Award-Winning Mystery Novelist Digger Cartwright's Independence Day Speech

Orlando, FL July 6, 2016 - The office of award-winning mystery novelist Digger Cartwright has released Mr. Cartwright's Independence Day speech delivered at the Thinking Outside the Boxe Champagne Summit in Orlando.

The transcript of Mr. Cartwright's speech follows: Thank you all. Thank you for being here, and Happy Independence Day. It's great to be here at Thinking Outside the Boxe's Champagne Summit. Much has transpired since I attended the last event. We've had some very good discussions over the last day and a half, and I'm looking forward to more debate in the coming days.

Today we mark the 240th anniversary of our declaring independence from Great Britain and establishing our own nation. The American colonies and the "commoners" had grown tired of the tyranny of the British Crown and spent the next seven years at war to secure our independence as a new and free nation. After our victory over Great Britain and in the ensuing years, our Founding Fathers drafted and the states ultimately adopted our Constitution and established our constitutional republic. The brilliance of our Constitution is that it tells the government what its rights and limitations are and recognizes that the power is vested in We the People. It further establishes those rights that the federal government cannot deny We the People. It was the first time in the history of the world that the people being governed told the government what it could and couldn't do.

Even in the years during which the Constitution was drafted, there was an intense struggle between those Founding Fathers who supported a strong federal government and those who favored a weak federal government with the concentration of power to govern left to the states.

Ultimately, the rights of the federal government were limited in the final version of the Constitution and those rights not specifically granted the federal government were deemed to be rights of the individual states. Throughout our 240 history as a nation, successive generations have struggled with this issue, and the issue of states' rights is one that continues to play out politically and in the courts today.

Our Founding Fathers knew what time has always shown to be the case-as the size and scope of a government increases, the rights and personal liberties of the governed diminishes. In our lives, we have seen an out of control federal government laden with career politicians and bureaucrats who manipulate the system for personal gain or for the interests of political special interest backers. States' rights have been usurped by the increasingly powerful federal government which has become more and more detached from the will of We the People, instead focusing on what is best for those in power and their friends as opposed to what is best for the nation and We the People. All the while, our individual rights and liberties have been trampled and eroded. Many in our country have willing subrogated their rights, liberties, and states' sovereignty to the federal government in return for financial handouts and promises of a land of milk and honey.

Our Founding Fathers also knew the evils that arise when the concentration of power rests in the hands of a few elites. The knew the tyranny of a monarch and strove to develop a system of government with checks and balances aimed at preventing a concentration of power in any one branch, any one political party, or any one person. They crafted a political system in which the President of the United States, the highest office in the land, would be one of us and not someone from the elite. And in the legislative branch, members of the House of Representatives would be elected from We the People to represent the interests of We the People. While senators were originally elected by state legislators, the 17th Amendment to the Constitution passed in 1913 allowed for direct election of senators by We the People. We were founded as a nation revolting against political tyranny, elitism, and peerages. We the People had been charged with control over our own destiny, our own success, and our own governance. We were not to be ruled or controlled by elites or hereditary peers but rather governed by representatives elected from and by We the People.

While the system has functioned largely as it was designed to do so by our Founding Fathers, the increasing concentration of power at all levels of the federal government, career politicians, and bureaucrats, the weakening of states' rights, and the financially powerful special interest groups have led to a dangerously destabilized political system. In the last two decades, it seems the thirst for more power, more personal gain, and more self-preservation have blurred the political lines between the Democrat and Republican parties.

While publicly stated ideologies may be diametrically opposed, the parties have abandoned these ideologies and doing the work of the people in favor of joining together for self-preservation. The Democrats and Republicans perpetuate their dog and pony shows for publicity purposes but when the cameras are off and the doors are closed, the career politicians are working together to enrich themselves, their friends, and their special interest backers, and to preserve their grip on power. They have become drunk and corrupted with the trappings of Washington, DC and the financial benefits of playing the political game. They have become increasingly detached from the outside world and its problems and live in an isolated ivory tower in Washington. There is no longer a distinct Democrat and Republic party. There is only one party. It is known as the party of Washington. They have become the defacto elite that our Founding Fathers fought against to secure our freedom as a nation.

The last seven years have made their complicity particularly evident in that the Republican Party has talked a good game about stopping the radical liberal agenda but has failed to take any credible action to stop or dismantle it. They have rolled over and given the liberal agenda a blank check and a free pass. They have conned people in their own party into believing that they can make a difference-if they are just re-elected. Yet once re-elected, they return to the same game which has yielded few if any results. Both parties have led their constituents down the garden path with false promises, handouts, and political spin. And when challenged on any issue, they denigrate the commoners who don't know what's good for them or what's best for the country. They have become insufferably arrogant. We the People don't know what we're talking about. We the People are intellectually inferior to the politicians in Washington. We the People aren't smart enough to make our own decisions so the elites in Washington have to make those decisions for us and tell us how to live our lives. We the People don't know what's important, and We the People don't know how to solve America's collective problems. Those who dare to offer views contrary to the wisdom of Washington or to challenge that wisdom are branded as stupid, uneducated, racist, bigots.

In short, We the People don't matter anymore. We the People have had our voices largely silenced. We the People aren't capable of governing ourselves and making informed decisions. We the People must be controlled and manipulated and told what is in our best interests. We the People are the modern day commoners while those in Washington are the modern day elites dictating to the commoners and the states.

But We the People are not taking this lying down. This political season has been both exciting and inspiring. Both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have, in their own ways, highlighted elitism and a system rigged against We the People. And We the People have spoken up and sent a very clear message to the party of Washington. We the People still have a voice, and We the People still call the shots. While Bernie Sanders' efforts were stymied by a rigged primary system in the Democrat Party, Donald Trump tapped into the anti-establishment sentiment of people of all walks of life in the Republican Party, except those in the establishment of course, and has ridden the anti-establishment wave to the presumptive presidential nomination. Whether you love or hate Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders is not the issue.

Whether you agree with all of their positions is not the issue. They represent the voices of We the People and a turn away from the concentration of political power in the hands of the elite and the party of Washington. Two men defied the odds and made a difference in the dialog in this presidential election year. Some have called this demagoguery. I call this patriotism. And for the first time in the lives of anyone in this room, we have a very good chance of electing a president who is one of us and who is not one of the elites from a political party or a career politician. The efforts of the Republican establishment to destroy Donald Trump's chances and the indications that some Republicans will support Hillary Clinton only further highlight that there is only one political party, the party of Washington, which is going to look out for their own and prevent anyone from the outside from disrupting their power.

Whether you agree with all of their positions is not the issue. They represent the voices of We the People and a turn away from the concentration of political power in the hands of the elite and the party of Washington. Two men defied the odds and made a difference in the dialog in this presidential election year. Some have called this demagoguery. I call this patriotism. And for the first time in the lives of anyone in this room, we have a very good chance of electing a president who is one of us and who is not one of the elites from a political party or a career politician. The efforts of the Republican establishment to destroy Donald Trump's chances and the indications that some Republicans will support Hillary Clinton only further highlight that there is only one political party, the party of Washington, which is going to look out for their own and prevent anyone from the outside from disrupting their power.

To me, the choice is clear in this presidential election, and the future of our nation and the viability of our constitutional republic hangs in the balance. We can elect someone who represents the party of Washington and the corruption and elitism that it stands for or we can elect a political outsider, one of us, to take on the special interest groups and the concentration of political power in the hands of a few elites. If we chose the party of Washington, our constitutional republic is dead and we are nothing more than a Russian or Chinese politburo wrapped in an American flag. We the People will be doomed to be ruled by the political elites, and anyone who aspires to be President must be one of the political elites. Effectively, We the People will never elect another President of the United States. The President of the United States will be one of two candidates selected by the party of Washington and put forth for "election" by We the People to give us the illusion that our votes still matter. We will be no different than Russia or China or any number of dictatorial states.

To be sure there are many important issues facing us today and many challenges that we must address in the coming years. Our national debt continues to grow exponentially with each successive administration and each Congress. The current interest on the debt diverts billions of dollars of tax revenues from worthwhile endeavors such as infrastructure. We the People are increasingly enslaved to our debtors by profligate spending at the federal level. We the People can't spend more than we earn in the long term; this is a lesson that the party of Washington needs to learn.

Our crumbling infrastructure is decades behind less prosperous and in some cases less developed countries than the United States. We the People are driving on substandard roads and bridges and lack adequate and efficient public transportation and high speed rail. We the People are taxed each time we put gasoline in our cars yet we have outdated and inadequate infrastructure for our current and, more importantly, future needs.

Waste and fraud are rife throughout federal agencies and federal programs yet no one from the party of Washington lifts a finger to stop and correct this. We the People are often judicious with our money yet the party of Washington has no accountability for its mismanagement of our tax dollars. We the People need to remind the federal government and the party of Washington that they have no money of their own. All of the money spent by the party of Washington has been generated off the backs of hardworking Americans now and those who will toil under the yoke of the party of Washington in the future to pay off debts incurred for spending money we don't have. We the People should hold the party of Washington accountable for ensuring our tax dollars are spent wisely, honestly, and judiciously. We the People are tired of being ripped off and of having our government ripped off.

Billions of dollars are sent overseas to countries hostile to us while millions of immigrants from all over the world flood into our country. We the People bear the cost of this. Most of us have no problem with individuals legally immigrating to our country, but we do object to the millions of illegals who skirt our laws or have skirted the laws in order to get and stay here. We the People are tired of having to bear the financial burden associated with this. More importantly, We the People are tired of having our country, our culture, and our values trampled by those coming here with their hands out who know nothing of our way of life and who have contributed nothing to the building of our nation yet who want to impose their values and cultures upon us. We the People live in and love America. We the People will welcome anyone who has the will and the heart to get here, who is willing to do so legally, and who is willing to assimilate into our culture. The party of Washington, however, has little desire to correct this as they see immigrants, legal or illegal, as potential future voters enslaved to their political agendas and handouts.

The income gap between the rich and the poor is widening rapidly. Those who have are increasingly getting more while those who don't have are seeing opportunity for upward mobility stifled. Some in the middle class are being pulled into the upper echelons while most are drifting into the category of have nots. Millions of middle class Americans are becoming part of the working poor and are increasingly disenfranchised with Washington. The middle class is playing cards where the party Washington has the deck stacked against them. The middle class is seeing their efforts to work hard to advance themselves and improve their lives obstructed by increasingly punitive policies from the party of Washington. We the People are being held back financially and economically while the elites amass more power and more wealth.

Many believe that the best way to address this is to turn from capitalism towards socialism and more redistribution of wealth. If we are not careful and if we allow the elites and the party of Washington to continue unchecked, we will become a socialist nation and any chance at upward economic mobility will be impossible. We the People will become slaves of the elites and of the party of Washington. We the People will be forced to rely upon the party of Washington for everything. It will destroy free enterprise. Taxing the 1% will only take us so far, and that 1% will only be taken to the cleaners for so long. Capitalism is not the enemy. Capitalism works; socialism does not. Allowing capitalism to work and creating smart economic and trade policies that promote growth and job creation are the answers to income inequalities in our country.

An honest day's work for an honest day's pay are both increasingly in short supply due to low work ethic, lack of pride in one's job, lax educational standards and greed. Regulations and controls are job killers; they do not aid in creating jobs. Deregulation and corporate tax reform along with a well educated workforce and incentives for doing business in America and hiring American workers will do more to promote economic expansion and job creation and thereby increase the middle class than higher taxes and more regulation.

Tax reform cannot be limited to corporate tax reform, and tax reform and deregulation are not the only solutions to slow economic growth. We must shrink the size of federal expenditures and reduce the cost of running the federal government. Historically, the party of Washington has only slowed the rate of increase in the size of the federal government rather than actually cutting the size of the federal government. It's been nearly fifty years since Washington's spending has actually decreased on a year-over-year basis. We must reform the entire tax code so that we are not placing the burden of running a burgeoning and wasteful federal government on the backs of the middle class and working poor.

Simplification of the tax code and reducing federal expenditures will be the most effective pro-growth economic policies for creating jobs, raising the standard of living, and narrowing the gap between the haves and the Simplification of the tax code and reducing federal expenditures will be the most effective pro-growth economic policies for creating jobs, raising the standard of living, and narrowing the gap between the haves and the have nots. Any tax reform and simplification must shift taxation away from wages and towards consumption. Working more and earning more should not be punished. More and more consumption of nonessential material goods which are discretionary in nature should be punitive. But all of these issues require some sacrifice and necessitate making some difficult choices, particularly when it comes to reducing overall federal spending. We the People know this and know that this is in our best long-term interests, yet the party of Washington has neither the interest nor the inclination to accomplish any of these initiatives. The elites and the party of Washington continue to live the high life in their isolated little world, focusing more and more on feel-good social issues at the expense of national security, economic security, and long-term solutions to our numerous problems.

It is my hope that We the People take heightened interest in our current political situation. Put aside the political spin. Don't take the talking heads on TV or the radio at their word. Don't be manipulated by party leaders, special interest groups, or Super PACs. Understand what is going on in our nation. Research and get educated on the issues and the consequences of our actions. Make informed decisions before voting in November.

The choice is clear. If We the People do nothing, the party of Washington and the elites will grow all powerful and our ability to influence the direction of our country will cease. If We the People have our voices heard in the coming election and elections to come after that, we can weaken the elites' and the party of Washington's grip on power and begin to restore our personal liberties, rights, and our constitutional republic.

Thank you all. God bless you, and may God bless and protect America.

About Mr. Cartwright-Digger Cartwright is the award-winning author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versailles Conspiracy, a modern day political thriller, Murder at the Ocean Forest, a traditional mystery novel set in the 1940s, The House of Dark Shadows, a psychological thriller, The Maynwarings: A Game of Chance, a mystery set in the Old West, and Conversations on the Bench, an inspirational/motivational novel. His books are available in hardback, paperback, and e-book format through his website, www.DiggerCartwright.com, on-line booksellers and bookstores. The House of Dark Shadows and Conversations on the Bench both won first place in various categories in the 2015 Regional Excellence Book Awards. Conversations on the Bench also won first place in the 2016 Regional Excellence Book Awards. The House of Dark Shadows and Conversations on the Bench both won silver medals in the 2015 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards.

In addition to the IndieReader Discovery Award, The Maynwarnings: A Game of Chance received two USA Regional Excellence Book Awards (2015 & 2016). It was also a finalist in the Readers' Favorite International Book Awards (2015), the Beverly Hills Book Awards (2015) and the 9th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards (2015).

Mr. Cartwright has contributed to a number of articles on a wide range of financial, strategic planning, and policy topics. He frequently contributes articles, commentaries, and editorials focusing on current economic and political topics for the private think tank, Thinking Outside the Boxe.

Mr. Cartwright is an enthusiastic supporter of local no-kill animal shelters and various animal causes.
He enjoys golf, participating in charity golf tournaments, and attending WWE events. He divides his time between South Carolina and Florida.

Press Contact:
Executive Assistant to Mr. Cartwright
Website: http://www.DiggerCartwright.com
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