The democrats, who will hold a majority of congress come January 3, are the same individuals, along with some of their republican brethren, who favor minimum wage laws that do nothing but throw people out of work instead of helping them obtain jobs to increase their standard of living. There is even talk now of reinstituting the draft, forcing individuals to give their lives for a government that will not be restrained by the Constitution.

The republican revolution a dozen years ago when republicans took control of congress for the first time in forty years promised to hold down taxes, hold down government spending, and make sure that an individual's liberty would be protected. However, the exact opposite took place.

The responsibility of any government official, whether democrat, republican, libertarian, reform, green, federalist, anti-federalist, civilian, or military is to preserve, protect, and defend the United States Constitution, not whenever it is convenient to do so, not whenever one needs a bill passed, and certainly not whenever one feels like it. The responsibility is incumbent upon the individual given power to abide by the document he swears to uphold all the time.

The real measure of anyone given government power is if the official in fact supports, defends, preserves, and protects the United States Constitution. Just like an individual knows he is ill if his body temperature is greater than 98.6, the citizenry knows if elected officials are doing their job by evaluating their actions against the principles prescribed in that great document that made America the shining beacon of liberty on the hill. However, individuals must know and understand those principles just like they understand that 98.6 is normal body temperature.

Today, though, Americans have figured out what Scottish professor Alexander Tytler stated during the 18th century; that once citizens realize they can vote themselves money from the public treasury through their representatives or by direct vote (majority rule), then the majority always votes for the candidates that promise the most benefits from that public treasury. This naturally results in the collapse of individual liberty and freedom followed by dictatorship.

He stated that society travels through a basic sequence beginning with bondage that leads to spiritual faith that leads to great courage graduating to liberty and abundance, then declining to complacency, apathy, and dependence and finally back down again into bondage.

If those in power do not follow the precepts of the United States Constitution, liberty is lost and it does not matter if those in power are democrats, republicans, libertarians, civilian or military.

The United States Constitution is not a perfect document for it can still be tweaked to make it even more perfect than it is. As a matter of fact it has been tweaked twenty-seven times. However, by following the principles laid out in the Constitution, individuals preserve their individual inalienable rights against their government.

As the founders understood long ago, there are always factions in society and those factions must be restrained from obtaining all power, else dictatorship and tyranny result. Americans wanted George Washington to be King George I of the United States, but even Washington declined that kind of power.

The beauty of individual liberty when individuals are left alone to guide their own lives, being restrained by government only from initiating force against another individual and the restraint on government power held by elected and appointed officials is that individuals on the whole are more productive and increase the wealth for all not just a few special people. This libertarian notion was understood by the founders and is why they wrote the Constitution in order to restrain government power.

With the democrats now fighting amongst themselves, gridlock might not be a very bad thing for the individual because the individual has more freedom when fewer laws are passed. However, history indicates that it will be business as usual no matter who holds power until those that get elected do their duty of preserving, protecting, and defending the United States Constitution.