It's Time For...What, Exactly

from The Project to Restore America: 'The Good Guys Are NOT Coming To Save Us' - Paul Rosenberg - May 8.  His premise:

"(T)he U.S. government is out of control."   A lot of people take no action, "waiting for 'the good guys' to show up and fix things".  That's not going to happen.

* "(W)aiting for a good guy to save the day;" to come along "with a promise to run the system in the 'right' way'" is, to him, a dream.  "Hope is a scam," he says.  "It's a dream of someday, somehow, getting something for nothing" [my emphasis].  "People who hope do not act [his emphasis] - they wait for other people to act."  

* Some people are hoping for 'the good guys' within the government to step forward and do the right thing.  But would they be in an abusing government in the first place if they were a 'good guy'??

* "A lot of Americans believe that the American 'Founders' created a system that automatically fixes itself.  They talk about the 'balance of powers,' and think that it will always save them from a tyrant."  His wakeup call goes on: "The balanced powers of the U.S Constitution, however, were trashed within fifteen years and doubly-trashed just a century ago." 

He is referring to 1) the 1803 Marbury v. Madison ruling of the Supreme Court, that gave themselves the right to "decide what was constitutional or not".  (His point: "The states were tossed aside" by the ruling.1 How?   "Marbury's Judicial review (the Supremes ruling on constitutionality) merely involves one branch of the national government providing a check on the other branches of the national government.  After Marbury. no one could check the national government" [his emphasis].)  And 2) the17th Amendment, of 1913.  "Washington D.C. was unleashed with Marbury v. Madison.  What made it almighty was the17th Amendment…which took the powers of the states and transferred them to Washington, by mandating the popular election of senators."2

And so on goes his lament.  And he has a point, about the throwing out of whack somewhat of the Constitution over the years.3  But it has also been strengthened; and in an important way: by bringing more souls to bear on their personal development, and that of the nation.  I speak of the freedom of the former slaves, and the vote for women; both factors bringing them more into the picture, of holding the space, taking responsibility for it.  

Yes, my previous blog showed irritation with the way that some black Americans have abused 'the system,' and are getting even for past misdeeds inflicted on their forebears; and giving women the vote has resulted in many a stress in many a marriage - to the point of breakdown, not only in the individual instance, but in the institution itself.  But a) these are the sorts of chances you take, with a 'system' of free will; and b) these moves have liberated them to become fully fledged, responsible individuals in their own right.  Growing spiritually, under their own steam.

Rosenberg says that there will be "no savior" to bail us out of our predicament; that it is all up to us.  I would echo that sentiment to some extent.  To say: Yes; we each need to take responsibility for our individual lives, and the life of our nation.  But this is all not taking place in a vacuum.

You will get help.  Because this is a co-creative effort, between you and Spirit.

Including within yourself.

     

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footnotes:

1 "Even the sitting President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, called it 'a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.'"

     Can this be the same T. Jefferson who was one of the spiritual founders of the modern Democrat Party??  What happened to that connection???…

2 "With senators being elected directly by the populace, the states were cut out of the equation.  In their place, political parties gained massive power, and nearly all power was consolidated in the city of Washington.

     "And so it is today.  Washington is an unfettered beast. The system will NOT fix itself; the mechanisms to do that were lost a long time ago."

3 Although I think he has given up on the states too soon.  Yes, the Marbury v. Madison Supreme Court decision and the 17th Amendment cut them out of the loop to some extent.  But they are still 'in there'; and beginning to come alive as entities again, under the threat of the centralizing moves of both Bush W. and Obama; thus giving flesh to the 10th Amendment, and the clarification that, under the Constitution, the federal government is one of limited and delegated powers - "few and defined," in the rather authoritative words of 'the Father of the Constitution,' James Madison. 

     Yes, he of the Marbury v. Madison decision.  It's a long, albeit interesting, story.  If you're interested in that sort of thing...