by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff

The first principle of The Wyoming Liberty Group is "Respect for individual dignity and sovereignty."

First of all, what is sovereignty? The definition is straightforward- it is the status of a sovereign- or the entity granted or assuming the ultimate power of decision.

Simply, sovereignty is the power of the individual, or government, to enact decisions without a need for consulting any other power. Individual sovereignty is the right of the individual to make their own decisions about their lives, free of interference.

In the United States, and in Wyoming, the sovereign power of the government comes from the citizens, as enumerated in the respective constitutions.This right is the foundation of a Republic. The delegation of the sovereignty of the individual to the government is conditional, and must be renewed by holding free, fair and open elections at regular intervals. The exercise of the right to vote in those elections is conditional on the right of citizenship; only those people of a certain age, who are citizens, have this right to vote, and so delegate their individual sovereignty to the government. This is a right that can be revoked for various criminal acts.

It is this power of United States of America, as a republic, rooted in individual rights guaranteed by our constitution, that enables a country as diverse and widespread as ours to be the most successful country in the history of the world. The United States has led the world in industry, education, health, opportunity, prosperity, war and peace, religious tolerance, and ceaselessly re-invents itself to face and manage each challenge with wisdom and courageous leadership.

The United States of America's republican form of government is unusual not only in the operation of governments around the world, but in the history of humanity.

In many other forms of government, such as a monarchy, religious state, communist or dictatorship, the power of sovereignty is held by the government independently of the will, or exercise of the right of choice, by the citizens.

Governments require the consent of the governed at some level to function as a successful organization.When enough citizens withhold their consent, then the government experiences a collapse. This can take the form of revolution or war, or a mass exodus from the afflicted region, or an inability to defend against foreign incursion, or even the slow withering of the government functions over time that erodes the rule of law.

Unfortunately, the trend in the United States over the last fifty years has been to diminish and erode this sovereignty. Through the expansion of government into every phase of daily life, we as citizens of the United States lead lives hemmed in and overregulated to a degree that would be astonishing to a citizen of fifty years ago. And this trend is now accelerating.

The primary purpose of government is to protect its citizens from force or fraud. When the government becomes the source of force or fraud, it has delegitimized itself. One of the most poignant examples of this is Venezuela.Through the strong arm tactics of dictatorship, Venezuela has gone from a vibrant, free and productive democracy to a sick, war torn and desperate nation.

While many would say that "that can't happen here" are poor students of history. The events that lead to collapse are not always as obvious as a military overthrow. Sometimes the slow erosion of rights, the exercise of power by bureaucracy without proper oversight, the imposition of laws so numerous, onerous and at cross purposes that no one is exempt from criminality and most of all the ability of a majority to benefit from the public purse and so vote to perpetuate unearned benefits, is enough to create a situation where the system collapses.Are we on this path of loss of sovereignty, and if so, how far along?