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

On capitalism and freedom

Over on Facebook today, I got into a brief debate about the merits of capitalism. Fitting too, as the topic du jour (Healthcare) is at its core, a tug-of-war between the "have's" and the "have not's." What bothers me most is the false belief that capitalism is a zero sum game -- that for some to win, others must lose. This is theoretically and in reality, a false proposition. It assumes that resources are finite, which they are not.

Consider real estate. As Mark Twain once said, "Buy real estate, they're not making it any more." Well, we have found ways to make more of it -- lots more. Just ask the Japanese or any city dweller. It's called going vertical. Or how about the finite nature of energy? We will likely eventually replace fossil fuels with something else before long. France for instance, now powers about 85% of its electrical grid with nuclear energy.

In terms of capitalism, it's primary fuel is currency. Every nation on earth creates more and more of it every year through debt and inflation. So currency supply is NOT finite. Therefore one man's gain is not necessarily another man's loss. This is not to say that there aren't economic winner's and losers in society, only that capitalism itself is not the deciding factor on who wins or loses.

What anti-capitalist thinkers are really decrying is the fact that there are such large disparities between the have's and have not's. This cannot be denied but they falsely seek to indict the capitalist system as the culprit. The truth is that to a large extent these disparities are the simple result of the natural order. Some people are taller than others, some smarter, some stronger and some faster. These inequalities cannot be diminished through any man-made, social construct. Of course the Marxists among us believe the inequalities of outcome forged by these disparities can and should be diminished through communism. The only thing that ends up being diminished however is the human spirit and the standard of life for everyone.

Man was not born to be slaves to a social construct. That is the beauty and truth that underlies our political system which cherishes freedom and promotes capitalism. Redistribution of wealth (one of the prerequisites of nationalized healthcare) is a fundamental paradox to the American way of life. It is only now, that we stand at the precipice of financial ruin caused by redistribution policies that people are now standing up en masse to say, "enough is enough".

Is this greed or simply self-preservation? Can you really blame those who have labored so hard to build their own economic freedom, only to see more and more relinquished year after year, object? Make no mistake, the political class who seeks to take from one man's labor and give it to another is not doing it out of some sense of higher purpose. They do it for the sake of political power. For class warfare is one of the oldest political manifestos in history. Today, the Democrats are strumming this fiddle with great intensity. "From each according to his ability and to each according to his means," said Marx. And now, we have elected a leader in Barack Obama and a Congress led by Nancy Pelosi who embrace this philosophy for their own higher purpose: political power. This, above all else, is the greatest threat to our national security.

What will save us is the "Patriot class". You are seeing them now, finally, stand up in Town Halls and protests all across this land. They are powered by the sense of longing for a nation which truly governs with the consent of the people, not the coercion of the people. They are driven by the economic virtue of, "to each from his labors." These values we hold more dearly than any other people on earth. This is not a romanticism with our past but merely the acknowledgment of the values which have allowed our nation to prosper above all others. Americans who do not believe in these basic truths do not stand with us, they stand against us.