Swickard: I do not consent to tyranny by my government

Michael Swickard, a younger version

Speech by Michael Swickard – for the Las Cruces TEA Party, May 17, 2012 - I will take two local government situations and use them to explore the principle that we citizens must consent to be governed. Let me set the table: locally our city government threatened to turn off utilities to those who do not pay the red-light camera fines. It got international attention and I am sure hundreds of other cities said, “Cool, can we do that?” Also, we are dealing with Wilderness Proposals that seek to change how we interact with our public lands. What do these have in common? Our consent to be governed. Our country came into being because of an unjust government. The Declaration of Independence said that we will no longer consent to be governed by England. The English did not consent to our withholding our consent so we had the Revolutionary War. We won the right to be free as long as we remain willing to fight for freedom. The first task after whipping the Brits was we had to construct a just government. So those leaders had to know just from unjust. Then those leaders had to develop a set of rules so that the American government would remain just. No easy task.The federal government was created by the states. The states shared the power to govern with the federal government Even now they have the right to withhold it. Read full speech

Swickard: I do not consent to tyranny by my government