“Thank you for your service.” This is the comment so many say to the veterans these days.
The first time I heard these words was fully 14 years after I took the oath of office entering the military. For some reason every time I hear these words, I usually feel like the comment is a mere platitude; uttered to makes those who say it feel good.
If you who say this and really want to put meaning into “Thank you for your service,” vote. Participate in your government by choosing representatives to form a “…more perfect union …” for the benefit of “We the people.”
One of the initial complaints of the colonists in the Declaration of Independence is forcing the people to “relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.”
It is documented in Article I section 2 of the Constitution of the United States that representatives shall be “chosen … by the People” The amendments to the Constitution repeatedly direct “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged.”
Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No 9 states “the representation of the people in the legislature [is] by deputies of their own election.”
He further reflects in Federalist No 35 that a representative is “dependent on the suffrages of his fellow-citizens for the continuance of his public honors.” Federalist No 62 recaps that “the laws are made by men of their own choice.”
Abraham Lincoln reminds us that our government is our choice when he states “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision,” reinforced in his Gettysburg Address with “…government of the people, by the people and for the people.”
Calvin Coolidge emphasized a basic tenet of our government — “In political affairs the vote of the humblest has long counted for as much as the vote of the most exalted” — during his Independence Day address at the home of Daniel Webster in Marshfield, Massachusetts on July 4, 1916.
And Chief Justice Roberts reinforces this when he writes in the opinion for McCutcheon v. FEC, 572 U.S. 185 (2014) “There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.”
But Pew Research has told us that “against recent national elections in 49 other countries, the U.S. ranks 31st.” Further research by Pew Research reflects consistently fewer than two-thirds of the eligible voters participated in the last few presidential elections; even worse, in so-called “midterm” elections that drops to less than 50%.
Thomas Jefferson is very clear that “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt observed, “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”
Antiquity gives us a warning from Plato that “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” Lincoln’s quote on elections referenced above continued with, “If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
Coolidge further observed: “Under our theory, the citizen is sovereign. Whenever he abdicates, some pretender assumes the throne” during his address at the 150th anniversary of the Battles of Trenton and Princeton on December 29, 1926.
From the ragtag group that gathered on the Lexington common and faced the largest and most professional army in the world to the fields of Gettysburg, the Argonne Forest, waters off Midway, the rice patties of Vietnam, the sands of the Middle East and hundreds of other fields of battles in between, and those yet to come, our veterans have been called on to defend against enemies foreign and domestic who would deny you the right to vote.
If you want to thank the veterans for their service, put some substance into those words “Thank you for your service” and vote.
The preceding column is the opinion of the author and is not the opinion of the U.S. Navy or the U.S. government.
John M. DeMaggio retired after 30 years of service as a Captain from the U.S. Naval Reserve Intelligence Program. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Forensic Science from John Jay College and a Master’s of Science from Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. Privately consulting in counterterrorism, forensic science, and investigations, he also conducts international counterterrorism training, having retired as a Special Agent in Charge and serving as Co-chairman, Investigative Support and Forensic Subgroup, TSWG, developing interagency counterterrorism technology. He is also an Op-Ed contributor for The Hill. He previously published “Mitigation of Terrorist Effects on Victims’ Motivation” in U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Center Colloquium. Read John M. DeMaggio’s Reports — More Here.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.