November 2, 2010 is Election Day in the United States. The chattering class pundits declare that political Independents will constitute the deciding voters for the elections' outcomes. July 4, 1776 began with the signers of the Declaration of Independence separating themselves from their government in England. They began with this statement:
"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. . . "
These words from 1776 have an unusually ironic ring, given the current rhetoric of "Independents," a number of Republicans, and of the Tea Party, who are declaring their voting stance. A good number of them say they want to separate themselves from The Government in Washington, D.C., some violently. But the uniting words from 1787 have a very different ring:
"PREAMBLE. -- WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Because the United States is a democracy, we ask ourselves, The People, to declare by casting votes how we want to be governed. The majority vote in each race decides. We will see whether the majority of people want to continue to separate themselves from the rest of us, or whether we will try once again to join together to form a more perfect Union. Independents cannot have it both ways. Republicans cannot govern-by-obstruction. Self declared Tea Partiers already had their day of separation from The Government over 200 years ago. It is no longer necessary. Dissenters have a voice. However, The Government is all of us in the United States, if we can keep it together.
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