Return to 1776?

In 1776, the founders of this republic threw off the yoke of a despotic, non-responsive ruler. Twenty-eight grievances were put forth in our Declaration of Independence, rejecting tyranny while initiating the brilliant concept of a democratic representative republic. A constitution with enumerated authorities and limited powers was painstakingly constructed, then ratified. The Constitution has since been lawfully amended, grotesquely violated, but not repealed.

Contemporaneous to our founding, a Scottish professor, Alexander Tyler, was purportedly credited with a dissertation on the eight stages of democracy wherein a people casts off tyranny, then cyclically regresses back into bondage through apathy and dependency. While the sourcing of that dissertation is disputable, the plainly articulated concepts are historically accurate and very prescient.

Will we accept our democratic republic coming full circle into functional, if not oppressive bondage? The willful usurpation of both the Constitution and the lawful desires of the plurality of the people corruptly morphs representatives into rulers, liberty into servitude.

It is tragic how many of our originating 28 grievances toward the Crown can be objectively leveled against the federal government. Must “We the People” again be forced to restart the eight-stage cycle by watering “the tree of liberty”?

Gary A. Warren

Spokane