Why we must March on Washington

Brendan Steinhauser

FreedomWorks
Aug 27, 2009

Throughout history governments have ignored the rights of citizens and instead have maximized their own power. Those in public office have used it for their own personal gain, or to take wealth from some and give to others in order to maintain their own power. It is a classic model that hasn’t changed much in thousands of years.

The modern iteration of this is a leviathan federal government run by a political party based precisely on such principles. The bread and circuses of Roman times have merely been replaced with redistribution of wealth and a paternalistic state.

The other major political party in America ostensibly believes in limited government and free markets, but as the previous administration proved, these principles are practiced only when convenient. Sometimes it may be necessary to disregard the free market, “in order to save it.” How disapointing.

The flame of liberty does not depend upon the success or failure of either political party in America. No one politician or party can keep that flame lit well into the future. Ultimately it is up to those that care deeply about freedom to stoke the embers, and protect them from the wind.

In the last year or so those of us who cherish liberty have been pushed up against a wall. We have watched the federal government bail out the elites on Wall Street for their own bad decisions. We have seen a new president waste a trillion dollars on failed economic ideas and increase our debt to dangerous proportions. We have heard the soaring rhetoric and watched the media fawn all over this new president who we are told is a new FDR. But we don’t want another FDR. We want our freedom, we want less government in our lives and we want to be left alone.

As we watched the size and scope of government grow exponentially this year we rose up in protests across the country. It is not in our nature as conservatives and libertarians to protest, but we had exhausted all other forms of communication to our elected officials. In late February hundreds or even thousands of Americans responded to the call for another Boston Tea Party by demonstrating in cities across the country.

We were mocked, we were doubted and we were vilified. They said that we were merely acting out, or that we wouldn’t be able to muster another protest like that. Weeks later, on tax day, more than a million of us came out again to send a much louder message to our elected officials. We had spent the previous weeks organizing, making signs, pleading with our friends and family to come out and be heard. We made history that day and shocked the elite media, which couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. Again, we were told that the protests wouldn’t continue, that we weren’t real.

But we pressed on, and continued to plan events around the country on July 4th and July 17th. The media essentially ignored us and barely mentioned the growing movement beneath their upturned noses. In early August everyone seemed surprised when thousands of us showed up at town hall meetings across the country and took advantage of our chance to meet face to face with the same politicians that have been voting for socialism in America. Now the attacks from the media and the left became more forceful, more ugly, more false. Finally, we had gotten our feet under us as a movement and had began to push back against the forces of socialism. The scene across the country was, I’m told, reminiscent of the sixties. Only this time the radicals were the ones protesting against the left-wing establishment.

Now we come to the heat of August, and the protests and town hall meetings are keeping the pressure on the politicians. As one woman in Pennsylvania told a prominent senator, “You have awakened a sleeping giant.” This month the media and the left will continue to write us off, or malign us, but we will press on. And once the dust settles and the politicians return to Washington, they will think that it is all over. They only wish.

As the politicians return, we will follow them to Washington. We will come from every state, in big cities and small towns, to descend upon the capitol building with one voice. Our message will be a simple one: we demand our freedom. We reject the growth of the federal government and want our republic restored. This is not, and never will be, a socialist nation.

We will march on Washington on September 12th because we must. Because we have to turn the temperature up on the politicians to remind them once again that we will not go quietly into the night. We will work harder and out-organize the taxpayer-funded left wing groups like ACORN. We, the producers of this country will not be taken over by the looters and their representatives in Congress.

A march on Washington is necessary because it is the natural next step for a growing movement that started with a spark in Cape Coral, Florida and Elkhart, Indiana. A movement where a handful of people inspired others thousands of miles away to take to the streets because if the folks in Cape Coral could do it, so could the folks in Elkhart. We march on Washington because it will take a massive gathering of liberty-loving Americans to make such an impact on Congress and the president that we stop the current slide to socialism. When the national and international press see that the American people have gathered by the thousands in one place, at one time, to stand in solidarity with the constitution and the declaration of independence, no longer will we be written off.

We have the opportunity to come together at this march and make our mark in a way that previous Americans before us have done. We can keep the flame of liberty lit for future generations, but we all have to put in the work to do so. We are only two weeks away from September 12th, a day in which we can finally speak in one, loud voice for freedom. I believe that if we can pull this off, we can stop the government takeover of health care and the energy sectors, and stop this rapid socialist experiment before it eliminates any more of our liberty.

My personal appeal to you is to spend the next two weeks helping to spread the word about this event. Charter a bus, recruit more people, call talk radio and do everything else in your power to alert your fellow Americans to this cause. If we work together we can make history and throw a counter punch to big government that will put it on the ropes. From there, we can begin regaining our liberty and restoring our republic to its original founding. This is why we must march on Washington on September 12th.