We’ve just celebrated our independence from King George. Our Founding Fathers gave us the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, promising the following:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Benjamin Franklin said, “We have given you a Republic, if you can keep it.” We have failed.

Billionaires control Congress, preventing tax reform that could eliminate many of our social and economic problems.

The authors of the Declaration of Independence included a process to take back our republic. They wrote:

“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the CAUSES which impel them to the separation.”

The main reason to reform our government is that we are not following the words and spirit of the Declaration, which is: “Government gets its authority from the consent of the governed.”

Here is a list of some of the causes that have undermined our republic:

• Wall Street controls Congress and is responsible for the stock market crash of 1929. To avoid future crashes, the Glass-Steagall regulatory bill was passed in 1933. However, Wall Street pressured the Republican Congress and the Democratic president (Bill Clinton) to rescind that law in 1999, and triggered the crash of 2008.

• Although 90 percent of the voters would like to see a background check on gun sales, Congress says, “No.”

• Although 70 percent of the voters want to increase the minimum wage, Congress says, “No.”

• In search of cheap labor, factories have been shipped overseas. This has been a major cause of unemployment, homelessness and crime.

• Billionaires have stashed their wealth in overseas banks to avoid paying taxes.

• We have allowed large political contributions from billionaires, and thus have bought the vote of Congress.

• In an effort to control the vote, the legislators of many states have enacted voter ID laws, making it very difficult for minorities, the elderly and the young to cast ballots.

But the most important cause undermining our republic is our tax structure. It is the root of most of our problems, including the flow of wealth to the rich, millions of families living below the poverty level, increasing unemployment and freezing the minimum wage.

When the wealthy are not properly taxed, we have no funds for infrastructure, nor adequate wages for parents to send their children to college.

When we look to the Scandinavian countries, we discover that they have universal health care and free college education for their children. If the Scandinavian countries can do this, why can’t we? The solution is to create a fair tax system, in which the wealthy pay their fair share.

Why should we have multimillionaires and billionaires, while at the same time in our present system, millions of families have to live below the poverty level and millions are jobless and homeless?

It is obscene for billionaires to stand by and allow these deplorable conditions to persist. This is a giant moral issue, in which the churches and civic organizations should step forward and demand that we take back our government.

Our nation is in crisis. We need courageous leaders to step forward to help us shake off the shackles of oligarchy.

We need men like Patrick Henry, who said: “Give me liberty, or give me death.” And Nathan Hale, who said: “I regret that I have but one life to give to my country.”

Neither of the presidential front-runners – Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Jeb Bush – nor the rest of the Republican presidential candidates has the insight and vision to lead us.

I suggest that we set aside our party allegiances and select a presidential candidate who can lead us into the promised land of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I suggest we look into the proposals offered by two other presidential candidates: Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Martin O’Malley, former governor of Maryland. I truly believe they have the insight and vision to lead us.