As parents we know that we cannot discipline children without first explaining:

With a national election one week behind us, and the entire General Assembly up for reelection in November of next year, now is the perfect time to explain to our elected representatives:

1st principle - Never, Never, Again.

Let's get something straight. It is not our job to support political candidates. It is their job to earn our support. Period.

And challengers and incumbents have to be evaluated differently. With challengers it is a little trickier because you have to listen to see if they understand what the big issues are, then determine if they have a clue in terms of how to address those issues, and then decide if you can trust them.

With incumbents, the question is simply, "What have you accomplished? What have you accomplished specifically?"

Election Day can be compared to gladiator day in the Roman Coliseum. The politicians fight it out in the arena during the General Assembly or congressional session, and then on Election Day, the Sovereigns — that's you and me — look down and pronounce our verdict, up or down, political life or political death.

Now admittedly I suffer from the soft bigotry of low expectations when it comes to politicians. But given that, the time has come when we can no longer afford to live our lives with the expectation that the politicians in Richmond, or the politicians in Washington, will do the right thing.

Ultimately, we must take responsibility for what happens in this country because in a democratic republic it is the people who perform the role of Sovereign. Harry Truman was wrong. The buck does not stop with the President or any other politician or elected body, because they work for us and at our pleasure. The buck stops with us.

Now this is not widely acknowledged by people in public office who oftentimes seem to have perfected an attitude of arrogance, if not contempt, for you and me - particularly if they have been in office for too long. When that happens you must be willing to look the politician in the eye and say, "Drop the attitude pal. Your performance and record simply don't merit any conceit."

Now I began by saying that we have to explain what the rules are and what the consequences will be for not obeying the rules.

Right now is a perfect time to write John Warner, Jim Webb, and your congressman and tell them what you expect them to address in the next session of Congress. Consider a few examples.

Expect to be told, "Now, you're not being realistic." Well then, how realistic is $80 trillion in unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare? How realistic is it for the federal government to spend $125 million/hour on entitlements? Ultimately, this becomes a process in which politicians define themselves. Officeholders, who can only give reasons why things cannot be done, are simply explaining that they are not big enough men or women for the job given the challenges we face.

At the state level you need to write your Senator and Delegate now and tell them that you expect them to endorse the Freedom & Prosperity Agenda and to vote for the individual pieces of legislation that correspond to the planks in the Agenda.

Once again, next November all 140 members of the General Assembly are up for reelection.

I know many of you vote Republican. Well, Republicans, as the majority party in both the House and the Senate, have one more bite at the apple with the 2007 General Assembly session.

Then what? What will the campaign slogans and bumper stickers say next year?

Write your Delegate and Senator now and give them your expectations. By doing so you may just be saving their hides.

Why? Because there are those incumbents who think they have been so clever with the way district lines have been drawn that they cannot be defeated. Unfortunately for them, there is a flaw to their thinking. The lines were drawn on the premise that conservatives vote Republican. But what happens if conservatives don't vote?

We have let government get totally out of control, and it will be a difficult and time-consuming process to put that evil genie back in the bottle. But we will never get back to what this country and this commonwealth were meant to be if we continue to go the polls every year to cast our vote for the evil of two lessers.

We, as Sovereign, have to become better managers. We have to demand more from our employees, and when we realize that General Assembly session after General Assembly session, and congressional session after congressional session, we are facing the exact same challenges, we need to terminate those employees.