Our national debt is unfathomably burdensome; our tax system is becoming increasingly onerous; inflation -- the hidden tax-- is more threatening than ever; the recent lending market collapse is a deadly symptom of a poisonous currency system; our media is saturated with filth, violence, and lobotomy-inducing entertainment; our foreign policy has turned what used to be a "city on a hill" into a hypocritical bully with a gun; and since the 1973 Roe v. Wade court decision over fifty million children have been aborted in America.

So who is to blame?

Charley Reese, a former columnist for the Orlando Sentinel Star, once wrote his answer to that question in a piece entitled "The 545 People Responsible For All of America's Woes" that has been circulating widely on the Internet. It's an attention-grabbing, revolution-inciting article that gets one's blood boiling and makes one want to take serious and immediate action.

It's also grossly inaccurate and is little more than a smokescreen that shields the real source of our debilitating problems.

Mr. Reese claims, "One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices -- 545 human beings out of 235 million -- are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country." He continues further, "When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist...I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people...Those 545 people and they alone are responsible. They and they alone have the power..."

Did you catch the glaring and crippling fallacy underlying the entire argument? Implicit in the argument is the clear -- though veiled -- assumption that the American form of government is an aristocracy. Obviously, it is not -- it is, in the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Who elects those 545 people? Who is truly responsible? Ironically enough, in an effort to find a source of responsibility, Mr. Reese flagrantly ignores the only true source of responsibility in a constitutional republic: We the People.

So who is really to blame for our pressing problems?

The millions of common citizens who aren't educated enough to elect virtuous, courageous, and wise leaders. It's the millions of American families who have failed to raise up those essential leaders in their own homes.

It's the millions of Americans who hold their politicians to a higher standard than they hold themselves to -- they sure expect their politicians to understand the Constitution, but they don't understand it themselves.

It's the millions of Americans who complain about high taxes, yet then turn around and accept government programs and benefits in the name of "Everyone else is doing it," and/or "I'm just getting my taxes back."

It's the millions of average Americans who claim that the Federal Reserve is evil -- without even understanding how it works nor what should replace it.

It's the millions of Americans who vehemently denounce inflation and deficits while racking up their own credit cards and consuming more than they produce on a daily basis.

It's the millions of Americans who were publicly appalled at Bill Clinton's misdeeds in the Oval Office yet who are secretly addicted to pornography.

It's the millions of common citizens who rage against the criminality of illegal immigration while consciously and deliberately violating the rule of law themselves on a daily basis.

It's the millions of Americans who forcefully proclaim their willingness to fight and die for America -- while being unwilling to LIVE for her by becoming liberally educated.

All free nations get the government that they deserve -- the 545 people denounced by Charley Reese are nothing but a reflection of the majority of American citizens. As John Adams wrote, "If worthless men are sometimes at the head of affairs, it is because worthless men are at the tail, and the middle."

Who is to blame? Every one of us American citizens who are hypocritical, complacent, and ignorant. Complaining about 545 people is a great way to stir the pot and incite discontentment -- and a really poor way to actually get to the heart and root of our problems to start doing something about them.

We the People are responsible. Until we change, our 545 representatives will never change. The answer isn't to change them -- it's to change ourselves through education, dedication, humility, gratitude, and love.

Recommended Reading:

Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let's Roll by Lisa Beamer

The Gift of Change by Marianne Williamson