To the Citizens of the United States of America:

After long-reaching deliberations have brought me to the realization that the federal government either cannot or will not ensure the security and prosperity of this great nation, I call upon you to consider our future, and the necessity of altering our current federal republic to that of a Constitutional Democracy.  The nature of this discussion is inherently important; concerning the future of the nation and the prosperity of its citizens.  We have been told throughout our history that humankind is neither capable nor trustworthy enough to direct its own political fate.  We have been told that we need to be led by the elite few, and not lead ourselves.  Are we forever destined to leave our nation in the hands of these select few, or is it our inherent nature to finally rise up and become the sovereign citizens of America - the last and final authority - exerting true self rule?  

As our great friend of Liberty, Thomas Paine, once said, "We have it in our power to begin the world over again."  The time has come to end the debate between parties, and to end support only for the lesser of two evils.  The time has come to create a new, peaceful, secure, and prosperous future, through the power of Democracy.

Our greatest opponents are those individuals that want so desperately to hold on to their positions of power, both politically and economically, and will resist all changes that would hand to the citizens of this country, the power of self-rule.  These politicians, industrialists, and kings of finance have fought for years to consolidate power, and have an utter disdain for the concept of a citizen-state in America.

It is not my goal to focus on our opponents alone.  I agree that it would be unfair to group all those who are ruling over this nation into one category of evil consolidators and usurpers of power.  It's reasonable to assume that some do have good intentions, and that the current opponents of Populism, as well as future opposition, may actually come with good intentions, although filled with errors and preconceived notions about the nature of good government.  I urge you to always keep in mind that those who spread lies, as well as those who speak the truth, sometimes have the same intentions and motives, and that the discussion and the facts themselves, rather than the people discussing them, are of the utmost importance when considering our national future.  True reflection and thought are required to moderate the passions for and against the truth, inspired by the well-known leaders, speakers, and commentators of our day, who by design, often work against us.

Already, we have heard many passionate statements about the power of Democracy, and the need to spread it throughout the world, although save the limited Swiss Democracy, no such government exists on earth.  America itself is not a democracy, but rather, it is a republic.  Yet, it is many of these same alleged supporters of democracy that denounce a true democratic government abroad, and here in these United States, by their never-ending actions of consolidating political, economic, and military power into progressively fewer hands.

We have also heard, for centuries, that democracy can only lead to a tyranny of the evil majority, and this has been a well-founded fear.  No good government can exist without protections and guarantees for the liberty of all people - in the majority and in the minority.  With this fear in hand, our nation's founders created a system of checks and balances that they hoped would protect the rights of the individual, and limit the potentially overreaching power of the governing authority.  Laws are only as good as the enforcement power behind them, and unless the wheels of power ruling over this nation are willing to enforce each tenet of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they are completely meaningless.

We have come to a time in our nation's history where the government has consolidated power, States have lost much of their sovereignty, and the federal authorities have nearly eviscerated the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  Constitutional amendments and laws have been passed that violate the very pillars of liberty that were intended to ensure us our freedom.  These extreme violations of our liberties are not due to a lack of protection in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, but rather, have been allowed because of flaws in the actual structure of the government itself.   Although it offers many protections against individuals who seek to gain unlimited power alone, it is completely lacking in protection from people who wish to do the same as a group in the legislature, executive, judicial, or various combinations of these branches.  I will discuss these crimes in greater detail in subsequent papers.

It is a basic tenet of good government that the fewer men and women in power, the greater the tendency is for tyranny.  Although the framers of the Constitution envisioned a House of Representatives that would check the powers of the executive and judiciary for the people, it has come to pass that this body no longer represents the true interests of their constituents, and has become nearly ineffective.  Many are incompetent, because they are more concerned with following party lines alone and completely ignore the people whom they've sworn to represent.  Some actually work against us by being actively involved in the consolidation of power and the destruction of our liberties for personal gain.  And others, in rare circumstances, are completely neutralized, and have a complete inability to defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights because those who try to do so with them are in such small numbers in our national assembly.

It is because of the aforementioned, as well as a lack of concern for the interests of the people, and in many cases, utter disdain for our liberty, from the federal government, as well as the leadership of both major political parties, that the portion of government which was meant to be a voice for the people, the House, has been rendered nearly ineffective, and even more often, counter-productive to our liberty and prosperity. 

When a government intended to be of, by, and for the people has as its weakest branch, the assembly representing the people, it would be nearly unfounded for any logical person to think that the people were actually holding any level of power in the government, and that they had been reduced to little more than subjects of an empire.

It is due to this loss of our seat of power in governing our nation that we have no choice but to place ourselves in the leadership of our own country.  We have entrusted many men and women over the years to handle our political and economic affairs, as representatives in the legislature, the judiciary and the executive, but have been mislead and betrayed at nearly every turn.  A moderate and thoughtful people, when betrayed by their political leaders, will simply replace them in the next election, but when this betrayal spans a period of many decades, and covers both leading political parties and nearly every federally elected official, a rational people will realize that subsequent elections will bring only the same results; endless war, increasing poverty, and diminishing prosperity.  It is when this time comes to pass that the citizens of the United States must be mighty and courageous enough to take the power of this country from those that have betrayed us and put into our own hands.  This time is now. 

With the Constitution and the Bill of Rights acting as guarantors of liberty, democracy can take hold in this country; the protections these venerable documents offer allow democracy to flourish while ensuring liberty for all.

With the resolve of the greatest political theorists in our nation's history, my goal, in the coming series of papers, is to discuss with you the need for a Constitutional Democracy in these United States, and I will cover the following topics:  a) The benefits of a Constitutional Democracy to your liberty, as well as  your political and economic well-being, b) The insufficiency of the current Republic to attain these benefits, c) The necessity of a Constitutional Democracy to this  prosperous future, d) The General Structure of this proposed Constitutional Democracy, e) The Relationship of this  proposed Federal Constitutional Democracy to the State Governments, and f) The detailed structure of this  proposed Constitutional Democracy.

I will publish a new edition to this series of papers in this very source every two weeks, with my next papers being published on 05-05-05, 05-19-05 and so on, until the discussion is complete.

While progressing through these topics, I will attempt to give a sufficient answer to all substantial objections that have arisen or will arise.  It may seem pointless to argue the usefulness of Democracy here in America, which seems to be an ingrained principle in many of our hearts, but we have already heard from many quarters that the possibility of Democracy in so large and populous a nation is a task too overwhelming to achieve, that the dangers of an evil majority will only create tyranny, and that Democracy will create a weak nation, defenseless from foreign powers.  All these objections will be discussed in depth in future papers, but it is the latter topic, how a Constitutional Democracy will provide greater national security from foreign powers, which will be the subject of my next paper on May 5th, 2005.

In the spirit of liberty and prosperity,

Franklin