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I was fortunate to have conversation over the past couple of days with someone my senior in years and another junior. We spoke of many of the things that I write about.

When I have these discussions of ideas I can tell when I have found the “brick wall of thought” or admitted end to the conversation when the free flow of idea and experiential wisdom seem to come to an abrupt halt. Big red flashing lights that say STOP!

With most of us it is that the idea has nowhere else to go and the two of you (us) change subject. Or, it becomes a situation where because of fear to face the truth, plain inexperience or gullibility on one side or the other the conversation just falls off of the cliff of reason while in the train of thought. Sort of like seeing a DEAD END sign in front of you and continuing anyway.

Sometimes though there is a true fear factor that does it’s best to end the conversation quickly. Not doing so it seems would obligate the person to either admitting they are helpless and scared or causal awareness might force them into facing the reality of the ideas you are discussing.  That can be too much for some.

So when I was told that unless I could show how one person could make a difference, then they would care, otherwise they did not want to hear about it anymore. I did my best to try and explain in polite dinner conversation how a person has a role in liberty and that by being a morally good person that they are making a difference. I stumbled on the words and found it hard to materialize the depth of the answer into a quick fulfillment of their fear. Too bad really, I was hoping for something else I suppose.

Want to know why you feel like one person cannot do anything? Here is the most basic answer to that. You cannot, you are right. Most of the time one person rising from the ashes like a Phoenix does not happen. These great Saints are held to a standard of unachievable outcome for a reason. One is to prevent you from thinking you can do the same. Simply so you won’t even try. e pluribus unumHowever, you do not need to be a great phoenix from the ashes to have impact. You, the individual, are a required element of the equation known as liberty. If you are not willing to stand in her defense, then get out of the way. This problem becomes amplified in a group scenario when the individual is replaced for the collective. Out of many one – E Pluribus Unum.

My second conversation went something like, “Ah, politics! I don’t like politics, I just avoid it.” This one was a whole lot easier to build dialogue around. I asked what they did not like about it. They said that if they participated in conversations with people about it that there was always a fight or the people ended up not liking each other.

From politics? I asked. Explain what you mean I inquired. Well, one side is always ripping the other side up. Then the other side rips the other one apart. So I asked which side they agreed with. They replied neither. Just like the majority of Americans.

When I explained how what they were witnessing as politics was not politics. They seemed confused. What I showed was how each of these two camps of political Pablum has issued letters and team jerseys to their fans; big R’s & D’s. I explained how they create and foment hatred and angst between the two teams to keep them at each other’s throat. I explained how they are both guilty of wrapping their sinister self-serving agenda in the red white and blue and distracting you while they both raid the treasury and destroy freedom.

I then offered a solution. The same one I will offer here. Take the name, face and the party of the President and leave them aside. It will help you leave your institutional party blinders of loyalty on the table for a minute. Then we can all see things in the same light of the constitution. Look at the person as POTUS framed in a common constitutional foundation.

When they behave and act like POTUS it is easier to see the good in the office and thus the Nation. When they act somehow in discordance with constitutional moray let’s evaluate the Officer and their decisions as members of the same team, America. This is fair. It is objective. It leaves us all in the same place and with the same chance to correct the notion. It is our lives that we are discussing. Not a news clip or cute little meme.

The business of politics is not a cage match. It is the business of discussing our course as a people. It is a discussion of what is in all of our interest. Not hate and vitriol. The conversation proceeded with introspection and consideration on the others part as well as mine from there.

So, I feel like I lent in some small way to the food for thought of someone else without having to say they are wrong and I am right.

The amplification of ideal’s, values, principles and the repercussion of the lack thereof, are a major component of the writings on this space. Over five years ago the decision was made to develop a blog with a planned effort to enter into the ether my thoughts and words for critical review and personal introspection in a very public way. Hopefully then having an inspirational effect on myself and others.

It was never meant that this space be built on a soap box or to be morally indignant or an overly righteous mandate of anyone’s capitulation to ideology or thought. When I suggest you live as a free man I do not advise that you think the same as I. I do not mean that you live the same as I. I submit that you live as a free man, a man honest with himself and thus honest to other free men. I believe that when you live as a free man you help in the defense of Liberty knowing that other free men, will by the nature of freedom, be doing the same. It is then that we can begin to stand America back up into her rightful place as the world’s beacon of hope.

My place in the world back in 2013 was much different than it is today. In that place in time there was a series of events that occurred in front of me like the collapse of a house of cards in slow motion. They involve some very dark things that fractured the thin façade of American idealism and liberty right in front of me. They happened while being a part of the machinations of the body politic. They continued to unveil for quite some time.

The fracturing of the veil didn’t happen while these people of great power were at a microphone or in front of the public. Much to my surprise it happened right in the openness of closed doors, while behind them.

What happened in these discussions and meetings will remain mine to know publically. It caused me to ask some very introspective and adult questions of myself and my effort. When my political march began it was not for self-advancement or gain. My road to politics began as an honest desire to bring about good outcome and effect. It quickly turned to protest against corruption and misguided ideals within the party structure.

The den was filthy and the lights were dim. This caused me to question not only my own particular involvement but the structure itself. The political party is the place our leaders are incubated and promoted. It would be a healthy exercise to witness the filters by which the party uses to find their nuggets of hope. Because they are the same candidates you vote for and end up being our representation in the perceived constitutional system that we live in.

In life we are faced with decisions. We make them every day. Some of them big others not so, but we make them. When we do make them, hopefully we are doing so from a foundation of self-declared principle. We form principle and foundational belief over time. This does not mean that all of our principles or foundational beliefs are actually virtuous or positive in nature.

One thing though is certain for us all. The outcomes of our actions are what have steered us to where we are. If tomorrow we abandon our principles of responsibility and slack off, we have decided. If we abandon our principle of integrity and avoid effort and then take credit, or if we decide that we are going to portray one thing for misdirection’s sake and do another behind the scenes, our place in the world will change. It will change because our actions, that determine our outcomes, have changed. Be sure too that inaction is equally inertial in outcome. Ultimately, by action and inaction we decide where we are in the world. Not the world. This is evidenced by the fact that if you let others make decisions of you, you will end up in a place you may not wish to be.

Want to know why you feel like one person cannot do anything? Here is the most basic answer to that. You cannot, you are right. Most of the time one person rising from the ashes like a Phoenix does not happen. These great Saints are held to a standard of unachievable outcome for a reason. One is to prevent you from thinking you can do the same. However, you do not need to be a great phoenix from the ashes to have impact. You, the individual, are a required element of the equation known as liberty.

The problem though becomes amplified in a group scenario when the individual is replaced for the collective. From many one – E Pluribus Unum.

The body politic today is critically ill from an ethical prognosis. Greed and power create corruption and the nature of man is such that it opens places of power and wealth for those willing to exploit the opportunity for their gain. This is a natural outcome. It is one that must be dealt with, but no less it is still a natural experiential occurrence.

There is a predictable nature that man will always try to exploit it. So, that being what it is in reality, it does not mean that the people who are genuine in their effort to maintain the freedom of liberty in the process of politics should feel helpless because a few bad eggs have taking control of the persona and facade. Personally, you should actually be really pissed off and terrified about those “bad eggs” being there.

This is where transcendence in acceptance of the concepts in this discussion can take us some place others might call a higher level, I say it is too. Although, ascendance is actually not the proper word, elemental is in my estimation. It is grounded not ethereal. We can remain grounded and still transcend. This is why we need not be a Phoenix all of the time. Our grounding affirms others and creates a stable foundation from whence to live in freedom and thus liberty shines.

Or, we can rebuke the ideas wholly as arcane propaganda from a better colonial time. Life presents opportunity for us all. We however have to be the one to first see it. Then know what turns to take to get us towards it. It is not a straight line ever. So when we navigate on any journey we need to know first where we are going. Then we need to know how to get there. We may even want to plan the trip to avoid obstacles. This is no different in the politics of life. That is why we all must have a common agreement of believed principle in foundation to begin from. Without that, we are subjugated to eternal chaos. The process of life is daunting but not really that complicated in requirement. We decide how complicated it has to be, no one else. When we can en masse agree as individuals in basic Liberty, then will freedom begin once again to ring for the whole. From many – one. E Pluribus Unum.

That said, please allow me to elucidate on a frame of perspective that I hope will give a more resolute observation of the misdirection and subsequent angst you may have. I will give you an idea that with coordinated effort and action can change the course of politics and lend to a potential for a solution to the debauchery we call American Politics and the two party system.

First though, let me suggest that as long as one side or the other continues to separate by bitterness, vitriol, sarcasm and general 4th grade ha ha’s – we all lose.

There is a common refrain that I am hearing which suggest that we are in a place in history right now that will be recorded as the transition from the Modern Age to the Post-Modern age. To grasp this idea will take some time and some further research. What is certain though to me is that the names and voices proclaiming and illuminating this occurrence are to be listened to.

In my general elucidation on the topic I am somewhat convinced that, like progressivism, post-modernism is a real threat. However, like it’s successor, progressivism, it is a self-consuming philosophic ideology. The post-modern bourgeois advocate and their precepts create bad enough outcome for themselves and display a sense of absurdity that makes it real hard for people to get on board.

Still though they must be contained in idea. It is easy enough to argue, write, lecture or just jump up and down and say “you are wrong”. Maybe, just maybe, you will convince someone they are on the wrong side of history. But so what if you do. Where do you take them? To the Republicans? To the Democrats?

The time is right and it is now for the civil and enlightened discussion concerning third and fourth party formation. There are a number of arguments to be made as to why it cannot work. Listen to who is making the claims though; party elite, the politically broken, and everyone else that just has had enough and does not give a good damn anymore. This essay {Altered States of America} explains how we got to the place we are at and what we can do now. I encourage all people of political involvement to read the essay with a fresh eye.

Maurice Duverger and the (DL) Duverger Law is wrong by the way. It can work and it will. Please take the time to consider. However, I will not leave that as the closing distinction to be relevant in this writing. Even if the law is accurate it still brings us to a place much closer to our foundation than will the continuation of the two broken vessels we are using now for our political transportation. What difference does it make really if we cannot have three, four or even five party, forever. Maybe we can have two new ones out of it though. Two party more aligned to constitutional value. When left alone in their house of filth and corruption the two current party, now acting as one, will collapse from their own self consumption. We will hasten that collapse when good men eject from them and stop trying to save her. When they venture forward in Liberty’s light as a free people with new affirmation and principle under new banner, then will we be back on the road to liberty for freedoms sake. Is anyone out there? Will you join me in proclaiming a new light in America is possible and help build dialogue around it?

– 28 Principles of Liberty

Principle 1. The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law. Principle 2. A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong. Principle 3. The most promising method of securing a virtuous and morally stable people is to elect virtuous leaders.
Principle 4. Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained. Principle 5. All things were created by God, therefore upon Him all mankind are equally dependent, and to Him they are equally responsible. Principle 6. All men are created equal.
Principle 7. The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things. “—That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men…” Principle 8. Men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Principle 9. To protect man’s rights, God has revealed certain principles of divine law.
Principle 10. The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people. Principle 11. The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical. Principle 12. The United States of America shall be a republic.
Principle 13. A constitution should be structured to permanently protect the people from the human frailties of their rulers. Principle 14. Life and liberty are secure only so long as the right of property is secure. Principle 15. The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and a minimum of government regulations.
Principle 16. The government should be separated into three branches – legislative, executive, and judicial. Principle 17. A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power. Principle 18. The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written constitution.
Principle 19. Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained in the people. Principle 20. Efficiency and dispatch require government to operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority. Principle 21. Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.
Principle 22. A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men. Principle 23. A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education. Principle 24. A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.
Principle 25. “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none.” Principle 26. The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore, the government should foster and protect its integrity. Principle 27. The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom as subjugation by conquest.
Principle 28. The United States has a manifest destiny to be an example and a blessing to the entire human race.

~ Eric D. Miller – 2018