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Besides, most of the people who run our lives never appear on the ballot, especially judges. And the federal government employs 2 million people as full-time bureaucrats, their salaries crowbarred out of the American taxpayer. They never run for office and they can't be fired. If we could unseat them, we would. But the system is set up to lockout citizen influence.
So, you see, you are not the only ones with complaints and gripes about the behavior of the U.S. The American people suffer under its thumb too. In many ways, we are all in the same boat – victims of an imperial, grasping, unaccountable and rogue regime that cares little for human rights and liberties, except as propaganda devices.
What can be done about it? You may propose violence, but that would be wrong, and it can only lead to more bombings, more interventions, and more crackdowns on liberties, at home and abroad. Indeed, terrorism can only play into the hands of the government because it seems to validate everything the Clinton administration is saying.
There's a better way. The American people do not revere their leaders as they once did. In every way that is permitted, and some that are not, the American people are systematically withdrawing their consent from the powers that be. As we saw in Eastern Europe ten years ago, in Iran under the Shah and India under Gandhi, or in the American colonies in the 1770s, no government can continue to hold power once the people withdraw their consent.
So be patient. The U.S. military dominance of the world will not last forever. Give it some time; we'll curb the power of the Leviathan. In the meantime, refrain from blaming the American people for the actions of our government, and from the violence that can only aid the empire.
December 24, 1999
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send him mail], is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama