Guest Post by John Stossel
Happy Fourth of July!
We have reason to celebrate.
The Fourth honors the founding of America. It’s the anniversary of the day in 1776 that the Declaration of Independence was approved.
The Declaration was important.
It didn’t say that America would be the best country because it would have the biggest military, toughest leaders, most government giveaways, or tightest borders.
The great innovation that day in Philadelphia was the declaration that the United States would have a limited government, rooted in the idea that every individual has inalienable rights.
In other words, we do not get our rights from the government. They already exist. The government’s job is to protect our rights.
It’s a good thing to say out loud while watching the fireworks with your family.
The world took notice when American colonists told their king: “Bug off. We will trade with you and respect your borders, but no longer will we allow you to rule us.” Revolutions in France and elsewhere took their cues from America.
It was America’s emphasis on limited government — wanting to make sure no one in government would ever again wield power like that of the British king — that made our revolution the greatest and most lasting success of recent centuries.
Other countries replaced kings and aristocrats with new forms of bureaucracy and tyranny.
France created revolutionary committees that murdered dissenters. Russia replaced its czar with a communist police state that confiscated farms, killing millions.
The U.S. government, by comparison at least, remained humble. It mostly allowed citizens to forge their own destinies and choose where to live, what professions to pursue and what to say and publish, gradually expanding those freedoms to more Americans, not just the white men who were in that room in Philadelphia in 1776.
That freedom to innovate and live as one chooses made us the most prosperous nation on earth.
Let’s celebrate that.
The founders had a joyful optimism: Let individuals be free to trade and travel, and they’ll take from the best of the world and make something even better.
The optimism was rewarded. We outlasted European fascism and communism and now have better, healthier and more interesting lives than anyone anywhere ever.
Yet there is a pessimistic, ugly streak in current politics, both left and right.
Many Americans now want to create a nation built on very different principles than the ones that made us a success.
The crowd at the Democratic presidential debates cheered socialist promises – government-run health care, free college, etc. They are eager to replace individualism and markets with government central planning.
Many sound as if they think the American experiment is an embarrassment.
Some Republicans, meanwhile, act as if nationalist pride is an end unto itself.
President Donald Trump talks as if the key to our success is not spreading the idea of liberty but keeping the rest of the world away from the United States.
Today’s nationalists and populists don’t want to leave Americans free to engage in trade with whomever we choose. They do not want people to immigrate and emigrate freely. Some even want the government to police speech.
This Fourth, instead of toasting the Declaration of Independence and individual liberty, some Americans will push for socialism — and others will demand Trump throw out all immigrants.
Those ideas rely upon force — getting everyone to go along with one big plan.
No matter how great that plan sounds, though, if it is imposed by the government, it inevitably overrides the 330 million individual plans that Americans make for themselves, and it overrides them with taxes, regulations, fines, guns, and arrests.
But it wasn’t force that made America great. It was freedom.
America happened — and continues to happen — spontaneously, when its leaders are smart enough to just stay out of our way.
America will do best if we remember that the Declaration of Independence talks about “limited” government and reminds us that every individual has inalienable rights.
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It is a day to celebrate SECESSION, for that is what the Revolutionary War was truly about. It was the FIRST war of secession, and IT, not the government, the military, or any other bureaucratic structure, should be what we celebrate.
“The government’s job is to protect our rights. ….. Let’s celebrate that.”
Amen, Mr. Stossel!! And the government is doing a DAMNED FINE JOB protecting my rights!! Yessir, Mr. Stossel … I will celebrate with all my might tomorrow!!!
Stucky Insta-Poll;
— vote “up” if you agree with me and Stossel that we should celebrate
— vote “down” if you think we’re both full of shit
Stossel is an asshole…
LAND OF THE FREE*
*As long as you don’t:
1. Love the wrong woman
2. Grow the wrong plant
3. Refuse to fund wars
4. Cut hair without government approval
5. Neglect to pay your rulers
6. Sell unprocessed milk
7. Collect rainfall on your own property
8. Open a lemonade stand without govt approval
9. Become homeless
etc.
NEWS FLASH>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
DC Government is alerting residents in DC area that they will be rolling armored tanks/vehicles through neighborhoods tonight and through the Fourth of July Holiday.
FF anyone???
My mother once asked me why I didn’t work within the system to change it. I was eating a hamburger at the time. I asked her if this hamburger could work within my system to change me into a hamburger? She never raised the topic again.
Voter, if you eat dick, it will turn you into a cocksucker.
So, if you eat pussy?
Eating pussy will turn you into… a kitty cat?
EC = Eat cock
The American Revolution was kind of a joke in many ways.
Shay’s farmer soldiers who fought the poor man’s war got strung up and mutilated when they sacked greater Springfield, MA after the Revolutionary War for the non-payment of wages, and the requirement of gold specie payments for taxes.
Boston Massachusetts, like Philly and DC are riddled with British agents and sympathizers since the 1600s for fuck’s sake. The royal ENGLISH bloodlines in the Governors office and the banks should tell you who is in charge. You don’t think they just melted away, do you?
Now, fast forward to today and all American residential mortgages have been put through a blender and mailed to a PO Box in Detroit owned by Eric Holder, James Comey, and the rest of the City of London English agents that manipulate and share the rule of America with Da-j00ze.
How about doing well by not spending money on foreign entanglements?
Seem to recall a word or two to that effect in early speeches and writings.
Nobody is saying throw out ALL immigrants. What kind of ridiculous straw man argument are you trying to make? People ARE saying throw out ILLEGAL ALIENS: anybody here ILLEGALLY. Also, this fevered demand to keep growing, growing, growing. We’ve got over 330 million people here already. Damn the importation of fecund third worlders to build the tax base for retirees. We need to cull the illegals
and restrict immigration to only people who bring value to our nation, like Australia, Austria, New Zealand, etc.