The U.S. as a “beacon of democracy and freedom” must be coupled with the “freedom” part in order to be understood at all. The limits to government power and individual rights are there to directly counter tyranny and dictatorship. This is the model of democracy the U.S. presented to the world – freedom from tyranny – which has been constantly attacked by the left from the beginning, and is still heavily under attack today. Including the European proposal for the EU Constitution, which is destined to become law directly against the will of the people, who have rejected it twice by referenda.

Since the 1960s, the elimination of individual rights has been exponentially accelerated, along with an exponential increase in federal powers. Federal judges have been a willing part of this process along with their partisan brethren rather than defenders of the Constitutional system. The elimination of fathers’ rights and the destruction of marriage has become a textbook example of the process. I am concerned that I have been the only person focusing attention on this connection – as many fathers’ rights advocates seem quite willing to offer the federal government more power and control, with the idea that they should “solve” the problem through greater micro-management. They should be telling them to back off because their intrusion created the problem to begin with.

Though all power is derived from the people – once given, it’s very difficult to get it back. What could be more illustrative than understanding that marriage and family were, up until recently, private matters rather than government programs?

The two-party system itself is a mockery of the concept of democracy. It has remained stable through the years, not because it provides a benefit, or any stability on its own. This is something it cannot do any better than a single-party system. It has been the limits to government and individual rights that have been the stabalizing factors. With these elements critically weakened, the weakness of the two-party system – its corruption and destructive power – has become dramatically exposed.

I have reasons to vote. We have a couple of “we the people” propositions that need to be voted down. If it were not for that, I would not bother.

Not voting is just the first step. The second step is a persistent effort to turn the machine inside-out on itself, to disempower it over time. It is possible to use the Durkheim constant against itself, if one is enlightened enough to figure it out.