We’ve lost faith in our government yet again.

All across this great nation, droves of citizens, impassioned with feelings of disgust in their leaders, have made their presence known in public rallies and protests.

In a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, two-thirds of Americans apparently find themselves “dissatisfied” and “angry” with the performance of the federal government.

Some believe the straw that broke the federal camel’s back fell when our hard-earned tax dollars were stolen from us and used to bail out the irresponsible spending and lending of our friends on Wall Street. Others think it started when our leaders overstepped their boundaries with unconstitutional bills disguised under the ever-patriotic name of “national security.”

But if we look back far enough in history, I think we can find the real root of this dilemma in the transferring of power from our elected leaders to those with the biggest wallets.

Essentially, while the silent majority uprising has indeed been fun to watch, its intended targets — our elected politicians — are merely pawns in the game of power that is played by a small number of wealthy individuals.

Sounding a little too much like a “conspiracy theory” column for comfort?

Perhaps — but stay with me.

The primary cause of the first American Revolution, as noted by Benjamin Franklin, was “the refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators.”

And what do we have now but an unconstitutional central bank governing the value of our money and the interest rates we live and die by?

But wait — it hasn’t always existed.

In fact, it wasn’t until 1913 that our dictatorial Federal Reserve System came to be.

The impetus for its creation came in 1907, when J.P. Morgan, the great American banker, published rumors of a prominent New York bank going bankrupt.

Masses of people withdrew their funds, and panic was thus created in the banking system.

The hysteria generated by this scandal prompted an investigation by Sen. Nelson Aldrich, R-R.I., then head of a commission to recommend the formation of a central bank.

A small group of wealthy men then got together on a J.P. Morgan estate on Jekyll Island, and framed what would become the Federal Reserve Act.

In 1913 Woodrow Wilson became president, having promised before being elected to sign the bill. And two days before Christmas, the Federal Reserve Act was voted in by a small number of congressmen.

Some years later, reflecting on the matter, Woodrow Wilson wrote, “We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government run by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”

I couldn’t agree more.

We are a society enslaved by debt — somewhere around $30,000 per citizen at birth — and that’s just to the federal government. At this point, bankruptcy would be an improvement for our country.

Our currency is an illusion, worth only what a small group of powerful men say it is. And President Barack Obama, the great American hope, is but another failed politician serving his role properly — providing the illusion of leadership.

The American people are waking up to realize their enslavement by the carefully constructed chimera of debt doesn’t have to exist.

And just as Mr. Franklin pointed out, a central bank cannot exist and a nation be free simultaneously.

When our freedoms have been compromised for the sake of fiscal profit, what else do we have to lose?

When the outcrying voices of this country realize this, then the next American Revolution will have begun.