While the time change is a month away, falling on the first Sunday in November, the time for change has come. Not the change that was promised four short years ago, but for the ability for American citizens to regain control of their economy, their bureaucracy, and their destiny. As many of you in the swing states have noticed by the steady stream of candidate commercials; we are in the home stretch of an arduous and costly Presidential race. This is where those last few moments of effort count. In any contest, the coaches, mentors, and spectators will tell you, if you stumble or fail this close to the end, you lose. With scant days over a month left, the checkered flag is raised and the cameras are trained at the line because we could be watching a photo finish. Your effort is needed now more than ever. Both candidates are promising tax reform and neither are supporting the FairTax, but what will transpire will dictate to us our chances in the coming four year term.
Many are bogged down in party affiliation, which is understandable after two conventions and hundreds of millions of dollars, but there is certainly an ideological war waging over the heads of these two men. The forces of state superiority and centralized control stand poised to strengthen their already iron grip over the daily lives of every American. Students across the country are coming to grips with the idea of a centrally planned food economy that has been very little to their liking. If it is easy enough to understand for these kids, that a far removed power cannot plan the details of your day, down to what you eat, then surely we can react in a similar fashion. Or are we too lazy? Are we really to be bought off with cell phones and condoms? How cheaply will the American people sell themselves? Stalin was famed for characterizing the capitalist America as eventually self-destructive. He reportedly said that if a capitalist was to be hanged he would eagerly sell you rope for the noose. Was he right? No. Americans have long been taught that we were not good enough to make it on our own. Those that were or sought to were viciously painted as greedy and self-serving. It has been a long time since 1776, but some people still cannot break from the idea of worshiping a monarch. We have replaced King George III with an all knowing and benevolent bureaucracy. Our coinage still reads In God We Trust but how many of us look to the housing authority or EBT for sustenance. This easy reliance meshed with the attack on ambition has taken us from a country of self-reliant pioneers to government dependent protesters.
I have mentioned before as to why I support the FairTax. Not merely because it deserves support and should be sung from the very mountaintops. But because it represents the best possible future for the country that I love. The past 99 years will culminate in February into one full century of American subservience to the government due to the income tax. In that time we have watched liberty fade as passivity rises. The trend of government control will continue until the people are powerless to stop it. We live in an America today where the Federal Department of Education has surpassed the state legislatures, the local school districts and the choices of parents to dictate what is to be served for school lunches. The argument used by the Anti-Federalists in the constitutional debates anticipated this by noting that in a country with too much federal power, “those [powers] which will be lift to the states will be of no great importance.” We are in a country that ignores the 10th Amendment because the government has been granted unprecedented rights by the 16th.
Once an entity has grown to such a formidable size, it becomes increasingly difficult to eliminate. It is in serious need of a counterweight. The will of the people must at the very least equal the power of the government that it grants consent to. Today it does not. With the FairTax, tomorrow it shall. We must take this moment to make a stand because in a government this far removed from the needs of the people, you may not get another chance. If America is the last best hope of mankind on earth, then the FairTax represents the last best hope to reclaim America. The future of the voice of the American public will not be saved by a reduced estate tax rate, it will not be found in the unknowable morass of the recent healthcare legislation, it will not be strengthened by sanctions on any Mideast country, it will not grow if reduce emissions. These tired subjects have been around for many elections and are likely to outlast this one as well. But there has been a constant thread running through the past century, you are losing your place. No matter the political bent, no casual observer of the past decade can say that our government is operating completely within the mandate of the people. To remedy this error we cannot rest at establishing a balance between government power and the will of the people. This representative system operates only with the consent of the governed, and it is time that we had a tax code that operates similarly.
Thomas Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls”. I wonder what he would say about the actions taken by the government that many fought so hard to win. We are not witnessing the failure of American values we are watching a country slowly move away from them and finding failure. Our great experiment was watched at first by the world stage in a passive humorous fashion. They believed that a country given over to the mob could not last long. This only demonstrates a key misunderstanding of the idea of America. We did not submit to the will of an unthinking mob but came together as thinking and reasoning people to make decisions as to best move forward. Again the world is watching democracy in action. As our people are hurting, our jobless wanting, our soldiers still dying, our policies unraveling, our liberties waning, the decision is still left up to you. These last four weeks will shape the next four years of political discourse and action. The candidates are nearing the finish line, but what will they find there? They head to a sea of 311 million citizens that will speak and decide. To have an impact in this election we must be part of it. This month is the last chance to support that FairTax candidate who has been attacked, to pressure a candidate on the FairTax to ensure that they will support it, or to answer an unfair attack by a challenger. This is a cause that necessitates the action of many and we will need the many to act in the coming weeks. Since the issue of tax reform is playing such a key role in the debates and discussions across the country we cannot afford to stumble now. You strike while the iron is hot so that you may shape its future, wait too long and your action is useless. The iron is hot, we are poised to strike, we need your help to bring force to the action. By acting together now we can shape our own destiny and in doing so, shape the future of America.
