Saturday 18 September 2010

The Problem With Our Democracy

Let us consider three basic facts on which democracy is based.

1. Political authority is derived from the people - government only exists with the consent of the people.

2. 'Rights' are not granted to the people by government - 'Rights' already belong to the people from the moment of their birth.

3. The people have the sole and exclusive right and power to govern themselves in any area not delegated to their government.

Both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison warned that if governments ever became the sole and exclusive arbiter of the extent of its own power then that power would continuously grow - regardless of elections or separation of power.

Decade after decade, we the people have been voting one lot of politicians out in the hope that a new lot will be different and yet decade after decade government's powers continue to grow and the people's liberties continue to diminish. It doesn't matter who has been Prime Minister or what political party has been in government the growth of powers assumed by government has continued. In election after election parties present a manifesto and those manifestos have been so loosely worded as to be meaningless, coupled with the fact that time and again any promises that have been made have been systematically and cynically broken.

In 1775 John Adams wrote that "liberty once lost, is lost forever.” He explained that if and when the people allow government to gain power and restrict liberty, government will never voluntarily hand that power back and that it would take a long and difficult struggle to regain.

It will indeed be a 'long and difficult struggle' to regain the powers that governments have usurped as, to add insult to injury, successive governments over the past three decades have handed those powers to an alien, unelected and unaccountable 'government' situated in Brussels - without even the courtesy of asking the people whether they agreed.

When governments disregard the people and usurp even more power in the name of 'national security', then a nation state has descended into tyranny. As history has shown, when tyranny is rampant the people eventually take to the streets and a revolution occurs, often concluding with bloody retribution heaped on the heads of those who have abused the power handed to them.

It is only too obvious that the political class have forgotten the three basic points mentioned above and one can but wonder how long it will be before the people of this country begin their revolution?

10 comments:

Blogger said...

Coincidence - I saw your tweet of this post just after I posted this tweet:

"@pperrin Membership of #EU really just a symptom. The disease is #UK political parties too cowardly to assert our sovereignty. Obeying the EU not us."

My real beef is not with the EU or even our membership of it as much as with our governments who have refuse to assert our sovereignty. Sovereignty that is inseparable from and intrinsic to every citizens of this country, sovereignty that we temporarily allow governments to wield on our behalf.

Our sovereignty/freedom is not actually being exported to the EU. It is just being suppressed by our own government at Westminster. Suppressed under the guise of treaties and accords.

The longer is is suppressed the harder it will be to reassert and (as you say) the more violent/destructive the reassertion will probably be.

However, sovereignty cannot be separated from the people - we don't have to go anywhere to get it back. We had it with us all the time (clicks heals and wakes up in a Free and Independent UK).

Bill said...

Welcome.
Good to see the 'penny has dropped' for want of a better phrase.
Now how do we get this into Eastenders and all the other 'soap opera's'?

With a couple of notable exceptions Hannan, Carswell and a couple of others the entire political class act as front men for the banksters so perhaps a word in the ear of the REAL IRA is in order?

Anonymous said...

Do you think it likely that our older members of society will discard their pruning forks for pitchforks?

Do you think our drug and drink soaked chavs on housing estates are going to get out of their armchairs and away from X-Factor?

Do you think our public sector hoards of Common Purpose trained useful idiots are going to kick the gift horse in the teeth?

Do you think that the next string in waiting, the students, are going to have a sudden conversion and come around to believing that the EU is a bad thing, global warming is a con, and massive immigration is killing our nation?

Excuse my cynicism, and all credit to you for your optimistic outlook but I’ve given up. There will be no bloodshed and the democracy is against us. It will take an age to wean the stupid sheep away from their inbred loyalties.

Although, there is something interesting happening:

http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_62/1547000/1547070/1/print/1547070.pdf

Anonymous said...

Whoops, for pruning forks read pruning shears.

Senility and anger are strange bedfellows, i just keep forgetting who it was I was meant to hit.

Captain Ranty said...

Most excellent, WfW.

As you would expect, no argument from me.

We have given so much away it beggars belief. My learning curve has been steep and rapid. I will never give up my rights for flimsy benefits, as we are asked to do whenever we come into contact with the courts, or policemen.

Note that I used the word "asked". We can never be forced, we always swap rights for benefits voluntarily. We do this because we were never taught the alternative.

Which explains why we are cowed. We engineered our own downfall because we forgot how to say "No". We forgot to question the legality of parliament. We forgot how to prove to ourselves that the statutes they vomit out were lawful.

Thankfully, some of us are remembering, or, more accurately, learning how to do these things all over again.

The New Revolution will not involve Molotov Cocktails, guns and baseball bats. The weapons we need today are pen and paper and the ability to fold our arms, plant our feet and say, politely but firmly, "No".

CR.

Anonymous said...

Well said and unfortunately all too true. The political elite consider themselves to be the masters, unlawfully of course. But I don't know how we can now put the fear of the mass into their excuses for brains.

Derek

Anonymous said...

In the US they have almost exactly what you have deftly written in your post ,nice one mate.
It is the US constitution.
However the Obama and previous administrations have been ignoring that and foisting EUropean styles of wstefull control freak big government on them.
There's definately a wind of change blowing across the atlantic.
Very often those westerlies are infectious.

Witterings from Witney said...

Pop, have to disagree, our sovereignty has indeed been 'exported' to the EU. For 'exported' read 'given away'.

Bill, re Eastenders and soap operas - you don't. You just dont pay the licence fee or buy products advertised in soaps. Result no viewers and no crap on the box!

Anonymous (1)There are more of 'us' than 'them' and there will be bloodshed, trust me!

CR, thanks for comments and the link in your subsequent post.

Derek, We don't have to - the message will eventually penetrate even the thickest of brains. When something affects their lives, it will register where the problem lies.

Anonymous (2) Hopefully - they say what starts in America ends up here!

Indyanhat said...

Here from the Cap'ns place, to see whats going on first hand.
Fair play to you for reminding everyone of the realities WfW!
People are waing up and once word getts out how easy it is to 'beat ' the system by just saying NO there will be a revolution!

Blog listing you now

Witterings from Witney said...

Welcome Indyanhat - and thank you for the listing.