Treason is defined as, “1.  The betrayal of a trust. 2. The offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign’s family.”

During this most recent shutdown, I found the actions of the Republican Party generally, and the Speaker of the House specifically, treasonous.

It’s not because I am now a fairly liberal male who believes my government should care more about the lives of people than in killing them. It’s not because I now believe my tax dollars should be more about funding peaceful security than the kind generated by warfare. No, it is more about my sensitivities as an American male who finds the concentration of power on a certain few deplorable.

It’s about my being an American male who finds the actions of the Republican Party over the last two weeks and effectual taxation without representation.

Why? Because during the shutdown, the Republican Party changed the rule of the House so that no representative other than the Majority Leader, or his designate, could make a motion regarding the shutdown. In other words, many Americans were being taxed without effective representation due to a usurping of the parliamentary process by the Republican Party.

My representative, your representative, was unable to represent us because the ruling party changed the rules.

Take a look at this video if you don’t believe me. Here, it is clearly spelled out.

This concentrated power on one man who, obviously, was under the control of extremists in his own party.

I did not elect my representatives to be slaves to any party or any man. I elected them to represent me, my interests and the interests of my posterity. Sure, my interests may be different than some tea party member, but they are my interests and I vote accordingly. If my vote is part of the majority who elect a representative, I expect that representative to be true to his/her word and represent us as promised.

I also find it completely mind-boggling that the Party who brought a sitting President up on impeachment charges for not admitting under oath to having oral sex in the Oral (er, I mean Oval) Office could find this overt betrayal of the public trust completely within the bounds of common decency.

Actually, I take that back—nothing the GOP does boggles my mind anymore. They aren’t the party they claim to be because I’m not even sure they understand who they are.

Yes, I mention treason and the Republican Party in the same sentence and it frightens me a little bit. The GOP is, after all, the Party of the Patriot Act, illegal wiretaps, arrest without due process, torture and the outright disregard for human rights. It’s true, I wonder if one day I may wake up in a dark room with a towel covering my mouth because of this post, but I’ll save that rant for a future post.

Yet, it ties in nicely to why we tolerate our elected leaders stealing away the power of the people and making it their own. In a society where we tolerate unarmed people being shot at by police, or our police acting like judge, jury and executioner all at the same time, it only seems natural for one man to steal away the people’s power.

Maybe “steal away” isn’t the right phrase since we seem to have given it all away through mind-numbing complacency, and a defeatist attitude that seems to suggest someone else can fix our problems without much input from us.

We blame our elected leaders for our problems but seem to forget that we are the ones who put them there.

We blame a two party system but seem to never entertain another choice. We decry the influx of money into our government yet never do a thing to stop it. We feel powerless because we have given our power away to the chosen few, and we stand idly by while they f*ck us with our own genitals.

Sorry for the profanity, but it seems appropriate. I’m not exactly a high-brow intellectual—I’m more of a street-wise one. I don’t have the polishing of a diplomat. Yet, it doesn’t take much intellect to see when we have been usurped, and it doesn’t take much understanding to see that unless we all step up and start our peaceful, non-violent revolution, we will be doomed to watch the chosen few take all that we have while abusing the very endowment our founders fought and died for.

I do now hope that we can see this video and feel insulted by the actions of House leadership. I hope that we can begin to not only expect, but demand, he be brought up on charges. Now, this is far worse than oral sex in the Oval Office. In fact, it isn’t even in the same league.

It’s time we all stand up and hold these people accountable for their actions, and stop taking “no” for an answer.

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Ed: Catherine Monkman