“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands…for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”—Daniel Webster
We find ourselves approaching that time of year when, as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, we’re supposed to give thanks as a nation and as individuals for our safety and our freedoms.
It’s not an easy undertaking.
The contrast between George Washington’s first Thanksgiving proclamation and the state of the nation today reveals how far we have drifted—and how low we have fallen—since Washington called upon early Americans (a nation of immigrants) to give thanks for a government that protected their safety and happiness, and for a Constitution designed to safeguard civil and religious liberty.
But how do you give thanks for freedoms that are constantly being eroded?
How do you express gratitude for one’s safety when the perils posed by the American police state grow more treacherous by the day?
How do you come together as a nation in thanksgiving when the powers-that-be continue to polarize and divide us into warring factions?
To our collective misfortune, we have been saddled with a government that is a far cry from Washington’s vision: governed by wise, just, constitutional laws; faithfully executed by principled public servants; promoting peace, virtue, and liberty; and fostering the prosperity of the nation.
Instead, the U.S. government has become a warring empire: lawless in its ambitions, militarized in its posture, abusive in its policing, and increasingly hostile to conscience, truth, and constitutional limits.
Washington never intended Thanksgiving to be a day of glib platitudes—a moment to be grateful for whatever crumbs the government chooses to bestow upon us. He intended it to be a day of reflection, honesty, and moral accounting, a day when the nation examines its failures, acknowledges its wrongs, and commits to restoring liberty in the year ahead.
If Thanksgiving is to mean anything in times such as these, it must also compel us to speak plainly about the forces that threaten our freedom. Giving thanks for our blessings requires the courage to say “no thanks” to the very forces working to strip away the blessings we claim to celebrate.
In that true spirit of Thanksgiving, here is a sobering list of things for which we should not give thanks in this age of the American police state.
- Say “no thanks” to oligarchy and self-serving, pay-to-play politics.
- Say “no thanks” to an imperial presidency that rules by fiat.
- Say “no thanks” to martial law and standing armies used against the American people.
- Say “no thanks” to the government’s fear tactics.
- Say “no thanks” to endless wars.
- Say “no thanks” to everywhere wars.
- Say “no thanks” to the transformation of domestic police into extensions of the military.
- Say “no thanks” to ICE raids that trample constitutional rights and terrorize communities.
- Say “no thanks” to a government mindset that seeks to transform the nation into a prison state.
- Say “no thanks” to a surveillance state that has become a fourth branch of government.
- Say “no thanks” to a government that punishes the poor.
- Say “no thanks” to policies that muzzle dissent.
- Say “no thanks” to courts that rubber-stamp government power.
- Say “no thanks” to a government that criminalizes the rights enshrined in the Constitution.
- Say “no thanks” to government theft disguised as fines, fees, taxes, and forfeitures.
At some point, we’ve got to face up to the uncomfortable truth that freedom is slipping through our fingers, and that the government now poses a greater threat to our safety than any outside force ever could.
We cannot keep pretending that “it can’t happen here” while it is happening all around us.
There comes a point at which no people—not even a patient, hopeful, long-suffering people—can continue pretending that the crumbs of liberty left to them constitute freedom.
Thanksgiving is supposed to remind us of our blessings. But it is also meant to remind us of our responsibilities.
A free people must do more than count their blessings.
We must guard them. We must assert them. We must defend them—even when doing so is dangerous, costly, or unpopular.
There is still time to turn back from the brink, but the hour is late.
If we want future generations to enjoy even a measure of the freedom we inherited, then “We the People” must refuse to go quietly into the machinery of the police state.
We must refuse to be governed by fear.
We must refuse to surrender our rights for the illusion of safety.
And we must refuse to bow to those who insist that conscience is treason and obedience is the highest virtue.
The Founders gave us a constitutional republic on the condition that we fight to keep it. That responsibility cannot be outsourced to politicians, courts, or parties. It rests squarely with the people themselves, with those who refuse to surrender conscience, rights, or truth to the demands of tyrants.
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the only force strong enough to restrain government overreach is an informed, engaged, and courageous citizenry that will not trade its birthright for the hollow comforts of authoritarianism.
The future of freedom depends not on presidents or parties but on “We the People”—ordinary individuals who refuse to be silent, refuse to be intimidated, and refuse to give up on the promise of America.
So this Thanksgiving, let us give thanks. But let us also say—with clarity and conviction—no thanks to tyranny, in whatever form it takes.
Reprinted with permission from the Rutherford Institute.
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