Kennedy

A year ago, I wrote a rather long piece entitled  People vs. The State – The Coming Battle. Upon re-reading it, I thought it more pertinent now than it was then. As we advance toward November 2, the issues then discussed have galvanized into voter fury unlike anything that any of us have experienced.

Here is the piece in its entirety. It is unchanged except for some formatting and the addition of some images:

People vs. The State – The Coming Battle.

In a democratic system, the majority expresses itself through the ballot box. When representatives become unresponsive to the citizenry, they are voted out of office. But what if the replacements are no better than their predecessors? What happens when the “vote-the-bums-out” strategy fails, because the replacements are worse reprobates than the old ones? When the system is perceived to be so corrupt that the ballot box is no longer believed to be a vehicle for reform, then what?

Answers to these questions are uncertain, usually unique to the vagaries of  the situation, time and place. Nowhere in history has a people been more ingrained with the spirit of liberty and individualism, suggesting that the answers provided by the US may be especially unique.

Americans have always had an inherent distrust in government. The country was founded on the belief that government was necessary, but also a threat to freedom. As Thomas Jefferson said:

“History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.”

Others were just as adamant. As expressed by Patrick Henry:

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”

From the beginning, government was recognized as a potential evil. Per George Washington: