[The following is a guest post by Ann Green.]

This year getting angry isn't enough. Listening to political soul-mates on talk radio isn't enough. This year even voting isn't enough. Neither is it a good idea to use the Scott Brown "miracle" as an excuse to sit back and hope that lightening strikes twice or to look at encouraging polls and become complacent. It's time to leave your political comfort zone and get involved.

I'll leave it to other columns to elaborate on how much is at stake this year; this is a call to action. In Massachusetts, we have the dishonor of having a complete contingent of left wing to far left wing Democrat congressmen (and one woman). They have helped bring us endless spending and entitlement programs, soaring unemployment rates, socialized medicine, self-destructive foreign policy, the inequitable treatment of our ally Israel, and suicidal tactics for dealing with terror threats and porous borders. And if there's a concern about an obesity problem in this country, we need look no further than the increasingly corpulent federal government.

My congressman Barney Frank has been in office for almost 30 years. Like many in government, he has never held a private sector job. He lives in a fantasy land where his constituents are a lower form of human, failed programs like his pets Freddie and Fannie can be propped up by an endless supply of government funding, defense spending is the only spending that can be cut, and all Republicans are greedy, evil and racist. He recently told a group of Young Democrats to "give us more authority."

In honor of July 4th this year I reread the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. These documents make it very clear that the overriding goal of the Founding Fathers was to restrict the power of government over the states and the individual. "Governments are instituted among men," the Declaration states, "Deriving their just powers from the Consent of the Governed." The preface to the Bill of Rights goes further: "The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added." The focus is not on what rights people have, but on what the government cannot do, a critical distinction. The ship of state has sailed way off course.

Certainly you'll vote. But you can do so much more. Research the candidates in your state and congressional district if you don't already know who to vote for, and pick up the phone. Call a campaign office and ask what they need. You can donate money; it doesn't have to be a lot, and if a lot of people donate a little, it will add up to a lot. Respond to blog posts and news articles with brief, fact-based (no name-calling!) comments which support your candidate and include contact information. Write letters to the editor in the local paper. Put up a yard sign and slap a bumper sticker on your car; name recognition is key for challengers and new faces. Make phone calls. Hold a "meet and greet." Help raise money. Hold signs for your candidate at public events. Work in the campaign office. Stuff mailboxes with campaign literature. Volunteer to drive people to the polls for the primary and for the final election.

For the first time in my life, I'm more than superficially involved in a campaign, two in fact. I'm working for Sean Bielat, a Marine and businessman who is running against Frank, and Marty Lamb, a close friend, attorney and small businessman who is running against Jim McGovern in the 3rd district.

The Founders never envisioned a ruling class of legislators-for-life. We voters are the only ones who can return our nation to the one envisioned by the Founders, a United States governed by citizen legislators who, after a short term in office, return to their families and to their private sector jobs. Ask yourself, what would Thomas Jefferson do?

[Related, re: Barney Frank: Vote for citizen representation, not political elite]