This has to be a skip week for the Consumer Power Report. I have been traveling all week. We held town hall meetings in Indianapolis and Grand Rapids this week. These are real town hall meetings, where everyone is invited and can ask any questions they want, unlike the staged meetings and pre-selected questions President Barack Obama prefers. And tomorrow is a holiday.
Speaking of which, Independence Day is always a good time to revisit the founding documents of our nation and think about how far we have strayed from the stated purpose of the agreement between the sovereign people of this country and the government that was instituted to protect, not usurp, our “unalienable rights.”
For the first time in my memory, large numbers of people are beginning to wake up to the threats to what has made this country unique. These are not make-believe Astroturf direct mail campaigns, but real people who never before have been activists learning how to organize and reach out to fellow citizens. The most visible examples are the Tea Party Patriots, but there are hundreds of similar efforts by people who look at deficits that can never be repaid and other intrusions on our fundamental liberties such as the right to be secure in our own homes, the right to freely contract with other willing parties, and the right to speak out on public policy.
On this Independence Day it is not too late to reclaim the blessings of liberty for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren yet to be born. Those who came before us sacrificed much more than we are called upon to do.
Greg Scandlen
Greg Scandlen is a policy advisor of The Heartland Institute and founder of Consumers for Health Care Choices, a non-partisan, non-profit membership organization aimed at empowering consumers in the health care system.
