Every republic that has ever fallen went this way — slowly at first, then all at once. The United States is not immune. Rights once taken for granted erode beneath our feet. We now watch as the current administration strips away the guardrails of justice, one by one, at an alarming rate. The founders reminded us that the legitimacy of our government rests on a single principle: the consent of the governed.
That consent is not unconditional. It is earned through fidelity to the Constitution, protection of rights, and service to the common good. And it can be withdrawn in historical moments such as these.
We, the people, do not consent.
We are at a crossroads. The choices we make now will echo for generations and will create or close paths for our children and our children’s children. If those in power continue to ignore their constitutional duties — if they persist in treating the governed as subjects rather than citizens — they forfeit their legitimacy. The people are watching. The people are remembering. The people are preparing to act.
We speak today with one voice, not as members of a party, but as members of a people. We are conservatives and liberals, independents and unaffiliated, rural and urban, young and old. We are bound by the understanding that without the rule of law, none of our beliefs, communities, or freedoms can survive.
We will not be divided and pitted against each other anymore while government leadership desecrates the principles on which this country was founded. United we stand.
The first move of any government that fears its people is to divide them — setting neighbor against neighbor, region against region, citizen against citizen — making us believe we have more to fear from each other than from the abuse of power itself. We reject that lie.
We, the people, do not consent.
We often hear that we live in “the greatest democracy on Earth.” But democracy is not a title you inherit; it is a practice you maintain. Consent is not granted once at the ballot box and forgotten. It is renewed daily through just governance — and it is withdrawn when the governed are ignored, silenced or trampled.
We have watched due process gutted for immigrants who have committed no crime, asylum seekers turned away without hearings and birthright citizenship — guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment — openly challenged. We have seen voting rights undermined by discriminatory ID laws, polling place closures in minority neighborhoods and gerrymandered maps drawn in defiance of court orders.
We, the people, do not consent.
We watch as the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments are treated as obstacles instead of sacred obligations. We see public protest met with militarized police and journalists threatened with arrest for reporting the truth. We witness independent institutions bent into tools of political vengeance.
This is how the consent of the governed is lost — and once lost, it is difficult to regain.
This is why we, the people, are stepping forward — not as a party, not as a brand, but as a reminder that power in this nation flows from the people upward, not from the government down.
We demand what the founders demanded:
· Equal protection and due process for all, citizen and non-citizen alike.
· Elections free from gerrymandering, suppression, and the purchase of influence.
· Institutions that serve the people’s interests, not the ambitions of those in power.
· Freedom of thought, speech, press, and academic inquiry without fear or intimidation.
These are not radical demands. They are the bare minimum for a functioning republic.
And until they are met, we, the people, remove our consent.
When a government refuses to meet these demands, it governs without legitimacy. And when it governs without legitimacy, the governed have both the right and the obligation to withdraw consent.
That withdrawal is not a metaphor. It is the coordinated, lawful, nonviolent action of millions — in the streets, in the courts, at the ballot box, and in the public square. It is a refusal to cooperate with injustice. It is economic pressure on those who profit from corruption. It is civic solidarity so strong that no divide-and-conquer tactic can fracture it.
We, the people, do not consent.
If you are reading this, you are part of the governed. And therefore, you are part of the power. That power grows only when exercised — when you refuse to accept injustice as inevitable, when you demand truth over propaganda, when you see attacks on rights as attacks on yourself, even if you are not immediately injured.
The government’s legitimacy rests entirely on your consent. It will do everything it can to divide you, to convince you that your fellow citizens are your enemies. But the truth is simple: your liberty and theirs are the same fight.
This is the moment to stand together as a people — to say with one voice, across every line they try to draw between us: You serve at our pleasure. Meet your obligations or make way for those who will.
Our patience is running out. The hour is late — but we hold all the power, if we choose to wield it.
O. Sami Saydjari is a cybersecurity expert and former senior executive of the Defense Department. He lives in Hartland.
