Benjamin Franklin’s famous 1787 response to a woman outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia when asked what the Framer’s of the constitution had produced: “A republic, madame, if you can keep it” is oft repeated these days when the veracity of elections are suspect; parents are given 3 minutes to object to forced vaccines and unisex bathrooms and FEMA has been weaponized against ravaged Hurricane Helene victims denying funds and supplies from good Samaritan neighbors who’ve come to help.  

Thomas Jefferson sounded a similar warning when remarking on the tradeoff between the expansion of government and protecting liberty: “When you abandon freedom to achieve security, you lose both and deserve neither.” The New Deal and the Great Society have led to a size and scale of government unimaginable 50 years ago. The public social expenditure as a % of GDP has soared to 20% (OECD 2014) while the federal debt approaches $36 T. America has become drunk on the illusionary sense of security from “free stuff”, big houses, battery powered cars, favorite sports teams and the latest iPhone. We watch the lawlessness in Aurora, Springfield, and other cities and wonder how Mad Max has become a real-time reality in America.

As a republic, America’s form of government is like no other…ever. What Franklin was saying is this; the ultimate responsibility for whether we remain a free or enslaved people falls on whether we’d allow the forces of corruption and division to come from our own people. James Madison the father of the Constitution was in agreement: “If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within”. United we stand and divided we fall is true today as it was when Jesus rebuked the Pharisees. (Mark 3:20-30)

What can be done to prolong God’s Grace on America and extend the great American experiment? British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke reminds us that remaining passive is not an option, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. Many are likely familiar with the first four of the five guaranteed freedoms in the First Amendment: speech, religion, press and assembly. The often ignored last one is equally vital and fits the hour we’re in. We the People have the right to petition government for the redress of grievances. 

The Framers knew there would be a time when government would need to be reprimanded and reformed by their sovereigns, the People. The Colonies vigorously petitioned the British Crown for among other things taxation without representation, corruption within the judicial system, and standing armies. After listing 27 grievances the Declaration of Independence concludes with “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”. 

Since WW1 the petition process has been buried by the media and political class. Schools, colleges and universities have failed to teach the history, virtue and vitality of the constitution which has led us into ignorance and powerlessness. In Democracy By Petition Harvard scholar and author Daniel Carpenter wrote:   When people think, “‘All we need to do is win elections, put our people in there, and let the machinery of government go to work’—without the dialogue between officeholder and citizen that democratic forms of government really need,” he continues—government by and for the people suffers.“

The only road to travel is the one that restores the constitution to its rightful position as the supreme law of the land (Article VI). The power hierarchy from top to bottom starts in the counties then travels to the states and ends in Washington.  The theatre we see around national and state elections is a distraction from our vested role in holding county politicians accountable to their oath to preserve and defend the constitution. When the great and magnificent Wizard of Oz told Dorothy and her cohorts “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” the county government is today’s Oz which the main stream media, academics, and politicians don’t want us to see. Let’s fulfill our constitutional duty by organizing and petitioning for the redress of grievances within our counties while remaining steadfast and centered on liberty.

When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil. Thomas Jefferson

Woody Kaye lives in Loudoun and is a guest contributor to Red Virginia News