Time to Reboot

As Americans, as citizens, we have the duty to stand up and defend our Constitution. We have the same obligation to our country that soldiers do when they swear an oath to defend this great nation from enemies both foreign and domestic (Army.mil). History, our history, is rich with patriotism, rich with sacrifice, both from soldiers fighting on distant shores to everyday citizens pitching in what they can to support such efforts. From the birth of this nation to that dark day in September a decade ago, Americans have always united to defend ourselves from external threats and many have paid the ultimate sacrifice to do so. So why do we sit idly by as our nation is being ripped apart from within its own borders? We have a right, a duty, to defend this grand experiment from domestic enemies yet we do nothing to stop the usurping of Constitutional power from the citizens and states that are the bedrock of this Republic. This nation needs a reboot or better yet a fresh install of the Constitution, back to the original intentions that brought together thirteen separate and sovereign States.

As citizens we have failed every single man, woman, and child that has laid down their life in defense of this nation. Too often we have allowed the debate over matters facing our nation to be framed in a way so that we always lose the argument. Take for example the debate over abortion, for decades there have been two arguments; one against abortion and one for abortion. Both arguments fail at their very core because although both stances are valid the setting in which they are framed makes both sides a loser. The debate on abortion, like many others facing our nation, should play out in each individual State. What harm would befall this country if only two-thirds of the States legalized abortion? A citizen could travel to the next State to have the procedure and thus would not have a “right” stripped away. The point here is not to argue the validity of abortion but to illustrate how we as citizens have allowed the Federal government to overstep its Constitutional authority. States should have the right to decide matters such as abortion, gay marriage, public education, and any other hot topic as long as the Constitution does not permit the Federal government that authority.

This is not an argument for anarchy, socialism, or any other type of nutty government. This is an argument for getting local again, bringing solutions back to where the problems are, not creating solutions where problems do not exist. It is time to force our local government to stand against regulations that are unwanted or do not fit locally. It is time for citizens to take responsibility for the actions of government that they permit in their town, community, city, and State. If California is facing bankruptcy for example, due to the incompetence of its elected leaders, then the State and its citizens should be held responsible. The people of California need to dig themselves out of the hole they created for themselves by continually reelecting the same incompetent leaders over and over again. Until they do so they should not be the beneficiary of bailout money either Federally or from other States.

Herein lies the problem we are facing today; no one takes responsibility for their own actions. Sure we hold others responsible for their actions, but we never look in the mirror and take the blame. For full disclosure I live in California and even here we look to blame others for our problems. The most common is to blame the illegal aliens for our failing economy and the Federal government for not securing our border. The truth is though that the State of California is an absolute, horrible mess of an economy and of government. Whose to blame however? The citizens of California are (that’s me). It would be unethical to hold citizens of other States accountable fiscally by taking their hard earned income in the form of taxes and redirect that money through the Federal government to the corrupt and broken system of California. Californians must be the ones to fix the system they have broken or fail trying. Our Constitution requires us to stand up and now is the time. Let’s reboot before our system crashes.