Be Thankful for your Liberty!

As we reflect on the many things we as Americans have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season, surely at the top of that list is our individual and collective liberty.  Sadly, each day brings evidence that our liberty is under attack and at risk of being irreparably eroded.

We, the American people, are at a cross-road in our ongoing struggle to maintain our liberty and equality of opportunity so enshrined in our founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, and the United States Bill of Rights.

Once before in our history we stood at just such a cross-road.  The ideals of liberty and equality were threatened. The nation was in danger of being torn apart.  The nexus of that threat, to our new republican democracy, was slavery.  The union was divided then - just as it is today.  The moral issue of that day was slavery. Slaves were considered property and were essential to the economic future of the southern states.  Lincoln held that all men were entitled to the protections of the founding documents and were entitled to enjoy their liberty and equality of opportunity and that this basic natural right was denied to slaves.  President Lincoln position was that slavery was wrong and must be abolished in all states of the new union.  It took a war to decide the question, of that day.

Today, we struggle with an epic conflict of incompatible ideologies.  We find the ideologies of progressivism on the one side, and the liberty and equality enshrined in the founding documents, on the other side.  These two ideologies are diametrically opposed, and we, like those before us, must make a decision concerning the direction our ongoing experiment in representative democracy will take.  Do we want a welfare state where half of our society is dependent on the other half for their sustenance and quality of life, or do we wish to support and encourage individual responsibility where all are free to exercise their natural right to enjoy liberty and opportunity.  Welfare enslaves the spirit and creative ability of all human beings.  Individual responsibility frees the human spirit to thrive and take advantage of that “opportunity for all” so enshrined in our constitution.  Today 47.1 million people are on food stamps.  That is 1 out of every 6 people and 1 out of every 5 families on food stamps.  (USDA - August Food Stamp Report)

Pierre Samuel DuPont, a supporter of the French Revolution, observed: "Any man aspires to liberty, to equality, but he cannot achieve it without the assistance of other men, without fraternity."  James Madison, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, frequently, in his contributing essays to the Federalist Papers, talked about unity of purpose and resolve of principals, if we were to accomplish the goal set out for our new nation in our founding documents.

In 1931, Alexis de Tocqueville, the French politicl thinker and historian said: "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."

Today we are compelled to make an honest and informed decision about the direction we are to take as a nation, and we must do that in concert with others who seek to restore liberty and equality for all.  We must by intellectual arguments, not with guns and bullets, persuade those who would embrace progressivism as the way we are to go that their position is self-destructive.  We must resolve to be guided by the ideals and principles found in our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and our Bill of Rights to propel us forward into the 21^st Century as free men and women - enjoying the blessing of liberty that is the birthright of every American citizen.

Our liberty is being stripped from us daily by executive orders, judicial decisions, and administrative rules and regulations.  Our blotted federal government seeks to perpetuate itself by shackling our citizens, not with chains, but with a multitude of entitlements designed to keep the recipients dependent and voting into office those who will keep handing out the “free stuff.”

Today Congress has made that discovery.  I encourage you to act today.  Write, call, or visit your elected representatives and let them know you will be making an informed vote.  Let them know you will vote for those who support limited government and the principal of liberty and equality for all.  Together we can restore that for which we are most thankful – our liberty.