We all know many adages and axioms concerning government. One in particular is that regardless of the form of government, it requires the consent of the governed. It’s been stated many times over the centuries.

Here are a few:

• Governments rest on the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish them at will whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established. (J Davis)
• Man is not made for the State but the State for man and it derives its just powers only from the consent of the governed. (T Jefferson)
• If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. (C Coolidge)
• We are a nation that has a government – not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the earth. Our government has no power except that granted to it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed. (R Reagan)

Why do I think this is important? Because based on the Lockdown Rebellion and the Twenty-Dollar Revolt (the reaction to the murder of George Floyd), more and more Americans are no longer giving their consent to be governed as they have been for the last half-century and more. (And Americans are not alone in this – many other nations share this “problem.”)

We are sick of the nanny-state, on the one hand, where government dictates everything we do, minute by minute “for our own good.” On the other, we are fed-up with the corruption and abuse of the police forces – enforced by and funded by local and state and federal government leaders. Others have gotten fed up with regulations and rules and taxes and borrowing. Still others reject living with the power given to non-governmental institutions like banks and even “private” educational institutions and foundation. And we are sick and tired of governments supporting the agendas of those people and their organizations who wish to remake society in their own image, who wish to trash our institutions, black-out our history, and destroy our moral code, our economy, and out faiths.

Each of these people, each of the groups to which they belong (organized or not), are part of a coalition which does NOT consent to be governed by many of the towns and cities, counties, States, and the FedGov. (Even if they don’t WANT TO BE part of some group.) They agree on one thing: the current governmental system or regime, is intolerable.

Why?

There are MANY reasons that people of all ages, backgrounds, political beliefs (most political beliefs, at least), economic and social class, have stopped consenting. In some cases, the reasons two different people (or groups of people) no longer consent to being governed by the established authorities are contradictory. One group rejects the current governments because the governments came up with the Lockdown, for instance. Another group opposes the current regime because the Lockdown didn’t go far enough.

Each of these ad hoc (or organized) groups may consist of only a few people – maybe a few thousand or a few tens of thousands. Not very many as compared to near 350 million living in the formerly-United States of America. Together, however, those who cannot tolerate government – AND willing to do something about it – almost certainly amount to several million people.

They all agree, to some degree, that they no longer consent for the Fifty States’, the local, and the Federal government to govern. Not just them but many (or most) other people.

However, as I pointed out, their reasons for that withdrawal of consent vary and even are the opposite of each others.

Which puts us in a dilemma. Even though the present ad-hoc non-consent coalition doesn’t want the governments to govern them, they clearly do not (and probably cannot) agree on what should be done to either (a) reform or (b) replace the current systems. What is needed is at least something close to a consensus, and that seems very unlikely in a single “federal” union of any sort. Or in virtually any of the Fifty States. Indeed, many have already decided that “reform” is not possible, and push more and more for revolutionary replacement.

So, is there a solution? I think that there is – local autonomy. Not a Hong Kong situation of “one nation, two systems” but a “fifty nations (or more) and five-hundred systems.”

Is it bold? Of course! Fraught with danger? Certainly. But possible? Absolutely.

Consider it, please. Enough is enough. We’ve had this mess for too long. I want my children and grandchildren to live in liberty – I pray that you do, too. And the current system and situation do not permit that. It must change.