its own ambitious leftist faction.

The Left is a party of un-patriotic, ungrateful, lazy, and supremely ignorant Americans determined to fundamentally transform and up-end our once-admirable republic. The Left seeks to destroy her principles and her critical and foundational institutions by vilifying them and making a mockery of them, slowly and steadily using the courts to get rid of them. Lawyers are liberal in nature. Judges tend to be liberal in nature as well. Taking chances by suing parties in court often pays off – judge-shopping and court shopping are common legal practices and it often takes years to finally adjudicate (making the issue a jurisprudent “precedent”). Take the cases of citizenship for African-Americans (Dred Scott), sodomy, abortion, and election control. We all concede to the “official opinion” of the US Supreme Court and other federal courts. How often do we say: “Well, the Supreme Court officially ruled on this issue.”

The Left seeks to transform and fundamentally change the ideals o this country, most notably in its support of a change in the “government-citizen” relationship and in its acceptance of the view that the federal government needs to increase its power and control over the States and the People. It pursues this general agenda by stealing elections, disabling a sitting president with wild and false accusations, and weaponizing the many departments and agencies of the government (most of which are unconstitutional). It has used the weaponized government offices to target political opponents (again, most notably Donald Trump) with harassment and the tarnishing of reputations with knowingly false information, with the ultimate goal of vilifying their existence. It has erased certain aspects of our nation’s history, such as slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights decade (1960s with Martin Luther King Jr. leading the charge) and has not only successfully resurrected the notion of systemic racism but has also introduced a new concept – demonization of the white population for its sense of entitlement and its historic mistreatment of members of the black race.

Examples include the harassment of Donald Trump (which continues to this day), Russian Collusion scandal, FISA court fraud, the sanctioning of election fraud and other irregularities, a mockery of an impeachment case against a sitting president, the harassment of conservative media personnel, the harassment of ordinary American citizens, the use of an unfortunate and irresponsible incident in Minneapolis where George Floyd (a career) criminal to re-ignite the racism of Reconstruction, a constant promise to “deny” the American people their second amendment right to “keep and bear firearms,” a constant vengeful legal strategy to go after ordinary citizens (including students) for exercising their Constitutional rights to free speech and to exercise their religious beliefs, and the arrests made in connection with the “January 6” Insurrection” incident.

Citizens are now fearful of their government, something that our Founding Fathers worked hard and dutifully to prevent, as well as fearful of the mainstream media and liberal courts. The Declaration of Independence, second paragraph, reads: “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.” In fact, it is this preface that precedes the list of grievances against the King of Britain and Parliament, justifying the declaration of independence of the American states.

Government is supposed to be “of the People, by the People, and for the People” (again, per the Declaration of Independence) and NOT supposed to be above the US Constitution and above the Rule of Law. Government should work FOR the People and not against them or their interests. It should not have any power to assume new powers and authority, usurping them the rightful parties – the individual States and the People. Always be mindful of our government structure – federalism (also, read the Bill of Rights, in particular the 9thand 10th amendments).

The Left is pursuing strategies to create an abusive and totally tyrannical government in the United States, allowing it to treat political opponents as “enemies” or “insurrectionists” and allowing it to treat ordinary citizens as worker bees and political slaves.

Once again, let’s be reminded that that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: “As government expands, liberty contracts.”

APPENDIX – The Declaration of Independence reads (second paragraph):

“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