GuvWurld: What Does Withdrawing Consent Look Like?

What Does Withdrawing Consent Look Like?

by Dave Berman

Thursday, June 15, 2006

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed"
--U.S. Declaration of Independence

I first started writing about the Consent of the Governed more than two years ago, when I launched the GuvWurld Blog. Read through the hundreds of essays I posted there and you'll see a theme exploring our Consent, which is being taken for granted. I wrote the Voter Confidence Resolution, which has been adopted in Arcata, CA, in order to provide a tangible way for People and Communities to indicate their Consent is not granted, and should not be assumed. All the while, I've been suggesting that the stronger our resistance grows, the more we must collectively raise the question: Has the Consent of the Governed been withdrawn, YET?

If we emphasize this question it will be framed as a matter of when, not if the Consent is withdrawn. So what does withdrawing Consent look like?

An increasingly popular way of withdrawing Consent is declaring no basis for confidence, as the Voter Confidence Resolution does regarding election results. BradBlog.com has recently embraced this line in condemning the conditions used in last week's election in San Diego. Both Bob Koehler, a syndicated columnist with the Tribune Media Services, and Warren Stewart, Director of Legislative Issues and Policy for VoteTrustUSA, make no confidence statements regarding San Diego in their latest columns. White County (AR) Election Commissioner John Nunnally has no confidence according to this June 5 article in the Daily Citizen. And VelvetRevolution.us (VR) now has a form letter page that transmits a statement of no confidence to the San Diego Registrar and Democratic Congressional Candidate Francine Busby.

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There is more to withdrawing the Consent of the Governed. In the Progressive media talking points memo I posted on Sunday, I listed a mere 10 injustices to which we must say WE DO NOT CONSENT. Right now the focus has turned to preventing power and authority from being conferred upon candidates claiming victory in illegitimate elections. It is clear to me that We The People must do everything within our Constitutional and Human Rights to protect and preserve possession of this power that is inalienably Ours to be given but never taken away.

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http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2006/06/what-does-withdrawing-consent-look.html

This San Diego situation is about to get serious!

What else does it look like?

We're beginning to find out, but paint a picture for us of what you imagine!

Withdrawing Consent is about individual acts of civil disobedience and community-wide acts of municipal civil disobedience. A few examples, in no particular order...

Refuse to go to war, by becoming a conscientious objector. Also see the high profile example of Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada and the resolution adopted in Arcata, CA to consider making a safe haven for war resisters.

Refuse to pay for war, by becoming a war tax resister.

Monroe County, PA refused to spend taxpayer dollars on unfunded mandates requiring voting machine "upgrades."

Tell your bank not to use Diebold ATM machines.

The state of Utah refused to fund implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Back to Arcata, CA again where they were the first to adopt the Voter Confidence Resolution stating there is no basis for confidence in the results of our elections, and that the Consent of the Governed is not being sought and therefore should not be taken for granted. We are finally in a place where this sentiment is being widely recognized, as evidenced by the articles referenced in the OP. In particular, sign the VelvetRevolution petition.

This is only the beginning.

We should be looking for ways to withdraw our complicity as well as our Consent. For example, driving less in order to reduce pollution and dependency on oil. Another easy example would be boycotting stores that sell products made by slave labor.

How can you reduce or withdraw your complicity in this broken system?

The surprise it comes as to some people is a consciousness enhancer. :D