Our house, like millions of others, had a very sleepless night Tuesday. Once the sky started to crack a little light, we found ourselves in mourning as we contemplated the gravity of the election results.

It is now perfectly clear America has made it past the tipping point. Just two short years ago, candidates that espoused and supported the historical American principles of self-reliance, free-markets, constitutional adherence and limited government were elected in droves.

Not so this time.

In just the last two years, the national mood has made it past the tipping point where those who depend on government have outnumbered those who government depends upon. Since 2009, our nation has added 75 times more folks to the food stamp rolls than we have added jobs. It used to be said Americans voted with their pocketbooks, and that really hasn't changed.

What has changed is that private business no longer fills the majority of Americans' pocketbooks -- government does. Those who vote for a living now outnumber those who work for a living.

Like a reshowing of a bad movie, those of us who have studied history know where this is all headed and that's what makes us mourn for the loss of the America that lit the stage of humankind for these past two centuries.

We know that the forces that desire us to be serfs to an all powerful government will grind America down until it is a mere shadow of its former self for there are millions who have fallen for the lie of socialism. Dictators and tyrants the world over are rejoicing today as they eagerly pursue their twisted designs without interference from the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

Our debt will crush us. Our accepted dependence on someone else to pay for our food, our housing, our babies, our child care, our college, our health care, our business profits and all manner of things we rightly should pay for ourselves is what got us into this mess. In a very short matter of time, the financial zombie we know as the American monetary system will fall over dead. It will have died a death of a thousand cuts. There will be lies spun as to what happened, but many of us will know the truth -- and we will be madder than heck.

Our tyrant-in-chief now will be unrestrained in his selective enforcement of law, his penchant for class warfare, his love of Islam, his disdain for our Judeo-Christian foundation and his outright contempt for our Constitution. Karl Marx and Mao Tse-tung would be proud.

But before he and the ilk that lurk in his shadows fully extinguish America's light, there is hope. Real hope. Hope that comes from above.

For there is always hope so long as there are willing patriots left on the battlefield with breath left in them. The forces of tyranny are not assured of their success, as the forces of freedom are not yet done with the fight. There are yet millions of patriots who, like our original Founders, are willing to pledge "our lives, fortunes and sacred honor" to restore this nation to its rightful and God-given role as the light of all mankind.

Therein lies our task. Do not take counsel from your fears. Do not despair. Strengthen your resolve to stand for freedom and righteousness. Sacrifice what you have to leave something for generations yet unborn.

On Tuesday, this humble author succeeded in being elected to his first official position. I take this small step as a simple man with very little spare time or finances and with children in college and some yet at home. I, like hundreds of others throughout this great nation, have understood the gravity of our national situation and have put what I have on the line and have stepped up to fight.

Take heart. There are yet soldiers on the battlefield and there are reinforcements on the way. Not all need serve on the field in plain sight but all are needed to serve. Patriots, hear the voice of our God calling. Put on your white shirt and face the new America of today with courage. Work with all that you have to restore America to greatness. Be forceful in thought and sure in action and we, like our Founders of yore, will one day be remembered as the generation that, with God's strong arm, gave something to mankind of incalculable value.

May God yet bless America.

Ken Klemm, Goodland, is a buffalo and cattle rancher in western Kansas, as well as a student of the Constitution. He is a commissioner-elect with the Sherman County Commission. ken@thebuffaloguys.com