In 1776, 56 brave patriots signed their names at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence — a document that spelled out the specifics as to why the thirteen colonies were making a break with England and King George.

Signing that document was treason against the British, and every single man, some with names you know — Benjamin Franklin, Sam Adams, and of course John Hancock — and some you may not, such as Thomas McKean, Button Gwinnett, and Arthur Middleton, risked literal life, limb, and property by doing so.  Had the British prevailed, they very well may have ended their days in front of a firing squad or at the end of a hangman’s noose. Yet still they signed.

The interesting thing is, only about a quarter of the population actively supported the break with England at the time the Declaration was signed.  Another quarter, largely those whose fortunes benefited greatly from the connection with England (which some of the signers did themselves), wanted to remain part of the Empire, while fully half the population were what we’d call today “undecided.”

The reality is, leaders do what these men and others did: they led, they fought, and they went home and convinced their fellow citizens about the righteousness of their cause and inspired others to join the fight.  In the end, they prevailed, and in doing so, they set forth a path that changed the course of human history, much for the better.

Today America finds itself in a place not so different from what the thirteen colonies faced 246 years ago.  While the thirteen disjointed colonies faced the greatest empire the world had ever known, patriots today face the greatest propaganda machine in human history: the Democrat-Media-Tech Industrial Complex.

There are two big differences, however.  The first is that the thirteen colonies had the benefit of 54 men who were willing to stand up and challenge the king and parliament in order to do what they knew to be right.  Today, patriots find a largely barren wasteland devoid of leaders willing to stand up as the Democrats and their cabal seek to steal an election in broad daylight.

The other difference is that in 1776, war was the last option available to the patriots.  In 2020, patriots still have one last option before something drastic…and the odds of it succeeding are as slim as those faced by the thirteen tiny colonies taking on the most powerful empire in the world.

As The Hill detailed earlier in the week, there is a constitutional tactic through which the Republic can be saved — and make no mistake: that is exactly what is at stake here.

The tactic involves senators and representatives using the procedures outlined in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act (ECA) to delay the acceptance of the electors to a point where the House would then choose the president, with each state having a single vote.  Given that Republicans control a majority of the state delegations, Donald Trump would be declared the winner.

This would be a long and arduous process, something like Jimmy Stewart’s character in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington spending a month reading Scripture.  No doubt, the patriots who choose this path will be tarred and feathered in the press, have their families doxxed on social media, and likely be thrown under the bus by Mitch McConnell and other “leaders” in their own party.  In a word, for a while, their lives would be made miserable for the crime of standing up to those who would steal the election from the American people.

That’s what real leaders do.  That is what real patriots do.  In the 200-plus years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the ratification of our Constitution, millions of men and women have put everything — up to and including their lives — on the line after swearing a military oath that starts with this: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”  Congressmen and senators take a similar oath, but it’s rare that they risk much of anything, let alone their lives, after doing so.  Most senators and congressmen leave office far richer than when they entered politics, or at a minimum, they are able to parlay their service into lucrative lobbying positions on K Street.  Can one be a politician and a leader and a patriot simultaneously?

Now is the time for patriots who serve in Washington to show that they take their oath seriously.  While the communist Chinese may indeed have influenced our election, the real threat to the Republic, to the Constitution, is a domestic one.  It presented itself on November 3, when fraud changed the outcome of the presidential election.  Beyond the God-given rights protected by the Constitution, nothing is as sacred to Americans as their right to vote.  Period.  Full stop.

If the integrity of our elections is lost, then nothing else matters, because at that point, no one is accountable to voters.  The Constitution ceases to be anything but a faded piece of paper.  As such, now is the time for patriots in Washington to stand up and actually do that which they swore to do.  No more assuming “we’ll win next time.”  No more thinking the other side plays by the rules.  No more assuming that everything will blow over and we’ll be back to business as usual soon.  No.  This is the hill to die on, because beyond this hill is a Stalinist tyranny like the one George Orwell warned us about.  Tens of millions of Americans have seen the writing on the wall as written by Antifa and Black Lives Matter and AOC and other Democrats who seek to punish Trump-supporters.  Not sure?  Think Stalinist purges can’t happen here?  Think again.  Look at what was done to Donald Trump over the last four years, when every single Democrat involved knew that the charges were fiction.  And he was (and is) a billionaire president loved by tens of millions, and they only controlled half the legislature for half his term!  Once in power, imagine what they will do to average Americans who just trying to make ends meet and want to be left alone, small businessmen who just want to make a living, or senators or congressmen who stand in the way of their plans for domination…

There is nothing usual about America in 2020, and what we just experienced was not just another election loss.  It was a coup in the literal sense of the word, and the Democrats were willing to do it right in front of us because they were pretty sure that no one would do anything about it.  This is a call for Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and all ostensibly Republican senators to join Congressman Mo Brooks and his army to show Democrats that they were wrong in their calculations and that these people take their oath seriously and will fight to protect the United States from these domestic enemies of freedom.  It will be challenging, and there will be countless people seeking to derail them, from both sides of the aisle.  No doubt the media, friends, and maybe even some family may seek to knock them from the path — as Benjamin Franklin’s son sought to do with him — but if they keep the faith, if they fight the good fight, we will win.  When the history of the 2020 election is written, these patriots will find themselves in the same company as those 56 intrepid men, the latter having birthed our nation and the former having saved it.