Founding Father's Friday

A little Thomas Jefferson today for Founding Father's Friday.

"When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil."
--Thomas Jefferson

Our Republic has been corrupted for some time and I agree with Jefferson here that we need to remove the corruption and restore the principles to make things right. This starts with identifying what the lost principles are and beginning to restore them. I think that what Glenn Beck has identified at http://www.the912project.com/the-912/ as the nine principles and the twelve values are a good place to start:

9 Principles
1. America Is Good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

12 Values
* Honesty* Reverence* Hope* Thrift* Humility* Charity* Sincerity* Moderation* Hard Work* Courage* Personal Responsibility* Gratitude

The next step is to demand of ourselves that we follow these principles and values. We can not demand of others to live their lives in a way that we are not willing to live our own. Once we accomplish this then it is time to associate with others who are living these principles and encourage our friends and families to live these principles and values. Once we have done this in our communities than the other part of Jefferson's words "removing the corruption" from power becomes much easier. We begin by throwing everyone out of office who doesn't live by these principles (regardless of party) and there are lots of them. We then elect new leaders to replace them who do believe these principles are the way one should live their life. All of these other solutions that we have been trying have not been working. I have been just as guilty as others when it comes to this. I have voted for the lesser of two evils more than once and I will not do it again. I will not sacrifice my beliefs to vote for someone only because he is slightly less evil than the next guy. I am voting for only good, honest politicians from here on out. I am tired of holding my nose while casting my vote because I know that the candidate I am voting for stinks but just slightly less than the other guy. I will vote and campaign for whatever candidate most agrees with me regardless of what party they are in and what chance the experts think they have of winning.