An American Vision

Ten score and 30 years ago our forefathers brought forth an American Covenant upon this Continent. It was a completely new government fueled by an American Dream of all men created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. These rights are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It was said that this nation can not endure without those rights and without this Dream. Our forefathers founded the Democratic Republican Party on these principals and they by their actions created the American Dream of Freedom and Representation within the law.

It is a Dream founded in law and nourished by economic freedom, a gift of the Backbone of Democracy, the small businessman and the Guilds. It is a gift of innocent till proven guilty, the right to face ones accuser, and to have a fair trial with an impartial jury of ones peers. It is a gift ensured by the availability of jobs and business opportunity. It maintained by fair trade to create enterprise and the jobs that go with them, not the sending of jobs overseas to the highest bidder, because men cannot be free when they are economically chained to poverty, illness, disease, and need.

It is a Vision inscribed upon the Statue of Liberty that said “send us men, women, and children from all lands yearning to be free.” It is the hope and was the foundation of a Nation of Immigrants to create this great new world. It was echoed in "give me Liberty or give me death,'' and it is tied to economic independence and the creation of jobs and free enterprise. Now we have two visions competing for this nation, one who wants tax breaks for ultra millionaires and hides scandalous behavior behind closed doors, and one who wants to create millions of new American jobs that give economic vitality to our hard working men and women and give our children back their future.

Over forty years ago, Martin Luther King also saw this Dream and spoke of it so eloquently. His I Have a Dream speech echoes even now as The American Vision of fair play and rights of all individuals with our society. Lyndon Johnson called for a Great Society; FDR a New Deal, John Kennedy a New Frontier, perhaps it is now time for a Fair Deal that grants the Working Class its rightful place at the economic table and affordable healthcare. Statistics show that under Republican leadership the gap between the Middle Class and the Wealthy has grown by leaps and bounds since the dawn of our 21st Century.

A clear choice is now available of what America has been and should be. There remains one real vision verses an alternative vision that has failed. It is time to now denounce with the righteous indignation that is building over the Scandals of Corruption, Crisis of Competence and a Climate of Cronyism, and the nightmare of a Moral Lack of Leadership that ignores legality and refuses the decency of resignation within the Republican Party. Perhaps the party that claimed personal responsibility and family values as their motto, needs to take the advice they are so willing to give, but in conduct so willing to ignore, and go quietly and quickly into that good night with what principals they do possess. They need to exit a failed direction of hype and failure that now threatens our economic and moral livelihood at its very roots. Certainly the choice is clear: the American Dream or the American Nightmare.

I urge you to choose the American Covenant that was and is the Democratic Party.

Thomas P. Love


The Constitution of the United States of America

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The First 10 Amendments to the
Constitution as Ratified by the States
December 15, 1791

Congress OF THE United States
begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday
the Fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

THE Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.:

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II
A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

History

During the debates on the adoption of the Constitution, its opponents repeatedly charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to tyranny by the central government. Fresh in their minds was the memory of the British violation of civil rights before and during the Revolution. They demanded a "bill of rights" that would spell out the immunities of individual citizens. Several state conventions in their formal ratification of the Constitution asked for such amendments; others ratified the Constitution with the understanding that the amendments would be offered.

On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States therefore proposed to the state legislatures 12 amendments to the Constitution that met arguments most frequently advanced against it. The first two proposed amendments, which concerned the number of constituents for each Representative and the compensation of Congressmen, were not ratified. Articles 3 to 12, however, ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures, constitute the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights

As the delegates gathered at the Pennsylvania State House in May 1787 to "revise" the Articles of Confederation, Virginia delegate George Mason wrote, "The Eyes of the United States are turned upon this Assembly and their Expectations raised to a very anxious Degree." Mason had earlier written the Virginia Declaration of Rights that strongly influenced Thomas Jefferson in writing the first part of the Declaration of Independence. He left the convention bitterly disappointed, however, and became one of the Constitution's most vocal opponents. "It has no declaration of rights," he was to state. Ultimately, George Mason's views prevailed. When James Madison drafted the amendments to the Constitution that were to become the Bill of Rights, he drew heavily upon the ideas put forth in the Virginia Declaration of Rights.