Liberty For All?

My congressman asked what Independence Day means to us. I immediately thought of the Declaration of Independence and the list of grievances the Colonists laid out against the King of England. And I thought of the present day situation in these United States. I wondered what Thomas Jefferson would have made of the Patriot Act, of the National Security Agency spying on our own citizens. I know what Benjamin Franklin would have said because he did: "He who gives up essential liberty for a little security deserves neither."

The founders gave their all for liberty and I know it would have appalled them to see us throwing it away in the name of short term safety. Safety is never assured even if all citizens voluntarily give up their freedoms for that purpose. In that moment when we cede our liberties we have betrayed the spirit of the American Revolution. 

The rise of the power of corporations in this country (and worldwide) is also quite alarming. Power concentrated in fewer and fewer hands creates a situation much like the one that confronted the American colonists. With the East India Company monopolizing trade rights, the colonists faced excessive taxation and the inability to purchase needed items from anyone else. The burdens these policies caused led directly to revolution.

Today, we have corporations wielding growing power in Congress and the Courts (especially the US Supreme Court) and to some extent in the Executive branch as well. The greater the power of corporations the less power the proletariat (or the 99%) have.

The Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court was a perfect illustration. The Court ruled that corporations have the right to express themselves through essentially unlimited financial contributions to political campaigns. The idea that corporations are people makes a mockery of the First Amendment but the divided Court saw it differently. Corporations now have unlimited power to influence and direct political campaigns. The ordinary American citizen is thus left essentially voiceless in comparison.

The state of the Union this Independence Day is quite questionable. We lose our freedoms by the inch. We seem to be headed down the slippery slope towards totalitarianism and the complete undermining of the Constitution. The only thing that can reverse this trend is the united action of the People. We must rise up and be heard before it is too late.