Thursday and I have to tell you, it was me. I did it. I let the dogs out.

I’ve been thinking recently about what it means to be free. The WuFlu lockdowns, the mask shaming, the brazen hypocrisy of the elites breaking the rules they themselves make; the obvious election fraud that defies statistical modeling, eyewitness observations and plain common sense; and the naked depredations of the cultural Marxists upon our society and historic American norms—all of that and more has made me evaluate what exactly it means to be free. Because I’m starting to not feel free. I’m beginning to feel imprisoned.

Are we free when state governors can decide with impunity that the free exercise of religion must yield to their rules because of a virus? What does “shall make no law […] prohibiting” mean?

Are we free when our elections are rigged, our judiciary punts and there is little recourse for redress of grievances?

Are we free when we’re being taxed into oblivion by corrupt federal and state officials who don’t operate a balanced budget and, even if they did, they use our money to enrich themselves, keep themselves in power and spend it like drunken sailors?

Are we free when we’re subjected to fingerprinting, background checks, waiting periods, Firearm Owner Identification cards and rules about where we can and cannot carry a weapon? What does “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” mean?

Are we free when we’re told we must use the pronouns “her” or “she” to address a man who pretends to be a woman, or vice-versa?

Are we free when Congress outsources lawmaking to agencies of unelected bureaucrats who operate as unconstitutional appendages of the Legislative body?

Are we free when career politicians abandon current laws and flood our country with tens of millions of anonymous foreigners for cheap labor and welfare votes?

Are we free when our president can, with an executive order, simply impose his wishes on society without debate, consensus or legislation?

No, we’re not. Not in the way the Founders envisioned it.

They established a nation “conceived in liberty.” Our government’s role was to secure the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Our government is one of equals, one “of the People, by the People and for the People.” We are free men. That’s the hallmark of what it means to be an American.

In the early 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America,

The citizen of the United States is taught from his earliest infancy to rely upon his own exertions in order to resist the evils and the difficulties of life; he looks upon social authority with an eye of mistrust and anxiety, and he only claims its assistance when he is quite unable to shift without it.

The American Revolution bequeathed to us personal autonomy without government interference. We have Liberty to pursue Happiness with our one and only Life. In essence, American citizens were released (from the monarchy) on their own recognizance and expected to behave responsibly with their freedom. As one of my favorite maxims puts it,

Freedom is not the right to do as you please, but the liberty to do as you ought.

Of course, “ought” is now subjective and is a major contributing factor to our sorry state of affairs.

So what do we do? The first thing is to recognize and embrace that we are, by God-given natural rights, free. That is not up for discussion; you and I have personal freedom which the government does not bestow or remove. There is only ordered liberty or oppressive tyranny—and we are within the shadow of the latter.

Once convinced of your natural freedom, you next have to determine whether you will fight to restore liberty to yourself and your children. If so, then you need to decide whether now is the time to do so. If it is, you will then need to connect with others who feel the same.

As I’ve said before, I think this election will be a watershed event in the history of the United States. Either way it goes—and the momentum currently seems to be on the side of Joe “the Asterisk” Biden—it will harden the already deep divisions that exist in the country. It’s a struggle between two diametrically opposed visions for the next era of the American experiment.

Resolving the tension may involve deep sacrifices. You need to decide if you’re ready and willing to make them.

[Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash]