What is Freedom?

There are phrases like "freedom” and "liberty” that are very commonly thrown around and are perceived to be synonymous with America, but what do these words really mean? I think most Americans have a genuine respect for people who have served in the military. This is because people in the military symbolize the defenders of the "freedom" that we all cherish and that defines our nation as the greatest nation. So I wonder, why would people who are so thankful for the freedom that we enjoy, elect to expand our own government just to take away that freedom? Isn’t that what freedom means, freedom from government? The word government can be defined as "direction; control; management; rule: the government of one's conduct." Why would people rejoice in shedding the chains of England only to willingly choose to slap on the shackles of another government? Is liberation from a British government somehow better than a new American government? If so, what is the difference? If I have to be under government control and have my freedom taken away, I wouldn't mind being British. I am actually quite fond of the accent. So what did these people die for? To defend our freedom, right? Not a politician's freedom. Freedom from what? Government? Who's government? If we reflect, every 4th of July, on the blood that was shed to buy our freedom, why do we embrace the theft of the same freedom? Why do we embrace more government control such as Universal Healthcare or salary caps for executives who received a bailout or the view that having the top 1% pay 40% of the taxes, the top 5% pay 60%, and the top 10% pay 70% of the taxes is not only acceptable but that they should even pay more?

In the past there have been many nations that have fallen victim to government control. How is it that so many nations have stumbled into the same trap without learning from the plight of other nations before them? Government control is, by definition, the opposite of freedom. The fact is that these nations were full of people that were not any different than the people of this one. How did these heads of state pull the wool over the people's eyes? They certainly didn't do it on the platform of blinding poverty, suffocating tyranny and unlimited government control, because the people would never have allowed it to happen. They would have been run out of the country if they were lucky. No, the only way it could have happened would have been under the guise of great sounding ideologies like "equal pay for women," "helping out the little guy," "providing for the have nots," "we all have to make sacrifices" (aka: tax increases), "healthcare for every american," and the list goes on and on of the types of phrases, used by a Marxist demagogue, to deceive the people that he believes are too stupid to know the difference. The leaders of these nations didn't tell the people: "Those of you that work 80 hours a week to create a better life for your children, we are going to take your money away from you and give it to people that don't really like to work, because those people need help too. We are going to create massive government programs and regulations that will control everything that you do.” Sometimes I wonder if people in this country have ever thought about what those heads of state said to the people. Do they really think that, when Hitler initially attempted to gain public office, he ran on the platform of creating a new Arian race? Do they think that he said vote for me because I am going to exterminate millions of people because they are not the superior race? Sounds pretty crazy huh? No, I doubt he got his foot in the door that way. In fact, while in prison in 1924 Hitler is quoted as saying, “Instead of working to achieve power by an armed coup we shall have to hold our noses and enter the Reichstag against the Catholic and Marxist deputies. If outvoting them takes longer than outshooting them, at least the results will be guaranteed by their own Constitution! Any lawful process is slow. But sooner or later we shall have a majority - and after that Germany." – Adolf Hitler 1924.

To borrow a phrase from Obama himself, which I am sick of hearing already, let me be clear. I am in no way comparing President Obama to Hitler; I don't believe that President Obama is intentionally trying to take away the freedom of Americans, like many many many right wing conservatives do believe with their whole heart. What I believe is that he is married to, and will probably never part from, an ideology who's victims have been trying to escape it for the shores of the United States for a very long time. I am a big believer in "don't fix what aint broke." When I say not broken I mean from a historical perspective, why do the opposite of what has gotten us where we are today by embracing an ideology that has de-railed super powers and powerful empires so effectively in the past? How did capitalism, something that has made this nation into what it has become in such a tiny amount of time (only around 200 years), become a bad word?

I was with an ex co-worker about a month before the election. We were at a bookstore and a book about Barrack Obama caught our eye. I asked him what his opinion was in relation to which way he might vote. He said “I don’t really know much about politics, but all I know is that it can’t get any worse.” This is a very scary and very popular school of thought in America. The truth of the matter is that it can get much worse. America has only been around for a few hundred years. There were Dynasties and Empires that were around for thousands of years, and there have always been shifts in power. In the grand scheme of things, America could just be a flash in the pan. Abandoning the vehicle that got us here could be a way to ensure it.
-Brooks Johnson