The Great American We-Set
It’s happening all across the United States, people are getting involved in their communities again after elected representatives and unelected bureaucrats have been exposed for acting against the people’s interests instead of safeguarding them. People have loss trust in the systems of government and have been pushed to the brink. They have decided that government has gone too far and have begun to push back. A failed pandemic response, equally failing education systems, and unconstitutional mandates made it clear that the people’s trust was misplaced. However, it's also our own fault as we did not stay involved the way we should have, and willingly silenced our own voices for too long.
In America we have a system designed to work FOR the people, where we are the masters, and they are the servants. Rather than having a powerful central government designed to run our everyday lives, we are instead a federalist system with a federal government strictly bound to operate only within enumerated powers delegated by the people through the states. The states and the people retain all other powers. But like any system that goes ignored for a long time it is breaking down, it’s been lacking the regular maintenance necessary to operate as it was designed.
Here is a quick civics lesson to highlight critical facts about the American system of governance. The federal government is limited by contract to 18 delegated powers (See US Constitution Article I, Section 8). But having these strictly defined powers enumerated in the main body of the US Constitution wasn’t enough to gain the signatures necessary to ratify. We needed a Bill of Rights to highlight those God-guaranteed not government granted freedoms essential to our pursuit of happiness. In the Bill of Rights, the 10th Amendment made it clear that states are the dominant political entity in the United States. The individual states thus have the requirement to act on behalf of the people should the federal government grow too powerful and begin to operate in breach of contract. Equally powerful is the 9th Amendment which makes it clear that any rights and privileges not addressed are retained by the people, not the government. Let us remember our founding documents are written to restrict government, not the people.
These last two years has made it clear that it’s time for the American citizen to conduct essential maintenance on our systems of government. For the last 100 years or more we thought this system would just keep running as it was designed. But like a car whose oil is never changed it will eventually seize, and seize it has. We are the only ones who can fix it, for those who benefit the most will do everything they can to maintain the status quo and use words like “change” when the reality is the only real change is how they continue to pile onto failure not if they will.
Many of today’s politicians want you to think that the pendulum is still swinging among the political parties under the pretext that the people have some control over the real outcomes. The reality is far more sinister as government grows in power and scope under both parties. Those who have entrenched themselves in systems of power for decades are fighting back against the American citizen. But this is a great sign as they know We have had enough, and those in power if not threatened will never have cause to react. But they are reacting in a visceral manner and many bureaucrats and government agents know their days of unsupervised behind the scenes power and influence peddling are numbered.
Parents are holding school boards accountable and taking them over. Citizens are gathering and organizing for victory. Quality candidates are running for office around the nation and people are realizing that both parties are guilty of dividing the American people. We have had enough, and we say no more: The Great American We-Set is coming let us all be a part of such a time in history.
Lt Col (ret) Darin Gaub is a Co-founder of Restore Liberty, an international military strategist and foreign policy analyst, an executive leadership coach, and serves on the boards of multiple volunteer national organizations. The views presented are those of the author and do not represent the views of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, or its components.