By Doug Newman

Rehash of something I originally posted on June 30, 2004 and revised on July 4, 2011.
Posted on Facebook, Liberty Report, Strike the Root and Red State Eclectic.
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Independence Day is upon us. This July 4 we will celebrate the 236th anniversary of our independence from Britain and our birth as a free nation. We will watch fireworks, go to barbecues, go camping (at tax-funded state and national parks), go to baseball games (in tax-funded stadiums) and hear endless talk about how dadgum wonderful it is that we live in a free country.

Or do we live in a free country?

Consider the following.

In a free country, taxation would be well-nigh non-existent. You could keep what you earned and you could spend, save, invest and donate as you saw fit. You would have far more money with which to solve your own problems. Layabouts and sluggards would have to go to work and there would be much more compassion for the truly needy.

In a free country, there would not be 20,000-plus laws on the books infringing on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Crime would plummet as criminals – in both the private and public sectors – would never know who was armed. “Homeland security” would be provided by a “well-regulated militia”, i.e. a populace that was well armed and highly skilled in marksmanship as well as teamwork in the field.

In a free country, on the morning of September 11, 2001, airline passengers could have packed heat legally. Any idiot knows that you don’t bring a knife to a gun fight. Air passengers would not have been such easy pickings.

In a free country, police brutality would be almost non-existent. The cops would be subject to the same penalties as the rest of us underlings when they violated the rights of others. Federal police agencies – IRS, FBI, DHS, TSA, DEA, CPS, BATF, yadda, yadda, yadda – would cease to exist altogether.

Three miles from my house – June 2, 2012

Mungabunga

In a free country, you could educate your children as you saw fit without asking anyone’s permission. You could home school you kids if you wanted. Catholics could send their kids to the Our Lady of Mercy School; Baptists could send their kids to the Obadiah Baptist School; Mormons could send their kids to the Joseph Smith school; Muslims could send their kids to the Allah Akbar School; believers in Mungabunga could send their kids to Mungabunga school. If you are not spiritual, you could send your kids to the Whitney Houston School — “Where the children are the future” – or to the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young School – “Where we teach your children well”. Prayer, declining academic standards, evolution, creation, condoms, busing, standardized testing, bullying, discipline, dress codes and all the other debates surrounding education today would cease to be social issues.

In a free country, businesses would not be crushed in a regulatory vise grip. Millions of jobs would stay here in America rather than going to Honduras, Bangladesh and Red China.

In a free country, the military would be used strictly for national defense. We would not have troops in 135 countries. We would heed the Founders’ advice and steer clear of foreign alliances which have been nothing but trouble. Were we not throwing our weight around so recklessly “over there”, hatred and resentment toward the United States would be far, far less. Terrorism would cease to be a concern.

In a free country, we would not have the world’s highest incarceration rate.

In a free country, jurors could judge not only the facts pertaining to a given case, but also the law relevant to that case. If Juror Smith thought Defendant Jones was being unjustly tried for any reason, Juror Smith could vote to acquit on that basis and that basis alone.

In a free country, the value of money would be tied to gold and/or silver. The Federal Reserve Bank would be shut down. We would not see our savings and our futures eroded by inflation. And we would not owe bazillions of dollars to folks who already have bazillions of dollars.

In a free country, it would take neither a village nor a police state to raise a child. Government would not act in loco parentis for an absentee Mommy and Daddy. Parents would be responsible for raising their own children. Most of the problems we have with kids today – sex, drugs, violence, suicide – would be greatly minimized.

In a free country there would be no war on drugs. Drug profits and street crime would plummet. It would not be the government’s job to keep people off of drugs. It would be the job of parents, churches, Mungabunga temples, etc. In 1900, when there were no drug laws, there was almost no “drug problem” at all. (If Mungabunga people smoke that hooch in their rituals, they would be free to do so without fear of SWAT raids.)

In a free country, we would not constantly be relinquishing our freedom in exchange for security. People would know that the greatest threat to their security comes from their own government.

In a free country, if a state decided it had had enough of rule by Washington it could secede from the union without fear of reprisal.

Medicine in a free country.

In a free country, there would be no laws forbidding what you could ingest into your body. If you were sick or in pain, and if a certain remedy worked, you could take it without fear of punishment.

In a free country, Uncle Sam would not interfere in medicine at all.

In a free country, there would be no welfare state, no education state and no medical state. There would not be a permanent underclass, the quality of education would be vastly improved, and medicine would be far less expensive. Moreover, immigrants would know that coming to America would mean either sink or swim. Deadbeats would not come here looking for a handout. And immigrants would, out of social and economic necessity, learn English.

In a free country, there would be no Federal Departments of Energy, Commerce or HUD.

In a free country, there would be no minimum wage. Millions of jobs would be created overnight in the inner cities, Appalachia and the Rio Grande Valley. Congressmen and senators would be paid what they are worth.

In a free country, there would be no military draft or draft registration. Young men would not be so many slabs of meat for the military grinder.

In a free country, there would be no Patriot Act. The authorities would have to obtain a judge’s warrant that met the standards spelled out in the Fourth Amendment in order to conduct a search of any kind for any reason.

In a free country, there would be no surrender of sovereignty to entities like the UN, where we can be outvoted 2-1 by such paragons of freedom as Sudan and North Korea. Our troops would not be involved in UN sponsored wars. NATO and the International Criminal Court wouldn’t have any relevance. Our foreign policy would be based on, as Jefferson put it, “peace, commerce and honest friendship with all and entangling alliances with none.” “All” would include North Korea and “none” would include Israel.

In a free country, there would be no “promise” of Social Security at age 62 or 65 or 67 or … how far back will they have moved it when you reach your golden years? You could take that same money and put it in the most profitable private sector investments you could find. Furthermore, you would not be constantly tracked by means of your Social Security Number.

In a free country, you would only be punished if you inflicted actual harm on another person or their property. Randy Weaver’s wife and son would still be alive. The Branch Davidians would be still living in peace on the outskirts of Waco. Non-violent drug offenders would not waste away in cages, while convicted rapists and murderers went free.

In a free country, churches would truly be exempt from taxation, which would be minimal to begin with. Pastors would not be chilled into silence about the welfare/warfare/police state by 501c3 regulations.

In a free country there would be no government bailouts for auto makers or Wall Street or any other private entity for that matter.

In a free country, every place from Maine to Hawaii and from Key West to the Aleutians would be a free speech zone.

In a free country, ignorance of the law would be a valid defense.

In a free country, the internet would be free from government interference.

In a free country, your right to resist arrest would be secure. So would your right to record police misdeeds.

In a free country, there would not be surveillance drones patrolling the skies monitoring your every move.

In a free country, the Army would never dream of driving tanks through the streets.

In a free country, the president would not maintain “kill lists.” (If the authorities can track us with surveillance drones, why can’t they just kill us on the spot with predator drones?)

In a free country, the president could not have you arbitrarily arrested and indefinitely detained on the basis of a mere accusation without any due process whatsoever. Habeas corpus would be secure.

In a free country, the president could not rule by executive order. Other than granting pardons, he could do nothing without congressional approval.

In a free country, Congress would exercise its power under Article 3, Section 2 of the Constitution to restrict the scope and authority of the federal courts.

Law of the land in the “Land of the Free.”

In a free country, we would not have adopted nine of the ten “planks” of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. How have we done this? How have the ten planks replaced the Bill of Rights and the Ten Commandments?

In a free country, your property rights would not be under attack. (Plank 1) There would be no zoning laws. You could not lose your home or business for failure to pay taxes. There would be no EPA harassment of landowners over “wetlands” and other issues. The FEDGOV would not be the nation’s largest landowner.

In a free country, there would be no progressive income tax or, for that matter, any taxes on income. (Plank 2)

In a free country, there would be no inheritance tax. (Plank 3)

In a free country, there would be no confiscation of property of those who resisted the powers that be. (Plank 4) There would be no civil asset forfeiture laws.

In a free country, there would not be a central bank. (Plank 5) There would be no Federal Reserve and we would not have an umpteengazillion dollar national debt.

Please don’t shout as they fiddle about.

In a free country, there would be no government control of communications and transportation. (Plank 6) There would be no FCC, DOT, ICC, etc. Airports would not be mini-police states. Sexual assault would not be a condition of travel.

In a free country, there would be no government intrusion in manufacturing and agriculture. (Plank 7) There would be no Department of Labor or Department of Agriculture. Your business could not be shut down for OSHA violations. There would be no federal farm subsidies or price supports.

In a free country, there would be no federal control of labor. (Plank 8) There would be no National Labor Relations Board, no minimum wage laws, no affirmative action or racial quotas.

The merger of agriculture and industry (Plank 9) is tough to explain in one paragraph. The centralizers can only be happy that farming is increasingly controlled by conglomerates that are far more likely to kiss up to the FEDGOV than a family that has worked the same piece of land for four generations.

In a free country, the government would not be in control of education. (Plank 10) While neither the Bible nor any of America’s Founding documents say anything about state education, you will find state education as a policy prescription of the Communist Manifesto.

In a free country, people would understand that liberty is a gift from God and not a privilege to be granted and withheld by government. They would likewise understand that liberty is preserved NOT by the indiscriminate mass murder of innocent foreigners, but by eternal vigilance of informed citizens against encroachments by government at all levels.

So there you have it.

America is not a free country.

I know, I know, I know: I can vote and I can write this without fear of punishment. And no one is being hauled off to death camps in America. At least not yet.

The incineration of 80 innocent people by the FEDGOV at Waco in 1993 was a trial balloon floated before a brainwashed nation. Millions of Americans derisively giggled at “that cult.” When they came for the Davidians, we did not say anything because we were not Davidians.

Today, millions of Americans still buy the lie that America is a free country. Hitler knew the power of the lie: if you lie to people often enough, they will believe anything. And while we are not at the Hitler phase yet, we will arrive there if we keep believing everything our ruling class – or at least our preferred faction of this class – says and believing we are a free nation. You cannot have it both ways.

Yes, we have a measure of liberty left. But we are giving it up at a frightening rate.

Sadly, some people will not clue in until the death camp phase. I pray fervently that enough Americans wake up before then.

I am a Christian and Scripture tells me to preach the truth without ceasing, for there will come a time when people will not want to hear the truth. Rather, they will surround themselves with ear-ticklers who will tell them whatever they want to hear, regardless of how preposterous.

People ask me if I get frustrated fighting the freedom fight in a society where so many will gladly relinquish that freedom. Yes I do! However, in late 1991, God called me to be a watchman and to warn everyone I could of the tyranny descending on America. I must continue to fight this fight and leave the results up to Him.

I invite you to join me.

Happy Fourth of July.

There is hope.

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