Tyranny in the name of reform

In the past, I used to believe that the most important words in the Declaration of Independence were in the first sentence of the second paragraph; "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Those words illustrate what those men were attempting to accomplish. During most of my life it was easy to take the rest of that document for granted.

Today, however, the political landscape in quite different. Our current government is now being fascist in the name of bailouts, spending our children's wealth in the name of stimulus, oppressive for the sake of the environment, and tyrannical in name of health care "reform". At the eleventh hour, before the first vote on the single largest attempted power grab in U.S. History, several leaders from the minority party rallied on the steps of the Capital. They were being encouraged by more than 20,000 patriots chanting "kill the bill".

After seeing that event, I have a new appreciation for the last sentence of the Declaration; "And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." Those words illustrate the potential cost the signers expected to suffer(and many did suffer) as a result of them signing the document.

How can we let those costs be for naught? How can we let those freedoms that we have held so dear for the past 233 years be taken away in the name of reform?