Is the American Dream dead?
By Brent Johnson
The Republic of the united States of America has all but abandoned its founding principles. The American people are woefully ignorant of the rights with which they have been blessed, and are therefore embarking on a path towards abject servitude that the American Founding Fathers fought a bloody war to prevent from ever happening. It is a genuine tragedy, and the opportunities to reverse this trend are rapidly diminishing in number. However, those opportunities do still exist, and it would be remiss of me to ignore them, and thereby sentence you to a life of hopelessness, slavery, and spiritual poverty.
The American Republic was founded on principles that in 1776 were unheard of throughout the world. At that time all countries functioned in the two-class system; the aristocrats/nobility owned all property and made all laws, and the commoners did what they were told and could never rise above their lower class position.
The American Founding Fathers, with the Declaration of Independence, stated for all the world to hear, that “all men are created equal”. This meant that all people were of the same class; nobody had greater rights than anybody else. This is the fundamental basis of the Republic of the united States of America, and all laws must adhere to this precept.
The Declaration continued by elucidating the basic rights of all people; “…they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable (meaning unchangeable) rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (which means to own property).” Remember, commoners could not own property in the two-class system. It was the American Revolution that changed that.
How many of you reading this were created by the government? If you were not created by the government, then you did not get your rights from the government, and no government can ever take them away from you (however, you can voluntarily waive your rights in favor of government privileges and benefits).
The Declaration went on to state, with absolute clarity, “To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” In other words, We the People are above government; government exists to serve us; we do not exist to serve government.
The very next words of the Declaration, “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…” In other words, if our government fails to protect our rights then we have the right to destroy it and start over with a new government.
These basic rights lie at the foundation of all laws and regulations instituted by any government (federal, state, local) in our Republic. They are not negotiable; they are unalienable; they cannot be taken away even by a vote of the majority of the people.
A society based on these principles is one in which the people are happy. They keep the fruits of their labors, determine how to raise their children, pursue whatever objectives they wish to pursue, and all without government interference.
So what happened to change all this? Why is it that in today’s Amerika (sic) ordinary people cannot make ends meet, cannot pursue their goals without government permission and oversight, and cannot enjoy their Lives, Liberties, and Happiness?
There are very specific events and dates I could cite that represent the beginning of the end of American freedom, but the only proper answer to this question is that the American People let it happen. They failed to do their duty to protect and preserve our democratic Republic. They allowed the Devil to cross the threshold of their land in exchange for perks and benefits they never earned. In other words, their laziness and complacence let evil enter into our society, and today that evil has succeeded in undermining everything good and just in our Republic.
Thomas Paine, author of Uncommon Sense, the brilliant essay that helped birth the Declaration of Independence and the American Republic, wrote, “Government is a necessary evil.” Most people read that as meaning that government is necessary, but I read that as meaning that all government is evil. If you understand that something is evil, then you take precautions to ensure that the evil does not swallow up the good.
The Constitution for the United States was written to provide a chain on the evil that is government. It is a strict limitation on the powers and authority of the federal government. All state constitutions are a strict limitation on the powers and authorities of their respective state governments. Constitutions are like whips and chains, to be used to tame the beast that is government. However, a whip and chain is useless against a beast without a key ingredient; the tamer of the beast, who must wield these weapons to ensure that the beast remains in its proper place. The American people are the appointed tamers of the beast and they have not done their job; they have failed to keep the beast that is government restrained by the whips and chains of the Constitution.
Their failure is why our country is in such trouble today, but it also provides us with how we can fix our country. The American People need to take up their whips and chains, and tame the government beast.
The American Dream was always to own land, which in the two-class system preceding the existence of our Republic was not possible for commoners. However, today people think the American dream means to have a mortgage on a house with a white picket fence, or to receive 20,000 views on your own YouTube channel, or to be able to work as little as possible while living off the government dole. These are socialist dreams, and if you want to live in abject servitude to government then they are your dreams; but they are not and never will be the American Dream.
The American Dream is that you, as an individual, get to do anything you want to do, as long as you do not damage your fellow American’s Life, Liberty or Property. The government has no say in this. The government does not get to decide on whether you can build on your own land, or how much money you can keep out of what you earn, or what words you can and cannot speak, or how to educate your children. When you look to the government to do these things, you voluntarily waive your God-given rights in favor of government privileges and benefits, thereby subjecting yourself to the evil government.
Do you really believe America is free? If you believe that it is then name one thing - anything - that you can do that is not regulated, taxed or controlled by the government. That is not freedom. That is servitude.
Famous American statesman Dresden James once said, “They rattle their chains to boast of their freedom.” Are you satisfied being a chain rattler? Is that enough for you? Does that provide you with a fulfilling life? If so, then this article is not for you.
In a free society, if you want to express hate for someone or something, you have the freedom to do so. If you wish to teach your children the principles of Christianity (or Judaism or Islam) then you have the right to do so. If you do not want to service a homosexual couple’s request for a “wedding” cake, you do not have to do so. In a free society, government has no say in these matters. The only purpose of government is “to secure these (unalienable) rights” and nothing more. When government seeks to do more than that, then government has gone beyond the limitations imposed on it by the Constitution (the supreme law of the land) and thus has become a law breaker, in other words, criminal.
If you wish to avoid the death of the American Dream then you have to take action today! Tomorrow is too late. We are out of time. If you are unwilling to risk everything you have for the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, then you do not value your freedom highly enough to reclaim our country as the Land of the Free.
However, if the freedom loving people who still remain among us take action to restore our country to a land where people come to live free, enjoy the fruits of their own labors, and seek and administer justice for all people, regardless of class, social distinction, wealth, or position; if they do what is necessary to take back control of our country, then we can still establish an island of hope in the midst of a sea of injustice and oppression.
This means making war on the enemies of freedom, and in every war there are casualties. You could lose your Life, your Liberty, or your Property. Those who fight in wars believe the objective is worth the risk. Are you one of them?
As the Declaration of Independence concludes, “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.” Will you make the same pledge?
If you are willing to take a stand for freedom, then we can and will successfully reclaim our country as the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
Brent Johnson is Director of Freedom Bound International, a common law service center dedicated to the preservation of personal freedom, privacy rights and the Declaration of Independence. He may be reached at 1-888-385-FREE or on-line at www.freedomradio.us.
