by Dan Eichenbaum

On the night of April 18, 1775, the lanternâ€™s alarm sent Revere, William Dawes and other riders on the road to spread the news. The messengers cried out the alarm, awakening every house, warning of the British column making its way towards Lexington. In the riderâ€™s wake there erupted the peeling of church bells, the beating of drums and the roar of gun shots â€“ all announcing the danger and calling the local militias to action.

After that first successful skirmish, our founders endured unimaginable hardships, lost battles, emotional despair, and a debilitating winter at Valley Forge, until Washingtonâ€™s final victory at Yorktown. The battles of Lexington and Concord were just the beginning of Americaâ€™s struggle for freedom.

November 2, 2010, was our Battle of Lexington Green, our â€œshot heard â€˜round the world.â€ Will we have the courage and determination to fight on to win total victory?

The forces of Progressive Socialism will not spend much time licking their wounds. I have no doubt, nor should any of you, that they will double their efforts to take control our government and continue their assault on our Constitution. Armed with massive funding from their puppet masters, they will use misdirection and prevarication to convince the American people that the administrationâ€™s spending spree was only in response to the crisis they inherited from their perennial scapegoat, George Bush. The Presidentâ€™s response to his partyâ€™s electoral drubbing was to lament not having done a better job explaining his program to the people. After all, who wouldnâ€™t be in favor of a socialist takeover of General Motors, the home mortgage industry, the banking industry, the student loan program, the healthcare industry, and our nationâ€™s energy resources by the Federal Government? Havenâ€™t they been willing to compromise and work across the aisle for the past two years even though they held a majority in both houses of congress? If we all werenâ€™t so dumb, we could stop clinging to our guns and our religion long enough to trust the self-anointed smartest people on earth to tell us all how to eat and live.

Itâ€™s not the message, Mr. President. Itâ€™s the agenda.

As grassroots patriots, however, we must also realize that our inside allies, the Republican members of Congress, are not all as dedicated to constitutional principles as we. Without our constant observation, many will be tempted by the party establishment to stray from the promises made to get elected. They will be co-opted by the trappings of power, threats of ostracism, and the obscene amount of lobbyist and PAC money needed for re-election.

Let me be clear to those newly elected and those re-elected members of Congress.

I will accept no compromise with the principles of limited government, individual freedom, personal responsibility, fiscal restraint, and free market economy.

I will accept no compromise with those who deny the supremacy of the individual states and the people, as specified by Article I, Section 8 (the enumerated powers) and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments that limit the size and scope of the Federal Government.

I will accept no compromise with those who would abuse any portion of the Constitution, specifically the Commerce Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, to expand the size and power of the Federal Government beyond what was envisioned by our founders and that which is constitutionally permitted.

I will accept no compromise with those who deny that our Rights are Natural Law Rights, derived from our creator, ours by dint of our humanity and that it is the duty and obligation of all governments to protect and secure those rights, not to abridge, amend, or restrict them.

I will accept no attempt to compromise in repealing legislation, rules, and regulations that serve to enlarge the size and power of the Federal Government at the cost of fiscal responsibility, free market economic principles, and personal freedom.

I will accept no attempt to compromise in the elimination of earmarks and special exemptions from taxes and laws used to reward political contributions, to favor one group over another, and to buy votes.

I will accept no compromise in efforts to decrease the size and cost of government, to balance the budget, and to prevent the use taxpayer dollars as a bail out for corporations and states that are deemed â€œtoo big to failâ€.

Congress, we are watching you.

The election of 2010 is the first battle in our revolutionary war to regain the freedoms stolen from us by oppressively intrusive federal and state governments and to restore in our nation the constitutional republic that is our heritage.

That is the lesson of Lexington, 1775. The future of our nation and our childrenâ€™s freedom can only be assured by our vigilance.

Dr. Dan Eichenbaum is a practicing ophthalmologist in Murphy, North Carolina, and a founder of the Cherokee County 9-12 Project. Visit his website at http://drdansfreedomforum.com/

Copyright 2010 Dan Eichenbaum