That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government

—The Declaration of Independence

Independence Day is about a nation born in liberty. A grand effort by fledgling (now former) colonies to create a nation where the individual could live with dignity through self-governance, that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”[1]

The rounds of charges and counter-charges swirling around the Moral Monday demonstrations illustrate just how low political discourse in our state has fallen. It’s like children exchanging insults on a playground: “I know you are, but what am I.”

This farce is the inevitable result of a political system designed as a duopoly, with Democrats and Republicans taking turns being in charge, yet offering few differences between themselves.

Democrats are all for “democracy” – except when the don’t win. They seem to have forgotten that in a “democracy” the side that wins the majority gets to set the rules. That is what the Democrats did for many yea