As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, we should all take a moment to appreciate the irony. Our ancestors fought a revolution to free themselves from an overbearing and oppressive government. Two and a half centuries later, we have managed to recreate one all by ourselves.
Our government has become a gigantic extortion racket wearing a flag pin. Federal, state, and local politicians all line up with their hands out, demanding more money while assuring us it’s for our own good. We are expected to bankroll foreign governments that hate us, reward trespassers who entered the country illegally, with free EBT cards, housing, medical care, smartphones, and whatever new Socialist entitlement program politicians dream up next.
Politicians are always bragging about what they “give” the American people. That’s rich. They don’t give us anything. They simply confiscate money from hard working Americans and redistribute it while demanding applause for their generosity.
Government corruption has become so commonplace that it barely qualifies as news anymore. The courts have spent decades punching holes in the Bill of Rights until it increasingly resembles Swiss cheese. Every year there seems to be another exception, another loophole, another reason why the government does what the Constitution says it cannot.
Americans are like lobsters in a pot. The water keeps getting hotter, but it happens slowly enough that many never notice until they’re cooked. Politicians smile for the cameras, shake hands at campaign events, and promise to fight for the little guy. Then they return to the capital and immediately start finding new creative ways to spend our money.
The legacy media helps keep the machine running smoothly. They know the formula: repeat the same lies endlessly, suppress inconvenient facts, and eventually enough people will accept fiction as reality. Propaganda has become so sophisticated that many citizens volunteer to defend the very institutions picking their pockets.
The Founding Fathers gave us a republic, but they overlooked one fatal flaw. They forgot to install term limits. As a result, Congress became a retirement home for white collar criminals. Somehow people arrive in Washington nearly broke and leave worth millions. Apparently the greatest investment opportunity in America isn’t the stock market. It’s elected office.
Two hundred and fifty years after the shot heard around the world, many Americans find themselves less free, less prosperous, and less represented than they were promised. We abolished slavery with the 13th Amendment, yet millions now spend their lives working to satisfy the endless demands of ever-expanding government slave masters..
If the Founding Fathers are watching from above, they are definitely not applauding. They are likely asking the same question many Americans ask today: “Is this really what we fought for?”
As for me, I won’t be waving a flag and pretending everything is wonderful. Independence Day is supposed to celebrate freedom. Before celebrating, it might be worth asking how much of that freedom remains.
Of course, none of this should surprise us. Congress now contains a large number of Communists that believe socialism is the cure for every problem. They treat free-market capitalism, the very system that created the wealth they spend so freely, as if it were a contagious disease.
Their solution to every issue is remarkably consistent: more taxes, more regulations, more bureaucracy, more spending, and less freedom. If government causes a problem, they demand more government. If government fails, they demand a larger government. If government goes bankrupt, they simply ask taxpayers for more money.
Apparently, after 250 years of American success, some politicians have concluded that the best course of action is to abandon the system that worked and replace it with ideas that have failed virtually everywhere they have been tried. What could possibly go wrong?
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