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Guest column: Matt Winey: America at a crossroads

Matt Winey, Bears Ears Tea Party Patriots
Matt Winey
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Coming soon:

Look for Matt Winey’s column, along with a feature story about the evolution of the local tea party, in the next Moffat Monthly, which can be found inside Friday’s Craig Daily Press. The upcoming M2 will also feature inside stories on Moffat County High School spring sports teams, along with a feature from the community about a prominent local family preparing to say goodbye.

Coming soon:

Look for Matt Winey’s column, along with a feature story about the evolution of the local tea party, in the next Moffat Monthly, which can be found inside Friday’s Craig Daily Press. The upcoming M2 will also feature inside stories on Moffat County High School spring sports teams, along with a feature from the community about a prominent local family preparing to say goodbye.

Would the Founding Fathers recognize today’s U.S. government? Would those who lived in the 13 states that ratified the U.S. Constitution?

I’ve become a better student of American history since the 2008 national elections than I was during my high school years, and my answer to these questions is a resounding NO.



To explain my answer, I think it’s necessary to see what the American mind was like that caused us to declare our independence from the British, fight the Revolutionary War, and come up with the form of government they did.

The form of government they came up with had to support the words and statements that were contained in the Declaration of Independence.



I believe, as you study the grievances Americans of that time period had against the British, you will see a British government similar in many ways to the government we have now. Our Founding Fathers opposed this form of government so vehemently they were willing to lose life and property and go to war against it.

Here are a few grievances from the Declaration of Independence and perhaps their modern day equivalents:

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. (Arizona immigration laws)

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. (Obama Care)

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. (Agenda 21 and the Environmental Protection Agency)

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. (Czars)

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended Legislation. (United Nations)

For imposing taxes on us without our consent. (When more paper money is printed, the value of each dollar goes down, in effect the same as a tax to pay our enormous national debt.)

Thankfully, times are different from when America went to war against the British.

We indeed have the right to vote given to us by our Founding Fathers.

But, I believe our country is at a crossroads.

Are we going to try and gain back the form of government the Founding Fathers created, or will we keep progressing into a form of slavery that was detested by them?

Matt Winey is a member of the Bears Ears Tea Party Patriots. He can be reached at bearsearspatriots@gmail.com.


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