{Revised: 12/02/2018}
Dear Americans,
Ronald Reagan understood that the Constitution given us by our Founders was one that trusted the people to govern themselves.
In his First Inaugural Address, Reagan said this:
From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government of, by, and for the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.
Ronald Reagan said above: “the solutions must be equitable”. But I feel a need to add one thing and that is: the solutions must also be anchored in our Constitution and Founding Principles.
Ronald Reagan went on to say:
We hear much of special interest groups. Our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and our factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we are sick—professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. They are, in short, “We the people,” this breed called Americans.
I believe Ronald Reagan and our Founding Fathers believed in this thing I call the “True Business of the Precinct of which I also refer to as the “Precinct Strategy”… America managed through self-governance. Managed of the people, by the people, and for the people!
My personal journey began November 2008 after having a conversation with my brother and a promise to him that I would investigate some way other than letter writing and protesting to make a difference. I have always resisted the notion that protesting, letter writing, and a vote for the lesser of two evils will accomplish the desired result. After months of searching and reading everything I could find in the realm of politics, I was at what I thought to be the end of my journey with no result. It was the spring of 2009 that I discovered the American Precinct was the answer… what I refer to as the precinct strategy… the True Business of the Precinct. The reality that within every American Precinct laid the authority to alter policy hit me like a bolt of light. This was the answer for the millions of frustrated Americans.
You may be asking, what is this “Precinct Strategy”? The Precinct Strategy is a phrase that was coined to simply give it a name but in its working, is the very essence of the American political system able even to function exclusive of political parties. It is my conviction that the Precinct Strategy; the True Business of the Precinct, is the only “long-term” and “permanent” solution for solving America’s political despair.
While reading, and researching our Founding Fathers, I discovered these words of Thomas Jefferson with special attention focused on the wards. (“Ward” and “Precinct” are synonymous)
This is what he said:
The article nearest my heart is the division of counties into wards. These will be pure and elementary republics, the sum of all which, taken together, composes the state, and will make of the whole a true democracy as to the business of the wards, which is that of nearest and daily concern. The affairs of the larger sections, of counties, of states, and of the Union, not admitting personal transactions by the people, will be delegated to agents elected by themselves; and representation will thus be substituted where personal action becomes impracticable. Yet, even over these representative organs, should they become corrupt and perverted, the division into wards, constituting the people… a regularly organized power, enables them by that organization to crush, regularly and peaceably, the usurpations of their unfaithful agents, and rescues them from the dreadful necessity of doing it insurrectionally. In this way we shall be as republican as a large society can be, and secure the continuance of purity in our government by the salutary, peaceable, and regular control of the people.
In a letter to Joseph C. Cabell, Thomas Jefferson had this to say about the wards: (“Ward” and “Precinct” are synonymous)
The elementary republics of the wards, the county republics, the State republics, and the Republic of the Union, would form a gradation of authorities, standing each on the basis of law, holding everyone its delegated share of powers and constituting truly a system of fundamental balances and checks for the government. Where every man is a sharer in the direction of his ward-republic, or of some of the higher ones, and feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs, not merely at an election one day in the year, but every day; when there shall not be a man in the State who will not be a member of some one of its councils, great or small, he will let the heart be torn out of his body sooner than his power be wrested from him by a Caesar or a Bonaparte.
That, my fellow Americans, is the essence of the True Business of the Precinct. What I refer to as the Precinct Strategy. This is not community organizing… it’s the American people discharging their civic duty in their Precinct Republic!
More and more people are learning the True Business of the Precinct but I would venture to guess that still, 99% of Americans lack the knowledge of the “true business” of the wards and precinct.
What is this business of the wards and the precinct? This is where local people are actively engaged running their government at the grass roots level. What we have today is a consequence of divisive party politics and a lack of knowledge. Over the years, our knowledge of the True Business of the Precinct has been lost. True representation of, by, and for the people can only be accomplished at the precinct level.
The problems we face today will persist until the people get involved in a real way. We must engage the American people to make sensible decisions on policy, at the local level, based on the knowledge of our “Founding Principles”. If we do not, the politicians, political parties, along with individuals and factious groups will ravage this country. It may take a few more years of teeter totter, but I can guarantee, if the Precinct Strategy is not implemented and our precinct’s reconstructed, America will go the way of Rome.
Education is the key! Pertaining to education, Thomas Jefferson said this:
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
George Washington said this pertaining to education:
A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?
In addition, we must view our politicians as real people. Politicians are not fairy-tale heroes. Our Founding Fathers had a natural distrust (not disrespect) for politicians. This is what our Founding Fathers had to say on trusting politicians:
Alexander Hamilton wrote:
For it is a truth, which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger when the means of insuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion.
Thomas Jefferson said this:
It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go.
Thomas Jefferson went on to say:
In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
George Washington concerned about an imperious government said:
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington made it very clear that government is not to be trusted and must be confined to a strictly interpreted constitution or it would destroy the freedom it was designed to protect.
James Madison concerned about the human frailties in the leaders said:
It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices [as Constitutional chains] should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? … If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. [But lacking these] in framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
Current events demand that we focus educational efforts upon the uniquely American system of self-governance. Those same circumstances demand that the American citizenry never again abdicate their rights and responsibilities to an elite ruling class, as a consequence of misinformation, apathy, or the lack of education.
I have yet to meet an individual that did not understand they vote in a particular ward or precinct. Nevertheless, I have yet to meet an individual familiar with the True Business of the Precinct. Once people understand the Precinct Strategy, they understand their precinct is more than just a polling location where citizens cast their vote… and that it’s more than just placing campaign yard signs for your favorite candidate.
Our Founders were also wary of political parties. This is what George Washington had to say:
However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
[See “A Republic if you can keep it”!]
[See George Washington’s Farewell Address]
Those words from George Washington were a warning and in looking at the condition of American politics, uniting the American Precinct’s is the required solution now more than ever.
George Washington also said:
The power of the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and, whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can and undoubtedly will be recalled.
We would do well to listen to our Founding Fathers… the very men that lived under British tyranny!
What we currently have are precinct’s laden with disengaged Americans. In addition, we have politicians doing only what is required to maintain power. They will dole out what carrots they must… and with our current stock of Congressmen and potential candidates, the horizon reveals no “real change” moving in the direction of our Founding Principles. Yes, for now, they are talking the talk… but will they walk the walk? History tells us they will not! History tells us they will do everything in their power to lull the giant back to sleep. Slumber, apathy, and the people’s misplaced trust in our representatives are the politician’s favorite weapon.
In addition, we have organizations (Tea Party, Tea Party Express, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Freedom Works, PAC’s upon PAC’s, etc., etc.) advocating ideas that are counterproductive, waste resources, and will, in the end, fail to provide the required solution based on our foundational principles. Individuals and politicians can align themselves with these organizations and spout all day long on constitutional principles, but if the people are excluded from the process at the precinct level, and not actively engaged managing their government from their precinct, as intended by our Founding Fathers, we will continue to slip into the abyss.
Many of the candidates and our current representatives opine the virtues of our Constitution, but they will never be held strictly accountable devoid the Precinct Strategy. Yes, the Precinct Strategy will require a commitment and a willingness to learn and give of your personal time, but it’s the only way… it is the way given us by our Founding Fathers! At this juncture in American history, our focus must be on the Constitution and restoration of the American Precinct.
Are we, or are we not Americans? YOU DECIDE… Who are we? I would like to convey who we are not! We are not Leftists, Socialists, Progressives, Communists, Marxists, Wall Street Occupiers, or Democrats. We are not Anarchists, Conservatives, Ultra-Conservatives, Tea Party Conservatives, Right Wingers or Republicans. The majority of Americans are none of those things. We are, in short, “We the people,” that breed called Americans. We are Americans first, and we stand by the U.S. Constitution… our Constitution! The United States of America is a Republic with a Federal Government, limited in power as enumerated in Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution. If we ignore our constitution, we ignore who we are… we ignore our heritage… and we ignore the rule of law.
We are a country established by rule-of-law. A people unwilling to follow the rule-of-law will experience exactly what we have today… division, chaos, rioting, anarchy, and… a government corrupt from top to bottom. Our foundational and supreme law is the U.S. Constitution! If I know anything, I know this… Americans prefer the stabilizing forces of the rule-of-law. Americans prefer that we, as citizens, follow and obey the law. The primary reason we are experiencing our current problems is this… we are not adhering to the rule-of-law. We have allowed the knowledge of our Constitution and the True Business of the Precinct to slip away.
The United States Constitution is one of the most coveted documents ever written… and yet, it is the one document that is the most ignored! Ignored by the very people it was established to protect.
I believe in the American people but the American people have been absent and disengaged from the complete process. We are Americans and we must get away from labeling ourselves and allowing others to put labels on us. Now, just to be clear… that does not mean certain individuals do not have an ideology based wholly or partially on socialism, communism, or any other “ism” that is Anti-American. I think you will find that the majority of Americans do not prescribe to “isms” but have allowed themselves to be led down a road they would not necessarily go if they were knowledgeable and well informed of their constitution; their civic duty; the True Business of the Precinct; precisely the intentions of our founding fathers; and why our Founding Fathers framed our Constitution the way in which they did.
We sit around listening to the politicians, the news anchors, and the political commentators deciding for us, the course of America. How is it, that you, the American people have any input or influence by watching and talking to the television, or… voting for the lesser of two evils? We have been on the outside looking in for over 100 years. The inventions of radio and television have caused us to just sit back… and we watch… and we listen… not participating in our most basic civic duties. By default, the politicians, the news anchors, and the political commentators have been making our decisions for us. It is time for the American people to disengage from Castle-in-the-Sky politics and get fundamentally engaged with the political process and begin to direct the future course of America.
The American Precinct is the bed-rock of our political system and requires that each and every citizen participate. Please, do not dismiss this! Take some time to understand its importance and allow principle to be your guide.
The United States Constitution is irrelevant without the means of enforcement. The means of enforcement is the Precinct Strategy… the True Business of the Precinct. The Enforcer..? We the People!
America is truly a miracle! If America’s beacon of freedom should ever cease to exist, mankind may never see true freedom again. But, I have hope and I believe in the American people.
Please stay tuned for more information on the True Business of the Precinct and how the Precinct Strategy can save America. I will not lie… this journey, if the American people should accept, will be arduous and possibly uncomfortable for many Americans. But, it’s the only way. If every citizen takes seriously their civic duty, the American people will win!
I hope this finds you well and I look forward to working with you for a better America.
My Very Best,
Phil Glass
09/05/2021 – P.S. Go to PrecinctUSA.com and signup. This is a working site where you can get engaged. Take action and do it now!
