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, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We, the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense , promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

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No grander sentiments were ever penned than in our two founding documents that voiced the desires of a struggling people who sought freedom from tyranny and the chance to live according to their consciences. Many had suffered at the hands of monarchs and oligarchs in church/state alliances. Many pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in this new endeavor. At several junctures each of their principles and values were put to the test, and too many of our ancestors were found wanting. Skin color mattered to those who could not read and understand justice. Strange religions were not trusted. Still, many of our brothers and sisters lived worthy lives in the unworthy confines of servitude and slavery. In spite of our lofty principles and ideals, we corralled Native Americans and cast them out in clusters of indifference to find their way in the least desirable sites and locations. Some of the privileged settlers became slave owners buying and selling humans in bondage. Governors and legislators took land from others unjustly; yet they allowed poor imigrants in for the purpose of exploiting them as cheap labor with little recompense.  Later they denied Asian citizens their rights of citizenship based on their ethnicity. And even today a broad base of our population continues to denounce Central and South Americans, and a vast population of Muslims their chance at this elusive thing we call freedom.

Still we trek onward with our imperfections while inwardly searching for better answers. Perhaps with a bit more courage, a little less greed, and a larger dose of humility we will do better in the days ahead. It’s not as if we have a choice. We need to improve. Words can help, but not much. Experience is a better teacher. Wanting the safe life, or the good life, offers little. But if sacrifice, hunger, pain, and a bloody face are the best teachers, we are in for a lot of learning in the days ahead.

Who could possibly have put their trust in someone who tells lies incessantly and with no respect for your intelligence at all? At last posting, this leader of the free world has told 8,000 lies in public, on television, and in our faces with little evidence that he cares at all about our offended sensibilities? But isn’t this almost exactly what most of the world concluded about the gullibility quotient of the German people of the 1920s and 30s? How could they have possibly let a one-testicular tyrant take control of their country and lead it down the road to infamy while taking 50 million human beings to their deaths along with him? The parallels between them are everywhere except that Hitler probably had a higher IQ than Trump. Elections have consequences, but so do nuclear weapons in the hands of an idiot. And I am not referring to Kim Jong Un. There are several fundamental flaws in how we elect leaders that need fixing. We clearly need a simpler, easier way to fix our Constitution.

We also need to ban ideologies from our serious thought processes starting with what they can do to us. The ideologues first define their enemies (all the nonbelievers), they put labels on them, they demonize the label terms, and then they accuse you and me of being one of those evil demons. Wasn’t this also a technique used by Josef Goebbels, the propaganda minister for the Nazis? It’s an old ploy that the world should be on to by now. Descendants of the 6 million Jews who were slaughtered don’t need reminders. We must identify and stop all ideologues cold in their tracks starting in kindergarten.

Another election cycle is approaching us. In two short years—with no help from their opponents—the ideologues on the right have done more damage than normal people could ever do. They have inserted the final link to the establishment of permanent dynasties in America. If you do not know what that link is, then you are an unwitting part of the problem. Let’s make you an enlightened part of the solution.

The link in question was inserted into place by the elimination of the inheritance tax. By allowing huge accumulations of wealth to be passed on to others untaxed, ideology legislators have assured that families with exorbitant amounts of wealth will control nearly all our wealth, no matter who produces it, and no matter how hard we try to change things—in perpetuity. Ten percent of inheritors have locked in $100 trillion dollars of wealth, and 98 percent of that same wealth collects 90 percent of all new wealth. It is a self-perpetuating state of being that is locked into place by laws. How to break the linkage and release wealth so that it flows to all those who produce it will take an immense effort by men and women of strong wills, great intelligence, and the fortitude to stand up against and dismantle the house of tyranny built by the ideologues.

The changes needed to get us back on course according to the purposes and principles stated in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are formidable. They will require time, blood, sweat, tears, plus healthy, educated minds to make them a permanent part of our collective moral compass. Do we still have leaders among us who can and will carry the torch of liberty? They need to be visionaries with resolve, not “sunshine” patriots who give up the fight at the first setback. Andrew Jackson reminded us that “one man [person] with courage makes a majority.” Thomas Paine was one man with courage. In the end his adopted country abandoned him, and he died with but two Black men following his funeral carriage. I don’t know how much courage it will take to find America’s soul, but two are not enough. We also need those with enough moral courage to live their principles rather than merely talk about them. Much like Diogenes of ancient Greece, let the search begin now.