A Few Words from Our Founders about Disloyalty and Patriotism…

McCamy Taylor

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Sat Dec-19-09 05:15 PM
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A Few Words from Our Founders about Disloyalty and Patriotism…

First off, it is not my job to make our elected leaders look good.

It is my job as a U.S. citizen to make them act well. When they get distracted by all the lovely lobbyists and their big sacks of cash, I am not supposed to exclaim Hot damn! Those are MY politicians getting rich now! I am not required to feel my bosom swell with pride, because the nation’s CEOs are bribing Democrats as much or more than Republicans. As a good American, I can not sit back and bask in the glow of Democrats who act marginally more civilized than their Republican counterparts.

To do so, would be to concede that we are no longer a representative democracy. And once we make that concession, we spit in the face of our nation’s Founders.

I. A Little Knowledge…. is Better Than No Knowledge At All

Somewhere along the way, Americans bought into the notion that we are a people who feel rather than think. I have some good news. It is possible to do both. But, in order to make rational decisions, we must keep ourselves (and our neighbors) informed.

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesom discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was a big believer in the natural human capacity to learn and grow. In his opinion, if you bothered to teach people about their government, they would step forward to correct problems as they arose. And he had plenty of reason for fearing the worst from our new country’s federal government. John Adams, with whom Jefferson served as Vice President, used the Constitution for toilet paper. He made free speech a crime. He made criticism of the federal government a crime. He shut down newspapers. He created a phantom menace in France, our Revolutionary War ally. If Jefferson was the advocate of an informed electorate, Adams was its nemesis.

Over two centuries have passed, and we still face the same conflict. Some of those in power would prefer that we cast our votes and form our opinions based upon emotion. They teach us that our chosen political party is always right, because it is always battling the forces of evil (i.e. the other major political party). We get so caught up in this political wrestling match that we fail to notice that the battle is, very often, a mock one. We are told that it is disloyal to criticize members of our own party----

The prejudice of Englishmen, in favour of their own government, by King, Lords and Commons, arises as much or more from national pride than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than in some other countries: but the will of the king is as much the law of the land in Britain as in France, with this difference, that instead of proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people under the formidable shape of an act of parliament. For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more subtle — not more just.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

II. My Party, Right or….Fix It

In the 18th century, it was wrong to acquiesce to tyranny out of a sense of national pride. In the 21st century, it is still wrong. So, what constitutes tyranny? Hell, we all know that one.

Taxation without representation is tyranny.

James Otis

No, this is not an anti-tax screed. It is a statement against the imposition of government from above. We claim to live in a democracy. And yet, we are told that our opinions only matter once every two to four years, when we vote (in rigged elections that are financed by the nation’s wealth business elite). We are told that good things will come in time. Wealth will trickle down. People who criticize the government and especially their own party’s members in government are often characterized as trouble makers, traitors, stealth agents for “the other side”. If this were true, then Jefferson, Paine and the rest should be reviled in our history books---

But they are not. Far from it. They are revered as heroes who had the courage to fashion a government that reflected their interests, not those of VIPs across the Atlantic. A modern American patriot is one who fights to meet the essential needs of her family and community. She does not wish and hope and pray that things will get better. She takes responsibility. She points her finger at wrongs:

"Mankind may amuse themselves with theoretic systems of liberty, and trace its social and moral effects on sciences, virtue, industry and every improvement of which the human mind is capable; but we can only discern its true value by the practical and wretched effects of slavery; and thus dreadfully will they be realized, when the inhabitants of the Eastern States are dragging out a miserable existence, only on the gleanings of their fields; and the Southern, blessed with a softer and more fertile climate, are languishing in hopeless poverty; and when asked, what is become of the flower of their crop, and the rich produce of their farms-they may answer in the hapless stile of the Man of La Mancha,-" The steward of my Lord has seized and sent it to Madrid." Or, in the more literal language of truth, The exigencies of government require that the collectors of the revenue should transmit it to the Federal City."
Mercy Otis Warren.

A true patriot does not wave a flag. He thinks of ways in which he and his neighbors can live better lives. He knows that things like nutrition, education, personal safety, health and work are all essential to human happiness---and the happiness of the individual is necessary if the community is going to prosper. Self sacrifice can be a good thing, if done out of compassion for another individual. But we need to know the difference between self sacrifice and slavery.

And a serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and positive conviction that what he calls "the present constitution" is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.

Thomas Paine

This is not a labor of a moment. We can not pull the lever and then sit back.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Debated quote, often attributed to Thomas Jefferson.

Folks who are tearing Congress and the President a new one over the atrocity which the Senate calls “Health Care Reform” are not trying to destroy political careers. They are trying to provide political guidance to their elected representatives so that our democracy will be a better one (since a country can only be as strong as its citizens). They publicize their criticism, because they know that if informed Americans actually bother to take an interest in politics, Washington will listen.

III. Moving Mountains

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds”

Samuel Adams

Imagine how different things would have been had the corporate media bothered to cover the criticism of Bush-Cheney’s march to war in Iraq? Plenty of people, including Democrats in Congress, tried to question the rhetoric of Rice, Powell and Bush. They were effectively censored. The result was a Vietnam style quagmire.

Eight years from now, will we look back and say “If only we had spoken out when we had a chance?”

“Yes, we can!” does not mean “Yes, Obama can!” or “Yes, 60 Democratic Senators can!” It means that we, the people of the United States can accomplish miracles, if only we set our minds to it.

It will not be easy to get the politicians in Washington to listen to us, after they have spent so long listening to the lobbyists. But if we surrender without even trying, for fear of being labeled “disloyal” then what does that make us?

In my book, it makes us traitors to democracy.

IV. A Work In Progress

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

US Constitution

If we had stopped trying back in the 18th century, slavery would still be legal. Children would still labor in sweat shops. Women still would not have the vote. We are constantly evolving. It is never "too soon" to improve someone's welfare.

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