A New American Revolution

It’s Independence Day and the next American Revolution is slowing happening around us.

Today we take time to honor those Americans brave enough to stand up for their country against their government and create an independent republic from a smattering of colonies. Thomas Jefferson’s advice that governments need to be brought down through revolution from time to time rings as true today as it did more than 200 years ago.

Today Americans are asserting their independence and saving their country from their government once again, but not in the way we did in the 1700s. I don’t think there are any realistic plans being made to overthrow the U.S. government. But Americans more and more are doing things without their government, not because they want to make a political point, but because it’s a better way to live their lives.

The U.S. government today operates under a system of legalized bribery. Our political officeholders answer first to the wealthy interests that financed their political campaigns. Our administrative services are often corrupted by those same forces, with a revolving door between industries and the government offices meant to regulate those same industries.

The branches of government are in an almost constant state of stalemate. Very little actual legislating get done. More and more conflicts end in courtrooms or in recall elections.

For example, we can’t trust the government to keep our food supply safe or to require truthful labels on our food, so more and more of us are acting on our own to set up local food co-ops.

Our public education system is mired in political and cultural conflicts, saddled with ridiculous regulations that get in the way of actually educating kids, and are often required to house violent juveniles. More and more parents are demanding charter schools. More parents are home schooling kids or looking for affordable private schools. If it’s not happening already, educational co-ops will start to spring up. Some parents are even setting up illegal daycare centers for their children because the waiting lists for government-approved preschools are too long.

The federal government and its corporate masters and allied ethnic lobbies want illegal immigration to lower wages and divide the working classes through cultural conflict. More and more states begin passing their own immigration laws.

These are all nonviolent revolutionary acts in their own ways. Like the original American revolutionaries, most people who take part are only trying to save the America they know.