Arbitrary and authoritarian control are the conditions most people have lived under for most of history.
If one is ignorant about American history and history more broadly, one might be tempted to believe Americans' incredible fortune is the norm. But no one should take life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for granted, as all three of them are quite precarious.
The United States of America and the other Western or Western-style democracies are very much the exception. This fact seems to be virtually unknown among America's youth who are restless to cast their constitutional republic aside in favor of totalitarian communism. That authoritarian rule and collectivism are inevitably intertwined is not even contemplated. Apparently, they believe free stuff is simply provided with no strings attached. Because cultural literacy is no longer a thing, they have likely never heard the expression, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Liberty was wrested from the British Empire by Americans only after much spilling of blood, so it is frustrating, to say the least, that the Democrat Party and the Democrat Socialists of America are determined to wipe away our heritage. Many democrat politicians are promising to replace our system of government with their own arbitrary and despotic control. What else can we expect in the aftermath of their desire to abandon the Electoral College, dissolve the Senate, pack the Supreme Court, and transform the District of Columbia into a state. Whether any of this is constitutional is beside the point as the Democrats yearn for a post-constitutional order.
"Rights," is a very popular word on the Left, but they often have a strange definition of the word. Women have a right to kill their baby up until birth; everyone has a right to free medical care; men have a right to participate in women's sports. With rights come responsibilities -- like the responsibility to not be an ignorant fool who has no conception of common sense or moral clarity. Most Americans used to rely on the ethical and moral teachings provided by the Judeo-Christian tradition, as George Washington understood: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports… And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion."
A majority of Americans identify themselves as Christians or Jews, with estimates at around 65 percent and 2.4 percent respectively. The Muslim population is cited as around 1.3 percent, but this figure seems a little low, particularly after the Biden administration let in as many as ten million illegals from all over the world. We cannot forget about the 200,000 Afghans let in without proper vetting in the wake of President Biden's chaotic pullout from Afghanistan.
The Judeo-Christian tradition is still a real thing in America, but it has been steadily eroded by secular forces within the entertainment industry, education system, and the Democrat Party over the last 50 years. Aggressive atheism from the collection of socialists and communists that increasingly hold sway over the Democrat Party should be taken seriously. Americans also have to confront the seemingly paradoxical pact the Left has forged with militant Islamists.
Generations Z and A seem to have little understanding of the historical and cultural underpinnings of their own country, as the education system has been effectively replaced by leftist indoctrination. Not that long ago, the Judeo-Christian tradition was recognized as a fundamental pillar of American society. To the Founders, the role of religion in America was self-evident: "If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary… [But lacking these] you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." How many of your children's teachers have studied James Madison's words, let alone taught them?
The concept of liberty was taken very seriously by eighteenth-century Americans, and many sacrificed, killed, and died to secure it. Many Americans don't seem to recognize how precious it is, how rare a constitutional republic is, and why it should be preserved. Mass government surveillance is a hot-button topic for many people right now, with one focus being the license plate reader cameras many jurisdictions have set up in recent years. While state and local governments are not using them for mass surveillance in the way some people might have you believe, the technology could be used that way. The Communist Chinese government deploys similar technology as one of several tools to monitor, control, and punish its population.
Do Americans want to be like China? What do Americans know about China's Communist regime? A murderous authoritarian state that practices mass surveillance and a social credit system to keep its people in line -- but you'll have cheaper medical care. Look to Canada's healthcare system for a cautionary tale; it offers affordable care up to and including free government-assisted suicide, because Canada has learned that government/single-payer medical care is too expensive to sustain.
The fighting that took place in and around Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, was the point of no return -- America's war for independence from the British Empire had begun. The battle broke out a month after Patrick Henry's March 23, "…give me liberty or give me death!" speech. His words were not merely overheated rhetoric; his and many others' necks were on the line. The founding generation fought and died so we could live free from the tyranny of authoritarian government. It will be Americans' own fault if we allow our constitutional republic to be transformed by the Left into the kind of government our ancestors broke away from. As a famous politician once said, elections have consequences. There is an election on November 3; vote accordingly.
Mike is the author of the book A Short History of the Long War: The Global Struggle Against Militant Islamism
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