"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." -- Thomas Jefferson

The time has come to declare the start of the second American Revolution.

In the 18th century, American colonists fought and won the first American Revolution against an oppressive ruler, King George III of England.

In the 21st century, American citizens at the grassroots have begun to fight a second American Revolution against a triad of oppressive homegrown rulers.

They are the wealthy Americans and giant U.S. corporations which are acting in complicity with corrupt politicians whose campaigns they have financed and whose votes they have bought through their campaign contributions. Together they have usurped the political and economic power that belongs to all American citizens -- the power that the American colonists won from the British in the first American Revolution.

This triad has seriously eroded popular sovereignty in the U.S. over the past 30 years by structurally and functionally deforming U.S. electoral and legislative processes -- principally through gerrymandering and campaign financing. This deformation has politically and economically disenfranchised Americans in all walks of life, preventing us from playing decisive roles in political and economic arenas where decisions are made affecting our livelihoods and vital interests.

The most damaging consequence of this erosion of popular sovereignty and deformation of the American political system is that these changes have led to the largest transfer of wealth to the wealthy in recorded non-wartime history. They have diminished the amount of total national income going to working people and transferred it to the wealthy individuals who run U.S. corporations.

This transfer has been made possible by corporate policies that restrict the amount of wages and salaries they pay to working Americans, unprecedented price-gouging by the oil, insurance, pharmaceutical and financial services industries and -- above all -- by the failure of our representatives, who have been elected in this deformed system thanks to corporate campaign contributions, to enforce U.S. laws prohibiting excess profits, unfair business practices, and union busting.

The giant corporations that now dominate the U.S. economy have instructed the elected officials whose campaigns they have funded to hold down wages by refusing to increase U.S. minimum wage laws, while allowing them to impose unwarranted and unreasonable increases in consumer prices for essential goods and services. The rising cost of living is now outstripping the stagnating incomes of millions of working Americans, jeopardizing the survival of the middle class, swelling the ranks of the working poor, and driving nearly a million people a year into poverty.

The election of a new U.S. president and Congress in 2008 will not reform this deformed system of government or re-enfranchise American citizens politically and economically for the simple reason that most of the candidates for office will receive most of their campaign contributions from the corporations that need to be regulated. They will be unlikely to bite the hand that feeds them once they are in office.

Even with the trend shown by recent public opinion polls for Independent voters to switch their support from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, the results of the 2008 elections are likely to reflect rather than change the system and leave untouched its dominance by wealthy individuals, large corporations and influence-peddling politicians.

There is only one way to restore popular sovereignty and that is from the bottom up by ordinary citizens and voters. The restoration of popular sovereignty cannot be accomplished from the top down by political parties, candidates, advocacy groups or coalitions that are part of the corporate-dominated status quo. Nor can it be restored within the foreseeable future by redistricting projects, campaign finance reform initiatives or changes to the "winner-take-all" electoral system. Only voters, progressive activists and established democratic stakeholders who join forces at the grassroots independently of corporate contributors and existing political alignments can rebuild the American democracy within the foreseeable future and revive the free enterprise system on a level playing field.

That's the bad news. The good news is that thanks to the unique democracy rebuilding tools offered by Citizens' Winning Hands, we can fight the second American Revolution at the grassroots using revolutionary web mechanisms offered free of charge on this website to acquire the political and economic power we need to protect our livelihoods and vital interests.

We can use the 100+ policy options provided on this website to create our own political agendas across the board and the website's coalition-building tools to create our own winning voting blocs with individuals who have similar political agendas -- voting blocs which can elect representatives who will implement our agendas.

We can also use Citizens' Winning Hands services free of charge to rebuild the free enterprise system from the ground up so that it operates on a level playing field. We can join or start in the county where we live a local chapter of the Citizens' Wealth Creation Cooperative. We can combine our collective entrepreneurial ingenuity with state and community-based assets and resources to create the sustainable businesses, jobs and wealth we need right in our own counties -- where we can protect them from being outsourced!