Here comes a competitive election amid domestic and international strife. The country is sailing into the uncharted territory of restricting civil rights, dramatically increased privatization of services (even the military) and extending the power of the president.

The next elected president will enjoy more privilege and power than any other elected before them. They will have to face an unprecedented level of challenges during their time in office: Ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan totaling over a trillion dollars, a collapsing retirement system, a decrepit private health care system with one in five people uninsured and a teetering economy, which may or may not be in a recession when they assume office.

Our fleeting humanity has never been so publicly accepted, our country is holding people without Geneva Convention protections or habeas corpus, no lawyer, no trial, no witnesses and no basic human rights. For the first time, the United States of America practices the torture of innocent people. Innocent in the sense that the Constitution declares them (and the rest of us) as such.

I’m embarrassed to think that I have to further my argument in any other way because for many people that just isn’t really a big deal to them. Don’t you understand that if they can get past that then everything is at stake?

Our future and that of our children will depend greatly on the actions taken in the next few decades. Has there ever been a time when grand scale politics had such a personal impact? Retirement, education, economy, civil rights, medical care ... they belong to the people and I want them back. I’m an American. I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.

Here’s a quick read of the opening paragraph to the Declaration of Independence.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

Even if they are enemy combatants or terrorists.

“That among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Maybe the founders wanted those first three to be more important than all the rest, even money.

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”