The United States of America's Founding Fathers were spurred to declare independence by a long litany of abuses by the King's government in England.
In many cases, if you read through the text of Jefferson's Declaration, you'll find these abuses are procedural in nature. It wasn't precisely what the government did, but how the government did it that mattered.
Simply the processes of government themselves, the form of the rules for engaging in the act of governing, can be the most powerful way to exercise tyranny, and the Founders understood that well.
So you have in the Declaration of Independence, charges against the King of Great Britain for...
Obstructionism:
"He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them."
"He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only."
Overriding representative democracy through executive overreach:
"He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people."
Exponential growth in the size and scope of government:
"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."
The establishment of a permanent, tyrannical police state:
"He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power...
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us..."
Lack of criminal liability for police:
"For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States..."
"For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent..."
Violating the rights of substantive due process:
"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury..."
"For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences..."
Creating extralegal jurisdictions:
"For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies..."
And again, executive overreach:
"For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever."
And the perpetuation of these abuses of government into modern times is something none of us should be surprised by. It was after all, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, who said, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."
And at whose feet should the blame be properly placed for these malfunctions and malfeasances of government today? Who can we rightly say is most responsible for the government of the United States today and the litany of wrongdoings that modern citizens would charge it with?
Surely the two major parties who have held in their hands the levers of government for more than a century and a half now. It is the two parties that perpetuate their continued existence despite the perennial unhappiness with our government, by means of electoral machinations that keep their power over the course of government firmly entrenched.
But independent voters are on the move to fight this entrenchment of misused power and undue influence.
The fight for ranked choice voting in Maine threatens a crack in the foundation of the two party electoral tyranny.
Gerrymandering is on the chopping block in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
And a promising legal battle against the unfair presidential debate commission rages on.
These are but a few examples of what is going on nationwide.
So let us sign a new declaration of independence:
We, therefore, the independent voters of the United States of America, in general dialogue, assembled, appealing to the supreme conscience of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good voters of this country, solemnly publish and declare, that these voters are, and of right ought to be free and independent voters.
They are absolved from all allegiance to the two-party system, and all political connection between them and the two major parties, is and ought to be totally dissolved.
As free and independent voters, they have full power to decide their own opinion on issues, vote for the candidate of their choice, have an equal and fair voice in the electoral process, and to do all other acts and things which independent voters may of right do.
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