The Democratic Republic of the United States of America has died. The deathblow came not from an enemy on the field of battle but from an enemy right here at home. The name of that enemy: Shortsighted partisan politics.
The last several decades have seen the erosion of our great republic through the removal of the system of checks and balances by the gratuitous use of executive privilege, the implementation of the 17th Amendment, and now the limited removal of the filibuster.
The filibuster was intended to be the last line of defense against an overwhelming majority, to prevent tyranny against a minority. Now that it is gone, the door to tyranny has not merely been opened but blown wide, and we are susceptible to tragic ruin by way of unopposed judicial activism and continued abuse of executive appointment. Many appointees, history has shown, will be unanswerable to "the people" yet greatly impact their lives.
This isn't about Republican vs. Democrat; it's about the life and protections afforded us by the Constitution vs. a government so out of control that it has lost sight of "the people."
I beg you — all of you — to put down your digital drugs. Turn off the TV, log off Facebook and look around you. See what you are about to lose, learn about it if you don't understand, and take action while you still legally can.
The cost of inaction is liberty; the fruit of apathy is tyranny.
Michael De Luca
Salisbury Mills