What "Take America Back" means to me

I often get asked what I believe on various issues and what it is that I'm advocating with the Take America Back bands. Take it back from whom?, I'm often asked. Let me say this... this is not about health insurance, it's not about higher taxes, it's not about cap and trade issues, it's not about the farce that has become our monetary system, it's not about obscene deficits, it's not the degradation of our basic and common culture, it's not even about the government intrusion into private industry. It's much, much larger than that to me.

Those are all merely symptoms of a larger illness. We (the people) have allowed government to take responsibility for us, rather than ourselves. We have continued to elect the same sort of people, year after year, who continually promise one thing but do another. We have been distracted and medicated by the comforts of our credit card society. The bigscreen TV has trumped the town hall and a trip to Walmart has become more important than going to vote. Yes, I am guilty too. I have seen the ball rolling down the hill but, until now, have merely watched and muttered the occasional gripe. I have missed voting in elections. I too, have stood by as America's greatness has been dimmed.

What is this "greatness" of which I speak? It is the freedom to become whatever we desire. The freedom to achieve. The freedom to fail. The freedom to use our God-given abilities to create comfort for ourselves and our families. It's the freedom to live uncoerced my our fellow man. It's the freedom to help others as our conscience dictates. It's the freedom to be free.

A little more than 230 years ago, a group of individuals came together who realized that freedom was the natural state and desire of mankind. They set out to create the most unique and daring social experiment that has ever been attempted. That system, enshrined in the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights, has been an unequivocal success by any measure. It has allowed us to not only achieve great economic and social progress, it has been a beacon to other people around the world that they too can live in freedom. It works because it's foundation is built upon our God-given freedom to live, to prosper and to help others do the same.

What is under attack, and has been for quite some time, is this very foundation. There are those among us who believe the state to be more competent than its citizens. They believe the collective to be more important than the individual. They seek to enslave us to the will of the state not out of some evil dictatorial ambition. No, they truly believe they are saving us from ourselves. The policies mentioned above, regardless of their intent, have consequences. They make us less free. They go by the name of Democrat and Progressive and yes, even some Republicans. Regardless of political party, they seek to embrace us with the protective arms of the state by preying on our fears and dividing us into the have's and the have not's. Our bumper stickers call them socialists or communists. What they really are is... misguided. It is sad that they do not recognize the potential for greatness that is within all individuals and our ability to seek that greatness out on our own -- without the coercion of the state. They misjudge human nature and our natural yearning to be free. It is this fatal misjudgment that threatens all that we have achieved and all that we may become. If they have their way, intentional or not, they will kill America and we know this in our hearts to be true.

THAT is whom I want to Take America Back from.

While I might wish for some other means or some "perfect" political party, the political reality of today says that this is best achieved through the Republican party. Republicans, independents and libertarians indeed disagree on many specific political issues. But on the nature of human nature and our God-given right and will to be free, we all agree. It is this fight we must take up now, together. The one thing that is truly at stake and is threatened by the Left is this common principle we share. This next election must do more than elect Republicans in name only. It is our duty to cut through the political and media clutter to elect people to represent us who believe in the core, fundamental truth and value of our individual freedom. From these people the correct policies will come.

I leave you with some ideas to consider from men far more enlightened than I...

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it" -- Thomas Paine

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err." -- Mahatma Gandhi

"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better." -- Albert Camus

"Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves." -- Nietzsche

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion." -- Edmund Burke

"Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance." -- Woodrow Wilson

"Freedom is the oxygen of the soul." -- Moshe Dayan