There is No Time for Idleness.

The Revolution is Now.

________________________________Blake Ragghianti_______________________________

“The independence of America would have added but little to her own happiness,
and been of no benefit to the world," wrote [Thomas] Paine, "if her government
had been built on the corrupt models of the world. It was the opportunity of
beginning the world anew…of bringing forward a new system of government in
which the rights of all men should be preserved that gave value to
independence."1

Indeed in the aftermath of the Boston Massacre of 1775 the seeds of a new world - a new
system of government - were sewn. For the next year, John Adams of Massachusetts with the aid
of Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania argued and persuaded delegates from the other 12
colonies to declare independence from the tyranny of England's oppressive rule - enlisting the
eloquent and genius Thomas Jefferson to pen a Declaration of Independence, not only for our
birthing nation, but ultimately for all of man kind.

From the moment we won the war for our independence, our experiment in government
of, by and for the people has been under constant attack, primarily through devious political
invasion by the very paradigm from which we broke free - by a selfish and misguided minority
that would rather have an elite few rule what President John Adams and later Edward Burke
(father of what would become the modern Conservative party) referred to as “the ignorant
rabble,” i.e. you and I - We the People.

In light of countless constitutionally destructive political actions - militarily,

legislatively, and often surreptitiously - taken by various presidential administrations throughout
our entire history but most especially in the past 60 years and specifically following the tragic
events of September 11, 2001, it is critical that We the People awaken from our languid civic
slumber, recognize such heinous actions, and with great haste make vigorous effort to purge
these toxic viruses from our ailing political body and further, take such actions which will ensure
the prevention of same from plaguing our system in the future.

In order to awaken from this slumber and redirect our nation back to its true course, the
course so carefully formulated and instituted by our founding fathers, we have only to look back
to the original maps with which they provided us; the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights,
 Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed. - That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly
all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils
are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide
new Guards for their future security. A

At no time in history hereto before did an oppressed people (as the majority of men, not
being of royal blood or aristocratic privilege had always been) dare to declare their 'unalienable
Rights' and proceed to defend them to the victory of their own independence. Assuming that you,
a citizen of the free world, acknowledge and appreciate that your ability to be such is massively
due to this very proclamation and the continuing defense of the 'self-evident' truths therein, it is
important then to focus specifically on Jefferson's following words:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form
of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People
to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on
such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. A1

In the years shortly following our Declaration of Independence we realized Jefferson's

statements by instituting a Government who's just powers were derived from the consent of the
governed and securing our basic Rights via the composition and comprehensive ratification of
the Constitution of the United States of America. Since its composition, we have consistently
worked towards perfecting it, eventually abolishing slavery, guaranteeing equal rights to women
and eventually all minorities, and confirming and guaranteeing further 'unalienable' rights such
as freedom of religion, speech, press, peaceful assembly, the right to representation and counsel
before an impartial court (as well as habeas corpus), the right to bear arms (especially for the
purpose of defending one against ones own government), and many others.

In the time between its composition and its present state, multiple attacks have been made
on our dear constitution –blatantly in view of the public, quietly ear marked behind more popular
and emotional issues, and most often, guised behind complicated legal jargon and passed in the
wee small hours of the morning or on holidays or behind the smoke of more sensational and
popular current events which purposefully saturate main stream media. Several of our past
presidents vampirically passed this type of legislation, slowly weakening our revolutionary
constitutions backbone while ever so slyly shifting more and more rights out of the hands of the
people and into the hands of the government. For example, Senator McCarthy simply acted in
complete betrayal of the Constitution by vigorously promoting and instigating the revocation of
several of our unalienable Rights in a period of extreme anti-communist suspicion inspired by
the tensions of the Cold War. Our Rights were severely abused by Senator McCarthy under the
political guise of Constitutional protection against “the evil dangers of communism” and the
spread of its “iniquitous”' ideas throughout our country; ideas which supposedly threatened to
“undermine our very way of life.” Suspected members and associates of the Communist Party
and Communist interest groups were rounded up and given partial and theatrical trials rarely in
favor of the suspect, making front page headlines and cunningly capitalizing on our natural fear
of loosing our rights by leading the citizenry to believe each conviction brought us closer to
“safety.” In a sickening twist of irony, it was the people’s fear of loosing their rights which
allowed those very same rights to be violated. President Woodrow Wilson's administration, in a
very similar manner and with identical disregard for the Constitution energetically repressed
radical leftists and progressives during World War I and by using "Red Scare" tactics in 1919-20,
decimated the growing Socialist Party.

This same type of event again is recorded in our history over 150 years ago in the very
first years of our countries journey to freedom when in fear of an outright war with the French,
President John Adams passed the Alien Enemies Act and the Alien Act of 1798, licensing the
President in both times of war and peace to round up patriots of the enemy nation living in
America, hold them prisoner or remove them from the country without trial. More specifically,
the Alien Act authorized the President – in a time of war or peace – to deport from the country
any foreigner he considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States," again
without trial or even oversight by Congress. Following these two unconstitutional acts the
abominable Sedition Act was passed making it a crime to criticize the government by
ambiguously outlawing the issuing of "any false, scandalous, and malicious writing or writings
against the Government…or either House of Congress, with intent to defame…or bring them
into contempt or disrepute" (A nearly identical Sedition Act would again be passed in 1918 by
President Woodrow Wilson). 2 All three Acts were not only directly stolen from basic
Communist theory (in another twist of irony) but were in direct violation of Article I of the Bill
of Rights which clearly states that "Congress shall make no law [sic] prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Quoting the First Amendment, Progressive champion (and arch opponent of Woodrow Wilson)
of the 1920s, Eugene Debbs said that "The revolutionary fathers…understood that free speech, a
free press, and the Right of free assemblage by the people are the fundamental principles of
democratic government," and enjoining that if "Congress enacts any law that conflicts with this
provision in the Constitution, that law is necessarily void." He famously warned, "If the
Espionage Law finally stands, then the Constitution of the United States is dead." 3 (with side
note)

These Acts, the Alien Enemies Act, the Alien Act, both the Sedition Act of 1798 and the
Sedition Act of 1918, and the Espionage Act, were a direct predecessor to our most recent and
absolutely unconstitutional (and intentionally misnamed) Patriot Act, once again allowing the
President the unconstitutional and completely undemocratic Omni-power of declaring any
person, without trial or consent of Congress, a threat to the safety of this country, and to search,
detain indefinitely or deport him without warrant, without notice, without trial, and without any
notification to family or public. This rape and pillage of our Bill of Rights, and especially the 1st
and 4th Amendment, has been sold to us through snake oil style pedaling and the manipulative
abuse of our primal reaction of self preservation (fight or flight) to a threatening fear, all under
the pretense that due to the increase in big bad terrorists planning on destroying America, it is a
“critical” step toward a “safer homeland.”

Congruent in governing principles with the post-Presidential John Adams, anti-

constitutional thinkers such as Burke, Wilson, McCarthy, Regan and Bush Jr. have long favored
the limited size and aristocratic control of the government over a more diverse and citizen
controlled government. Adams himself so feared the people that he imagined inevitable
misguided decision making from “the poor and ignorant rabble” while Thomas Paine refuted this
fear by stating that "if dangerous in the hands of the poor from ignorance [regarding the power
to vote], then equally dangerous in the hands of the rich from influence [and selfish, incestuous
intent]." 4 Adams and a few others of like mind were able to persuade the other founders
strongly enough that shortly into its composition, the Electoral College system (Article II,
Section I) was integrated into the Constitution.

To this day the Electoral College remains one of the most controversial and highly
contested aspects of our democratic system (along with the limits of a two-party/winner-takes-all
system), intervening with the direct election of a President by popular vote while allowing the
populous to vote merely for representatives or delegates who pledge (but are not obligated or
required by law) to vote for a particular candidate. Thus on three occasions in the history of
American Presidential elections has the popular vote been overthrown by the Electoral College
(Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, and George W. Bush), all right-wing
candidates - traditionally valuing small government run by an elite few and not surprisingly, the
early political party which insisted upon the implementation of the Electoral College in the first
place.

Furthermore, in the Declaration of Independence Jefferson continues:

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes… A3

It is blindingly evident that the Patriot Act (for a perfect example) is irrefutably a massive
change to our Bill of Rights due to a completely light and transient cause of temporarily inflated
terrorist threats, which as history has well begun (and is continuing to) reveal, are largely and
plausibly entirely exaggerated and based in deception, mendacity, and fabrication encouraged (if
not wholly designed) by our current administration and its corporate and financial bedmates
(national and international) also in conjunction with specific international counterparts in furtive
agreement or through illegal political manipulation. This “Patriot Act” is clearly an attempt to
break the back of our Constitution. Through the guise of a national security measure it is actually
a political tool meant to increase Executive power and privilege and to gain support from the
people through the two most ancient and powerful weapons – fear and the common hatred of an
enemy. The recent claims of extreme terrorist dangers and the terrorist attacks (the World Trade
Towers tragedy of 9/11 being the primary incident) are absolutely identical in manner and
purpose as the well documented U.S. government instigated attack on Pearl Harbor and the
completely false claims of Vietnamese PT boat attacks on a U.S. ship in the Bay of Tonkin, each
instances being a well designed excuse to engage the citizens fear response, gain their support,
and engage in the monetarily outrageous and humanly expensive endeavor of war.C

Power, once gained, is not easily given up. It is clear that this war (just as with the
Vietnam War) was never meant to be “won,” but to be sustained indefinitely. George W. Bush
declared the Iraq War (originally titled “Operation Iraq Liberation” or OIL) officially won on the
blistery morning of May 2, 2003, over 5 years ago. The problem is however, that the war never
ended and in fact was never truly a “war” in the first place. By definition a war must be declared
on a nation or a group of people. George W. Bush, however, has declared a war on an idea,
terrorism – which inevitably can never be won – thus providing the ideal situation needed to
sustain Executive privileges and power, to slowly sap our Constitution of its guarantees, and to
strip the citizens of their Rights and voice in the government, all by keeping the people in the
easily manufacture state of voluntary submission arising out of our fear for self preservation.

James Madison best understood this scenario when he stated “No nation could preserve
its freedom in the midst of continual war.” For this reason alone presidential candidate John
McCains statement that he ‘would be happy if the war in [i.e. occupation of] Iraq lasted another
100 years’ should set off instant outrage by the people of this nation. Madison further warns that:
“Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises
and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and
taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many
under the domination of the few…. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive
[Presidency] is extended… Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments [profits]
is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force
of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of
fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war… and in the degeneracy of
manners and morals, engendered by both.” Abraham Lincoln also understood these dangers
when in an 1848 correspondence he wrote “Kings had always been involving and
impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the
people was the object. This, our [1787] Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all
Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold
the power of bringing this oppression upon us [unilaterally].

"...and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed." A4

Could this statement be any truer of our current moment in political history? While our
liberties are being slowly, systematically, and even voluntarily reduced to the obvious and
apparent negative consequences affecting every U.S. citizen, the majority of our citizenry opts to
sit inactively only occasionally grumbling (if not passively acquiescing) about what we
genuinely know to be unconstitutional crimes by our leaders against our most basic Rights set
forth and forever guaranteed at the birth of our great Nation. With this in mind, it is critical to
remember that the absolute singular duty of our government (other than representing and
implementing our collective interests) is to "Faithfully execute the office[s]…… of the United
States, and…. preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." B

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same
Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right,
it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for
their future security. A5

Jefferson warns of "…a long train of abuses and usurpations…" such as President Bush and
Vice President Cheney's repeated and consistent actions of contempt, mockery, and manipulation
of our very system of government and the contempt, mockery, manipulation, and selfishly willful
ignorance [ignore-ance] of the very Will and Rights of the citizens of this country commencing
on the date of their inauguration and extending thoroughly to the present. If the current political
lethargy of the citizenry continues, most assuredly this train of abuses will extend permanently
into the future - especially with the possible election of a like-policied Presidential candidate.
We must not allow this path to be taken. In the Declaration of Independence, our founders offer
a clear solution in their confirmation of our Right to carry out such actions as necessary in order
to revoke those abuses and restore our liberties. We must boldly step out of our lethargy and
claim this absolute Right and Duty "to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards
for [our] future security." As citizens of this great Nation we are, in the very least, obligated to
defend those Rights by which this Republic was founded and fittingly, are required by our
Constitution to pound down the doors of Washington and reclaim our liberty from its molesters.
This is not simply radical thinking, it is American thinking. This Nation was founded upon
revolution and so its revolution must it be unbroken.

Since the politically volatile time of the American Revolution it is plain to see that the
vast majority of our people have become apathetic toward their interest and involvement with the
government. This is due to a multitude of reasons, the primary cause however being a vicious
attempt by far right wing maniacs like Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist to reframe the
government as something bad – a stain in our system. Norquist famously said “I don’t want to
abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom
and drown it in the bathtub.” We must, however, remember than in our Democratic Republic, the
word “government” is complete interchangeable with the phrase “the voice and will of the
people.” Certainly, our collective voice and will is not evil. It is, instead, ourselves. We are the
government as much as they are us - our representatives, our voice enacting our will. This
manipulated negative change in our view of our own government has indeed instigated our civic
stupor, thus giving every incentive and opportunity for those in power to abuse that power in
ways that manifest profit and enrichment for themselves and those in their circle while not
considering or otherwise purposefully ignoring and injuring the welfare of the general public and
the state itself. This is more evident than ever in recent times as the administration of George W.
Bush steadfastly continues to remove our Rights, downgrade all of our standards (especially with
regard to the environment, education, and the OSDI [Old Age, Survivors, and Disability
Insurance program] (mistakenly nicknamed Social-Security) and colossally increase Federal
spending while simultaneously cutting taxes (with the economic effect of ‘pay me now or pay
me later’) and initiating expensive, ill-formed, and theatrical "economic stimulus plans."
Furthermore, he has succeeded at alienating our nation from its once strong community of allies
by using fear of terrorist attacks and uprisings as incentive for Americans to voluntarily give up
more of their rights in the name of 'Safety' and "Homeland Security," the later, a term coined
(and an old theme widely used) by another infamous fear mongering leader - Adolf Hitler.

The internet is currently peppered with news in the form of videos, photographs, audio
testimonials, and blogs of unconstitutional searches, arrests, and detainments which now occur
on a regular basis, most often starting as 'altercations' between police and political protesters
exercising their rights of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Peaceful Assembly. It is clear
more than ever that our Civil Liberties are becoming Civil Liabilities, especially under The
Patriot Act, possibly the single most unconstitutional piece of legislation ever written, passed
and enforced.

Despite our Declaration’s specific statement that "...whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends [of our self-evident and unalienable rights], it is the Right of
the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness," our consumer-product obsessed population has not made even a
single step toward the thought of impeaching this egocentric abuser of our Constitution [though
we certainly jumped on the occasion to do just so in the midst of a sexual scandal during the last
administration - a scandal which, though morally improper, did not remove any citizens Rights,
grant the President any Dictatorial power, damage the U.S. Constitution or economy, or cost the
lives of countless U.S. soldiers and foreign civilians in the name of elitist profiteering
ingeniously guised as a fight to defend our liberty at home and spread Democracy across the
world. (As of March 2008, 4,000 U.S. soldiers are dead - many thousands more maimed -
90,000 Iraqi civilians dead, $514,712,815,808 spent, and with the result of an Iraq less stable
than ever before in its entire history with a "monumental humanitarian crisis leaving millions of
Iraqis with little or no access to clean water, sanitation and no healthcare.") 5

Still, the people of our great Nation do not act on the guaranteed Rights which few other
people on earth can even dream about. In addition, Jefferson actually charges the American
people with the duty to act in defense of their Constitution - any other course taken is not just
apathy but pure heresy. Are we to be a nation of mindless heretics? I tell you; not I!

Never before in the history of this country has presidential power been so highly
distorted, the power of the Congress so blatantly disregarded, or the people so civically lethargic
and listless as during the past three administrations. We The People are too enthralled with the
latest sitcom, movie, video game, or multi-functional and sensational electronic gadget (so
carefully placed before us) to care about the seemingly meaningless squabble in far off
Washington. Without constant attention and care, the fragile blossom of American liberty is
doomed.
 As Jefferson so eloquently stated, it is absolutely our Right and our Duty as Citizens of
the United States of America to alter or abolish our current human Rights-destroying
government… and be not mistaken, our current administration is destructive to the welfare and
future safety of our Constitution and its people to the fullest extent of the definition. Children
born today have fewer rights and liberties than did their parents, including all of our guaranteed
Rights as we know them, among which Freedom of the Press and Freedom of a Fair Election are
under critical attack and in fact teeter on the verge of permanent devaluation.

By the definition of the U.S. Revolutionary Era, a "radical" is a revolutionary Democrat.

He fought to liberate men and women from the authoritarianism of states, classes, and churches
and to empower them to think for and govern themselves, especially under the safe guards and
checks and balances of a Democracy. In 1775, American radicals spoke of "the people" as the
real source of power and of the "active consent of the governed" as "the only true foundation of
government." By this definition I am proudly a Radical and I, with all my heart, call upon every
true citizen of this great Nation to unite in a nonpartisan, bipartisan, or neopartisan radical
movement intent on rectifying the abuses of our dear Constitution. Do not fear radicalism. It is
as integral to Americanism as Democracy itself. "Let them call me radical and welcome, I feel
no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul!"
6

Political author Saul Alinsky once said:

…the history of America is the story of radicalism. It is a saga of revolution,

battle, words on paper setting hearts on fire, ferment and turmoil; it is the story of
every rallying cry of the American people. It is the story of revolutions; of
America herself, of public schools, of the battle for free land, of emancipation, of
the unceasing struggle for the ever increasing liberation of mankind. 7

In those simple words we must take heart. We must come together despite our meager and
relative differences, stand up, rally, and cry out together in the name of American freedom.
Above all else, we must search within ourselves and rediscover the radical within our hearts –
the revolutionary who will not stand for anything less than the unalienable Rights of Man. "We
must learn not to scoff at our revolutionary past but to build upon it and advance it." 8

For over 230 years, our country enjoyed Democratic government (the most revolutionary
government in the history of man kind) only to be undermined in the most selfish, dictatorial and
sinful manner our history has ever witnessed by an international group of corporate and financial
tycoons with the full backing of corporate and elite beneficiaries, some of whom as investigation
has shown, were and still are government-office holding officials as well as shareholders and
board members of the very corporations which seek to influence and manipulate the
government.

Paine wrote, "In a republican government it is the duty incumbent on every citizen to
afford his assistance, either by taking part in its immediate administration, or by his advice and
watchfulness, that its principles may remain uncorrupt; for the spirit of liberty, like every virtue
of the mind, is to be kept alive only by constant action." 9 This quote has, perhaps, never had
greater urgency in its message than today; a time when an increasing number of would be voters
stay home from the polls due to ignorance, apathy, and most of all, skepticism in the validity of
the voting system and the importance of their civic duty.

For those who do not vote because they have lost faith in the legitimacy of our voting
system, become frustrated with the imperfect arrangement of the Electoral College, or simply
feel that one vote can not make a difference, remember this: 'Tis not in our numbers alone but in
our unity that our strength lies." 10

Ten men speaking with a unified voice are infinitely stronger than a hundred with
fractured opinions. If you are unhappy with the voting system or the Electoral Vote, you can
never speak a valid word against it unless you genuinely participate. If, then, the results should
seem skewed or counter to the Will of the population, it is then your full "Right" and "Duty" to
speak out in opposition to the biased and counterfeit system… and I assure you, it is much easier
to do this when the Popular vote is so large that an Electoral College overthrow would clearly
appear as nothing else but a deliberate disembarkation from the Will of the majority – thereby
unconstitutional and surely reprehensible by the Supreme Court and if not, by the citizens
themselves.

Thomas Paine, undeniably the most influential, radical and paternal political writers of
the revolutionary era, averred that "Moderation in temper is always a good thing but moderation
in principle is a species of vice." 11

Let us not be modest in our convictions then, but rather unite in reverence and intent to
protect and ultimately perfect the greatest Declaration of Independence and Constitution in the
world, those of the United States of America.

The price of liberty is something more than eternal vigilance. There must also be
eternal advance. We can save the rights we have inherited from our fathers only
by winning new ones to bequeath our children. 12

By way of the Constitution of the United States of America, the Founding Fathers created
and charged the American government the duties of "protection" and "service" to the citizens, the
Constitution, and the State, and charged the American people with the duty to protect the
Constitution through active Civic involvement and unrelenting vigilance. It is absolute
tyrannical hypocrisy when our President regularly chooses to abuse and exploit the Constitution
(the very backbone of liberty in this world). However, having done nothing to protect this most
sacred document from these abuses, are the people themselves not equally as guilty in their
offence?

In 1962, American Scholar and Thomas Paine reincarnate C. Wright Mills met his
untimely death (not yet 45 years old) shortly after publishing two extraordinary and literally
revolutionary books titled The Causes of World War Three and Listen, Yankee; The Revolution
in Cuba, the latter of which brought him to the concerned attention of the FBI.
 Mills was acutely aware of the problems of his time and, prophetically, of the problem
that lye ahead – the problems of our most recent decades and the decades soon to come.
Keeping with Mill's brilliant perceptions, I recommend that 'intellectuals and the labor movement
join together, forming a new party, to re-energize democracy and press for worker's control of
industry. It is also important for intellectuals to act independently (aside from the temptations to
form unions which ultimately become nothing but one more organ of social control, not change),
applying their knowledge and skills to educating citizens, cultivating publics, and challenging the
power elite. One must recognize that the problem is simple: "between the intellectual and the
potential public stand technical, economic, religious, and social structures which are owned and
operated by others (with specific agendas)." 13

I quote now, at length, a tremendous passage from Henry J. Kaye’s great biographical
work “Thomas Paine and the Promise of America.”

…Bolstered by capital, firmly in command of the Republican Party, and

politically ascendant for a generation, they have initiated and instituted policies
and programs that fundamentally contradict [democracy's] own vision and
commitments. They have subordinated the Republic – the res publica, the
commonwealth, the public good – to the marketplace and private advantage.
They have furthered the interests of corporations and the rich over those of
working people, their families, unions, and communities and overseen a
concentration of wealth and power that, recalling the Gilded Age, has corrupted
and enervated American democratic life and politics. And they have carried on
culture wars that have divided the nation and undermined the wall separating
church and state. Moreover, they have pursued domestic and foreign policies that
have made the nation both less free and less secure politically, economically,
environmentally, and militarily. Even as they have spoken of advancing freedom
and empowering citizens, they have sought to discharge or at least constrain
America's democratic impulse and aspiration. In fact, while poaching lines from
our dear Thomas Paine, they and their favorite intellectuals have disclosed their
real ambitions and affections by once again declaring the "end of history" and
promoting the lives of Founders like John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, who
in decided contrast to Paine scorned democracy and feared "the people."

…In contrast both to the majority of our fellow citizens and to generations
of our political predecessors, liberals and radicals no longer proclaim a firm belief
in the nation's exceptional purpose and promise, the prospects and possibilities of
democratic change, and ordinary citizens' capacities to act as citizens and not
subjects. We have lost the political courage and conviction that once motivated
our efforts.

Electrified by America and its people, and the originality of thought and
action unleashed by the Revolution, Thomas Paine argued that the Untied States
would afford an "asylum for mankind," provide a model to the world, and support
the global advance of republican democracy. But apparently still bogged down in
 the late 1960's, many on the left have eschewed notions of American
exceptionalism and patriotism and allowed politicians and pundits of the right to
monopolize and define them. Presuming that such ideas and practices can serve
only to justify the status quo or worse, and ignoring how, historically,
progressives have articulated them to advocate the defense and extension and
deepening of freedom, equality, and democracy, many of us have failed to
recognize their critical value as weapons against injustice and oppression.

Moreover, whereas Paine declared that Americans had it in their power to

"begin the world over again," liberals and radicals seem to have all but abandoned
the belief that democratic transformation remains both imperative and possible.
While we reject the right wing’s end-of-history declarations, we do not actually
counter them with fresh ideas and initiatives – ideas and initiatives that would stir
the American imagination and offer real hope of addressing the threats to our
freedom and security, the causes of our deepening inequalities, and the forces
undermining our public life and solidarities by enhancing the authority of
democratic government and the power of citizens against the authority of the
market and the power of corporations. We must rediscover and reinvigorate the
optimism, energy, and imagination that led Paine to declare, "We are a people
upon experiments" and "From what we now see, nothing of reform on the
political world ought to be held improbable. It is an age of revolutions, in which
everything may be looked for.

And while Paine had every confidence in working people and wrote to
engage them in the Revolution and nation-building, we, for all our rhetoric, have
remained alienated from, if not skeptical of, our fellow citizens. Asking labor
unions to underwrite their campaigns and appealing to the working for their votes,
Democrats – the party of the people – hesitate to actually mobilize them to fight
for democratic political and social change. 14

A Republic or res publica (latin) is defined as "the common wealth, a commonwealth, a

common- state, a republic (cf. civitas); also, common civil affairs, common administration, or
common power, etc)."15
A res publica refers to a thing that is not considered to be private property, but rather held
in common by many people. We the People, the Citizens of America, are the holders of the seat
of freedom in this world – the freest society the civilized human race has ever seen. In the words
of American Singer/Songwriter Woody Guthrie, "This Land is My Land. This Land is Your
Land….this land was made for you and me."

After all those before us have fought for – after all they have sacrificed – after all the
quantum leaps in our acknowledgment and subservience to the unalienable Rights of Man, are
we to sit willfully ignorant and idle while our universally unique experiment in liberty is usurped
by the very types of man we originally set out to extricate ourselves from?
 Though America is indeed the greatest country on earth, "much yet remains to be done"
toward her perfection.16 We must insist on a reconsideration of all the nation's policies with
special attention the current distortions of the Bill of Rights as well as to fiscal, military,
education, health, infrastructure, and foreign policies, to name a few. Only in this pursuit can we
find hope to deepen and strengthen our freedom, equality, and democracy. America deserves
severe criticism for its hypocritical blind eye toward racial equality, toleration of wide-spread
and worsening poverty, pursuit of an irrational and blatantly imperialistic "War on Terror," and
deference to the military-corporate complex, disregard of third-world peoples (unless they
happen to inextricably fall into an economically profitable agenda). As was done in the mid to
late 1960's, after President Kennedy's assignation, We The People can once again "jointly
revitalize the left, revise the nation's public and foreign policies, and reconstruct society with the
values and practices of hope, love, reason, solidarity, and participatory democracy." 17

Thomas Jefferson said, "I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing,
and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical." 18

Beware the ruling classes that repeatedly tell us that America represents the vanguard and
culmination of world history. American history is far from over. The American Revolution is
far from over. The time to end our ignorant torpor has come. There is no time for idleness, my
fellow American - The Revolution is Now.

In the eternally wise words of Carl Sandburg: "When a society or a civilization perishes,
one condition may always be found; They forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what
brought them along."

As we near the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the very seed and seat of the Free
World is perilously close to slipping into the dark shadows of corporate aristocracy. Only We the
People can save it. Let us once again join together our fracturing Republic and unite as
Republicans and Democrats - as Americans.

The deciding hour is upon us. There is no time for Idleness.

The revolution is now.

 Notes to Pages

A. The Declaration of Independence, 1776, paragraph 2

A1 Ibid., paragraph 2

A2 Ibid., paragraph 2

A3 Ibid., paragraph 2

A4 Ibid., paragraph 2

A5 Ibid., paragraph 2

B Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution; Presidential oath of Office

C For a longer and well footnoted discussion of the way the Bush administration uses fear to
gain followers, see Jay Dixit, “The Ideological Animal,” Psychology Today, January/February
2007; which can be found at the following website: www.psychologytoday.com/articles/
index.php?term=pto-20061222-000001&page=1.

1. Paine, To the Citizens of the United States, Letter VIII (1805), in CW,
p. 2:957

2. For a full treatment, along with the texts of the acts, see Smith,
Freedom's Fetters

3. Eugene Debs, "Address to the Jury" (September 12, 1918), recounted in David
Karsner, Debs; His Authorized Life and Letters (New York: Boni and Liverright,
1919), pp. 43-44. Eugene Debs was arrested on an evening in June 1918 for
speaking at a political rally, and more specifically, for criticizing Woodrow
Wilson by noting the irony of it becoming "…extremely dangerous to exercise the
constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in
the world." He attacked the Wilson administration for suppressing Americans'
liberties. He chastised them for "wrapping themselves in the flag while exploiting
the American people."

4. Henry J. Kaye, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (2005), p.63

5. www.BBC.co.uk, Bleak Picture of Iraq Conditions

6. Sanford D. Hewitt, Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky – His Life and Legacy
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 19889), pp.163-85

7. Saul Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1946), pp. 3,208

8. V.F. Calverton, "The American Revolutionary Tradition," Scribner's Magazine

95 (May 1934), pp.352-57.

9. Henry J. Kaye, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (2005), p.104

10. Paine, Common Sense, in CW, pp. 1:29-30

11. Paine, Letter Addressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation (1792), in
CW, p.2:511, as quoted in Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (2005),
Harvey J. Kaye, p. 78

12. Henry Demarest Lloyd, The Divinity of Humanity (1894), in Pollack, ed.,
Populist Mind, p.69

13. Henry J. Kaye, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (2005), p.238

14. Henry J. Kaye, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (2005), p.259-61

15. Haakonssen, Knud. "Republicanism." A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy.

Robert E. Goodin and Philip Pettit. eds. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1995.

and

A Latin Dictionary Founded on Andrews' edition of Freund's Latin dictionary, revised, enlarged,
and in great part rewritten by Charlton T. Lewis, and Charles Short. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1879. Various 20th and 21st century re-publications under ISBN 0198642016

16. Paine, "Constitutional Reform" (1805), in CW, p.2:1006.

17. Henry J. Kaye, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (2005), p.240-41

18. William J. Clinton, "Inaugural Address" (January 20, 1993), in Public Papers of
the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (Washington, D.C.:
Government Printing Office, 1994), p.1