The People Have Spoken

                    After four very long and traumatic years, the 2012 presidential election is finally over!  I am very disappointed, saddened, and worried as I write this post because I had more faith in the American people.  I cannot understand how so many Americans could be so foolish that they would give Barack Obama another four years to destroy our nation.  I cannot understand how so many Americans could be so blinded by Obama's lies that they would elect him over a great leader like Mitt Romney.  Apparently, I must accept that Obama won, but I will always believe that Mitt Romney would have made a much better President.

This election was a choice between tyranny and liberty, freedom and serfdom.  Since the election was called for Obama, apparently the majority of Americans have chosen the road to tyranny and serfdom.  The two main candidates for President - Barack Obama and Mitt Romney - have two different visions for the future of our Republic.  Obama believes America is no better than any other nation and wants to use socialist policies, large government, and entitlement programs to bring us down to the level of other nations.  Romney believes in the conservative principles of American exceptionalism, free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and strong national defense.  Obama believes in the rule of man while Romney believes in the rule of law.  Obama believes in socialism while Romney believes in free enterprise.

Our Founders gave us a Republic and the responsibility to keep it free.  They believed that man has the divine right to government himself and make his own decisions.  This great gift from our Heavenly Father gives us the right and the responsibility to elect our own leaders.  Our Republic is a system of government that does its business by the voice of the people, and the people have spoken once again.  Today Americans chose to go down the lower road.

                    The Declaration of Independence declares that "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. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, …."

                    The United States Constitution declares, "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, 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."

                    Hundreds of years prior to the American Revolution, a wise king in ancient America understood the importance of honoring the sovereignty of the people.  King Mosiah proposed to his people that they replace the monarchy with a system of judges chosen by the people.  He proposed that the people adopt a system that would be based on God-given laws administered by judges who were selected by the people.

                    King Mosiah understood the principle of agency, the divine gift of freedom of choice.  He understood that his people must have the opportunity to choose in order for them to be accountable and responsible to act in accordance with the law.  He believed that the new system of government would provide greater protection for the individual rights of the people and the collective rights of society.  He understood that people needed to be accountable for their own behavior.

                    With this understanding King Mosiah said, "Therefore, choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according to the laws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord.

                    "Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law - to do your business by the voice of the people" (Book of Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Mosiah 29:25-26).

                    King Mosiah continued by explaining what would happen if the majority of the people chose that which was not right.  "And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land" (Mosiah 29:27).

                    The people listened carefully to the words of their king when he told them that he wanted them to live in a land of liberty in order that every one of them could enjoy his/her rights and privileges and be responsible for their own actions.  The people were convinced that their king spoke the truth and gave up their desires for a king.  Instead, they "became exceeding anxious that every man should have an equal chance throughout all the land; yea, and every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins" (Mosiah 29:38).

                    The people "assembled themselves together in bodies throughout the land" and cast their votes for judges."  They were "exceedingly rejoiced because of the liberty which had been granted unto them" (Mosiah 29:39).

                    The people felt great love towards King Mosiah and "did esteem him more than any other man" (Mosiah 29:40).  They grew in love for the King because he gave them complete freedom instead of heaping heavy taxes and regulations on them.

                    This new government was threatened on two different occasions by men who sought to establish themselves as kings and deprive the people of their right to vote for their leaders as well as their freedom of religion.  On both occasions, the voice of the people came against the would-be kings.  The people appreciated their freedom and voted to keep it.

                    Americans are divided by a great chasm.  Approximately half of our citizens desire a government that will take care of us from cradle to grave and satisfy our every need.  This half wants "Obama's stash" to pay their mortgage, buy their groceries, fill their gas tank, and buy them an "Obama phone," and they become poorer.  The rest of us desire the freedom to make our own choices, to succeed or fail on our own, to be responsible for ourselves and our families, and to prosper.

                    I fear for our nation and whether we can survive another four years under Obama's leadership.  I believe that his policies will take us into serfdom and tyranny and further from God.  Throughout history entire civilizations were destroyed because they turned from God, and I am afraid that we are following their examples.  The majority of Americans has apparently turned or is in the process of turning from God.  Exit polling showed that most of people who voted for Obama are not active in religious circles while the people who supported Romney are active in their churches.  Is our nation going down the slippery slope to destruction?  We will have to wait for the answer to this question because only time will reveal the truth.