It has been a long journey to arrive where we are today in the United States. Rehashing how we got here is an exercise in finger-pointing and blame-placing. Ultimately our nation, as have many others, has followed the typical sequence of steps in its rise and fall, and in the grand sweep of human history, the United States of America will be lumped in with all the other great empires of the past.
There is One Thing, however, that makes this nation exceptional, and that is this: The United States of America is founded upon a unique Idea, that All mankind are created equal and they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights. That, in one sentence, is American Exceptionalism.
We are created as sovereign individuals, each with the Natural Right of self-determination. We own our thoughts, our actions, our faith, our right of self-preservation. We are subjects and servants to no one, neither are we lords or masters.
Our rights are our birthright: The government does not bestow them, and the government has no authority to take them away. They can, however, be surrendered.
There are two phrases that repeat in my mind nearly every day. One is the Chinese proverb “May you live in interesting times.” There is no question that we are living in interesting times! The other phrase is, “the Consent of the Governed,” the theory, as elucidated so brilliantly by Thomas Jefferson, that any government, and any law created thereby, is only legitimate when it proceeds from the consent of the governed.
Our nation is in the midst of an existential crisis. Corruption, greed for power, seemingly universal and mutual contempt between media, big tech, big money and big government, and common citizens. Eighty million Americans believe we have an illegitimate government, and that same government has labeled its opponents “domestic terrorists.”
To say that is the start of a slippery slope is to fail to recognize we’ve been speeding down that hill for a long time.
Every one of our Natural Rights and freedoms are under assault, and soon those who subscribe to the exceptional ideals upon which this Nation was founded will be under physical assault. It’s not a question of if, but when those who would collect power to themselves attempt to suppress and ultimately eliminate those who refuse to submit. It’s already happening, daily.
Is our freedom worth fighting for? Absolutely. Of course it is. Men and women have gone to war and sacrificed their lives for freedom throughout history, their own and others’. Is a violent Civil War imminent? Perhaps. Is it wise to light that fire? No.
Why do you think so much pearl-clutching and hand-wringing is going into efforts to silence and discredit us? The answer is simple: Fear. They fear us. They fear our ideas, they fear our numbers, they fear more than anything exposure and the loss of their perceived control.
So our solution is simple, really, and is summed up neatly in the word, “No.” Not yelled, not accompanied by torches and pitchforks, or fire arms. Just quietly, firmly, unbendingly, “No.” I do not consent. Together, eighty million or more free Americans, simply saying “No” and meaning it, and they lose.