By: Wayne D. Leeper
A Land Called America

I am 70 years old and have lived under twelve Presidents. I have voted in every presidential election since 1962. I was an Area Campaign Manager for Ronald Reagan. I am somewhat of a student of American History. That said, I am seeing something today I have never seen in any previous election. The level of involvement defies description. This election is not about parties, but about the future of the great experiment in government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” This election will determine the future of America and our children and grandchildren for generations to come. Either a small elite group in Washington will decide our future for us, or “We the People” will reclaim our nation and determine our own future.

To find a real comparison to the election of 2010, we must go all the way back to 1766. It has been said that the American Revolution really began ten years before the first shot was fired. Before a violent revolution can begin, there must be a mental revolution on the part of the people. Governments have been in place since the beginning of time. It is the attitude of the people that determines the type of government they are willing to live under. If a population is content or complacent in their attitude toward their government they will never revolt. It is only when minds and attitudes change and opposition surfaces, that a revolution such as that of 1776 can occur.

In 1765, Sir William Blackstone, who taught law at Oxford University, published his four-volume “Commentaries on the Law of England.” They won instant acclaim in England. In the colonies they were not only a sensation, they became a weapon. Throughout the colonies, people began citing Blackstone as an authority on law, rights and liberties. In the ten years preceding the American Revolution, more copies of Blackstone’s Commentaries were sold in the colonies than in England. Blackstone, who believed the purpose of government was the protection of the people, wrote:

“For the principal aim of society is to protect individuals in the enjoyment of those absolute rights, which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature… Hence it follows, that the first and primary end of human law is to maintain and regulate these absolute rights of individuals. “Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or to destroy them.”

These words, finding fertile ground in the hearts and minds of the American colonist, became the bedrock of thought upon which a nation would be built.The seeds of the American Revolution were planted and watered by the attempts of King George III to take these rights away from the colonist. What began as discontent on the part of individuals gradually grew into civil disobedience. The more the “Flame of Liberty” was threatened, the deeper became their determination to defend it. King George dismissed these men and women taking a stand for liberty as insignificant rabble. The colonist had a different name for them – Patriots.

Patrick Henry summed up the feelings of those who would establish the “greatest nation in the history of man.”

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

What we are seeing today is a repeat of what took place from 1765 to 1776. For too long, Americans have been content and complacent with regard to what took place in Washington, D.C. Only about sixty percent of the eligible voters even bothered to vote and most pulled the Democrat or Republican handle as a matter of habit. This made it possible for a dedicated minority to advance their agenda. It is impossible to turn a man, or a nation, 180 degrees at one time. However, it is very easy to turn a man, or a nation, one degree at a time, 180 times. That is the principal that has been working in America since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was introduced in the 1930’s. Americans have been asleep at the switch for almost eighty years. During this period, our nation has slowly been turned, one degree at a time.

On January 21, 2009, Barak Obama took office as President of the United States. His agenda was to complete the 180 degree turn of America all at once. The Democrats had the House under Nancy Pelosi and the Senate under Harry Reid to support his agenda. It was as if a giant hand took hold of America and gave us a good hard shaking. Suddenly eyes and ears popped open. More and more we began hearing terms like “socialism” and “unconstitutional.” We looked and saw abuse of power, corruption in high places and the tentacles of socialism wrapping around our nation. Obama, with his socialist agenda, had done what no President in history has done before. He has awakened a sleeping giant.

Within ninety days of Obama taking office, we began hearing the term “Tea Party” used to describe something other than an afternoon gathering of a few old ladies. Americans suddenly realized that our freedoms were being taken away and there was no way we were going to remain silent. Americans began reading the Constitution; most for the first time. Obama, Pelosi and Reid dismissed these people stepping forward and speaking out as extremists. But just as under King George III, more and more Americans began stepping forward and calling themselves by a name not heard since 1776 – Patriots. Organizations with no affiliation began spontaneously springing up from coast to cost. The elite in Washington, both Republicans and Democrats, began looking for ways to stop the growth of these organizations. They were convinced that a few people were behind this movement and if they could find and eliminate those people, the movement would fall apart. They were used to dealing with top-down movements and had never witnessed a true grassroots movement. It was composed of young and old, black and white, rich and poor, but what really surprised them was that it was composed of Republicans, Democrats and Independents. What they believed to be, and tried to treat, as extremist, were in fact, Main Street Americans with their eyes wide open. Suddenly the peasants were at the gates of the palace.

Using ridicule and every other arrow in their quiver, the elite set out to destroy this threat to their power. But, just as in 1776, the more the “Flame of Liberty” was threatened, the deeper became the determination of the people to defend it. The Republican Party had put themselves forth as conservatives for years. Another term we began hearing was RINO (Republican in Name Only). The Republican elite viewed these insurgents as a third party, which would divide the vote, allowing the Democrats to retain their power and continue with their agenda. But, by the time they realized what was happening, the “Tea Party Candidates” began entering and winning Republican primaries. The pundits were just as surprised as the politicians. Something was happening in America which no living person had ever seen before. American patriots had united to become a force with a mission; to reclaim “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.” Suddenly the future of their children and grandchildren became more important to Main Street America than their income and social standing. Suddenly, 535 politicians found out that they were going to have to answer to a hundred million mad constituents. The American people had decided to drain the swamp and eliminate the rats and the elite ruling class found themselves helpless to prevent it. The cartridge boxes of 1776 have been replaced with the ballot boxes of 2010. The Republican elite put out the list of “their” candidates. “We the People,” however, had our own candidates. Suddenly the words, “of the people, by the people and for the people,” took on a new meaning. The Republican and Democrat elite would no longer be allowed to choose the candidates, the people would. For too long we had ignored the warning:

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!” – Samuel Adams

As I write this, it is five weeks (35 days) until the final battle is fought. We have won many skirmishes, and claimed a number of scalps. We have had our Tea Parties and Town Halls. We have talked the talk, the time has now come to walk the walk. The politicians will not drain the swamp. “We the People” are going to have to do it. The time is nearing when we must muster all our strength and march as one army, accepting nothing less than complete victory. The 535 politicians bring millions of dollars to the fight; we bring an army of a hundred million Patriots. On June 6, 1945 (D-Day), General Dwight D. Eisenhower released a statement to the troops preparing for the greatest amphibious landing in the history of mankind. In a rhetorical sense his words have echoed through the years and are just as inspiring today as they were to the young men who fought and died sixty-five years ago:

“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people every­where march with you. … I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.” – General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Inspired by his words from 1945, each of us must dedicate ourselves to the assault on socialism that will take place on November 2, 2010. No person who fails to step forward and cast a vote can rightly wear the name of Patriot.

May God bless our effort and may God bless these United States of America.