“Me the People”

Written by JB Williams

©2004-12-06

The founding fathers knew this day would come, when “we the people” would become so focused on our own individual desires, that we would no longer act in the interest of our nations needs.

They talked about America’s most fatal threat coming from within, in the form of self-servitude. They spoke of America’s eventual fall from the weight of decisions made by “me the people” without regard for “we the people”.

They knew that America’s long term future would depend on “the people’s” ability to resist the urge to vote ourselves money from the treasury, once we figured out that we could. In short, they knew that a truly free self-governed people would be free to self-destruct.

They knew that the one flaw in America’s original design would surface once “we the people” realized we held the power to vote strictly in our own self-interests. Consequently, they knew that America’s success would produce the seeds of failure as well.

The fall of America will come from within, just as they worried. It begins with each of us putting “me” ahead of “we”.

Our society is based entirely on this premise today, with all the hyphenated American’s who are more concerned with where they came from than where they are going, more impressed by that which makes us different, than that which makes us the same.

Everyone talks about the divide in America today, but nobody takes personal responsibility for it. Many talk of the need for national unity, but nobody really wants to unite. It might be counter-productive to our own self-interests. In most cases it would be, at least in the short term.

The “me the people” system of self-governance provides a special opportunity for would-be career politicians. It gives them the ability to deal with us as voting blocks instead of as individuals. It makes it possible for them to divide up segments of the populous based on mathematical electoral equations, pandering to the wishes of a chosen few, at the expense of “we the people”.

During election season, everything becomes a wedge issue, and today, we start the next campaign season upon completion of each election. So wedge issues are perpetually in our headlines, making certain that “we” never forget about “me”.

Because all of the focus is on “me”, we naturally gravitate towards those who speak to our individual ideologies and desires. We accept as fact, only that which supports our agenda, even when there is no factual basis.

If someone challenges our set of facts, we simply discard them as partisans, as political operative’s intent on advancing their agenda at our expense. We assume there is no validity to their case, simply because it doesn’t support our agenda, our ideology.

Anyone who is “anti-me”, must be a bigot, a “con” of some type, a “brown shirt”. We recognize that our opponents have a clear agenda, but we don’t realize that we do too. The only question is what is our personal agenda?

Today, that defines which voting block the DNC will stick you in. Gay Right’s advocates go into that block, Abortion activists in theirs, Affirmative action folks in theirs, and so on. Add them all together, and you have a party of single issue voters.

Ask yourself a question, and no matter which voting block defines you today, answer it honestly.

If the Republican Party were willing to accept same-sex marriage, affirmative action, abortion, illicit drug use, removing religion from public view, free stuff for everyone, and a kinder gentler means of dealing with our enemies abroad, would Democrats even have a Party today?

We all know the answer to this question; it was just a reality check. Move these voting blocks to the “R” column in the last 30 years of elections, and the DNC would not muster 10% of the popular vote, or have a party. That makes these the “issues of division”, and those who profit by them, the dividers.

The problem is, while each of these issues is supported by some people focused on their own self-interests, none of them are supported by the majority of “we the people”. The reason they don’t have broad public support has nothing to do with anyone’s desire to trample on anyone’s personal liberty.

It has to do with what is in the best interest of our country, and it is after all, “we the people” who are charged with the responsibility of making such judgments in this self-governed Republic of ours.

Now sometimes, Republicans are guilty as well. This word “mandate” seems to get batted around a lot these days, implying that a certain magical margin of victory gives them the Right to tyrannize the other side of the aisle. This view is equally wrong and every bit as short sighted…

Let’s face it, we all know the dismal future of a divided country, and anyone paying half attention has already figured out that only wannabe career politicians benefit from our division.

What nobody seems willing to admit is that we have created this division ourselves, by focusing all of our attention on “me” issues, forgetting that the “we” issues are of much greater importance, of much greater consequence too.

Can a house divided stand? Never in history has one been able to, so there is no reason to believe our experience will end any differently.

Can our house be united? Only if “we” take the focus off of “me”.

Is anyone willing to change in order to unite our nation? Only those willing to face the reality that this divide is entirely self-inflicted. Promoted and exploited by political operatives for sure, but created by us, as a direct result of our self-centered single issue agendas.

America has united in the past, and it will again, when America comes first… Not one day sooner!