Have you ever tried to tell someone that the American government is badly screwed up? I have. Guess what the latest response was? Why don't you go to France? Let me get this straight. Because I disagree with your Utopian view of America's government, I'm not allowed to live here? Since when did saying the government's wrong become an unpardonable sin?

Would this person have said the same words to Thomas Jefferson or George Washington? The America this person lives in would not be what it is today if the Revolutionists had just packed up for France. Yet Patriots often claim to be grateful for their freedoms they enjoy today. Those freedoms came from a painful Revolutionary War. Yet someone who did the same thing the Founding Fathers did; question the role of government, must be ridiculed. Somehow the very act of speaking against the White House warrants expulsion.

Today standing up and questioning your government isn't patriotic, it's bashing. Somehow saying the government is corrupt means you're insulting every American soldier alive. Excuse me, when did wanting to improve and hold government accountable become anti-American?

Weren't our founding fathers working to create a better and fairer government? Isn't their accomplishment considered noble? Isn't it what America is supposed aspire to? Benjamin Franklin could have accepted his era's popular excuse for government; ours is better than everybody else so we should be happy. But he didn't. The true Patriots said the Parliament was wrong, the King was wrong, and they didn't have to just live with it.

Today America's media is saturated with complaints against the government. Yet the vast majority takes no action. They are happy to tolerate an unjust police state run by bureaucracy and military force. Some even go so far as to declare that everybody who sees the slime oozing from our government should just go away.
Of course a few facts are conveniently ignored. Somehow everybody should be responsible for their place of birth. I wasn't aware that an unborn baby could choose their location at will. America is supposed to be about upholding justice and ensuring fair government. None of that matters. Everybody should just be happy with what they have.

And of course people like me should work within the system. I should use Democracy to improve government. My response would be; why? America was never meant to be a Democracy. The founding fathers meant for America to be a Confederacy, a system of state government working together. Thomas Jefferson once said, "a democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine (www.wisdomequotes.com)." Bet you'll never hear that from a patriotic American.

The damage done to government is too extensive to be corrected using the democratic system. Corporations control government, not the citizens. Our senators, representatives and judges are looking out for Corporate America, not the people of America. Our own President does not trust any of his people, not even the law abiding ones.

American citizens need to stand up for their rights more than ever. The founding fathers believed every citizen had a responsibility to hold their government accountable. They believed every citizen should question their government's actions and act accordingly. Their solution was not to just go to France. They fought for a fair government; a task each of them believed was a sacred duty. I happen to agree.

Learn more about this author, Linda Whiteside.
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