As he left office, George Washington wrote his Farewell Address giving this new nation his parting advice on how to maintain our Republic. And what methods and circumstances would-be tyrants shall use to gain power.
He writes that
One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what can not be directly overthrown.
He makes plain the prerequisite to a successful government by the people.
The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time exists til changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.
By which he means the government established by the "authentic act of the whole people." This is where we get to Bush.
And the Federalist Society, and the Viper-and-Hypocrit Christians, and the Neo-cons, and their allies in the Congress and the media.
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency.
They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community, [making] the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.
...combinations or associations of the above description [are] likely in the course of time and things to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
It is plain at this point that a hostile take-over the the United States is in progress. Right now, we need prominent people, several prominent people, especially Democratic leaders and front-runners, to do a Paul Revere, shouting loudly and repeatedly "The Tyranny Is Coming!"
I'm withholding my support from any political candidate, because I have yet to hear one forcefully announce the threat to our freedom Bush & gang present. If anyone is serious about assuming the mantle of George Washington, they should at least insist on the survival of government of the people, by the people, for the people. Otherwise, what good are they? What do they really stand for?