Give me Liberty or Give me America 2.0
Artwork by Heidi Wurst
As I’ve noted before, I was fascinated by history as a very young boy. And no part of history caught my attention like the founding of this nation. The American Revolution, the War for Independence- call it what you will. The Boston Tea Party. The Minutemen. Paul Revere’s midnight ride. The shot heard around the world.
I know that our Founders weren’t perfect. Thomas Paine, the brilliant writer who produced Common Sense, the pamphlet that helped ignite patriotic fervor in the colonies, wound up hating George Washington, who did indeed seem to have forgotten his invaluable contributions to the movement for independence. Shockingly and inexplicably, the location of most of Paine’s remains are unknown, as I detailed in Crimes and Cover-Ups in American Politics: 1776-1963. Washington’s actions regarding the Whiskey Rebellion besmirch his reputation. He also was unfortunately swayed by the dastardly future Black Broadway star Alexander Hamilton, instead of Hamilton’s ideological foe Thomas Jefferson. This would have a huge negative impact on the future of the young republic.
And then there was Benjamin Franklin, who was a member of the blasphemous Hellfire Club. In the 1990s, some human bones were found in his one-time London home. The court historians were quick to declare that there was nothing sinister about this, and blamed it on a young medical student renting a room from Franklin, who went on to die very young, interestingly enough. But Franklin was an undeniably brilliant man, who discovered electricity among other things. And you have to love someone who said “There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace.” Not to mention his very clever pickup line, which he used on the fair damsels of eighteenth century Paris, “Would you care to join me in the pursuit of happiness?” That’s way better than “you got any fries to go with that shake?”
Our Founding Fathers were the wealthiest men of their time. The One Percent if you will. Can we picture any One Percenter today like John Hancock, who is said to have written his name so large on the Declaration of Independence in order for King George to read it without his glasses? Think of Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet, and other billionaires meeting surreptitiously in small taverns, passing out radical pamphlets, all for the cause of human liberty. There wasn’t a eugenicist in the bunch. Well, maybe Alexander Hamilton. If he were actually around today, and not just a fake Black Broadway star, he’d be invited to Bilderberg and Bohemian Grove. But the rest of them would be relegated to appearing on humble little podcasts like mine.
Those who signed the Declaration of Independence did truly pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Quoting from my Crimes and Cover-Ups in American Politics: 1776-1963: “Seventeen of those who signed the Declaration lost everything they owned. Nine of these men lost their lives in the conflict. Rhode Island’s William Ellery’s estate was burned to the ground during the war. William Floyd of New York suffered the same fate. Fellow New Yorker Frances Lewis saw his estates destroyed by fire as well, and he was imprisoned and died during his incarceration. One of the richest of all those who signed, William Livingston, died impoverished a few years after the war. John Hart of New Jersey risked not only his fortune, but his family ties. His wife was dying as he signed the Declaration, and he was forced to flee from the British when he headed home to say goodbye. He never saw his thirteen children again, and died in 1779. New Jersey Judge Richard Stockton was another British prisoner, and he too died a pauper. Wealthy banker Robert Morris gave away his fortune in an effort to finance the revolution. He also died penniless….Virginia’s Thomas Nelson, in a perhaps implausible anecdote, allegedly turned a cannon on his own home, which had become General Cornwallis’s headquarters, and destroyed it. He, like so many of the others, died in poverty. South Carolina’s Thomas Lynch, along with his wife, simply disappeared at sea.”
The very wealthy George Washington led his troops in battle. Picture one of our countless chicken hawk political warriors, like Lindsey Graham, subjecting themselves to anything more dangerous than a game of Risk. The American Revolution was a revolt of the One Percent. They weren’t rebelling against any homegrown aristocracy, but the yolk of British rule. They didn’t want to be under the thumb of royalty. Their guiding principles of consent of the governed and no taxation without representation were watershed concepts in human history. The whole consent of the governed thing was shattered by Abraham Lincoln, whose despotism contradicted the intentions of the Founders. As for taxation without representation; does your congressional representative represent you? And are you taxed?
Could there be any bolder words than these? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Thomas Jefferson’s unique intellect shines through here, and his thoughts remain relevant, almost 250 years later.
“Endowed by their creator?” That won’t play well in Hollywood, or any big city in America 2.0. This was the basis of the Bill of Rights, which made the Constitution tolerable. How many Americans understand that we are born free; that our rights come from God, not from any government? Pay particular attention to the very clear statement that the People have a right to alter or abolish “any Form of Government” when it no longer suits their needs. Jefferson would be arrested and prosecuted as an “insurrectionist” for such Thought Crimes in America 2.0. He’d be given a small cell, alongside all those January 6 defendants, who’ve been denied all due process. To understand his present reputation, look at his demeaning character in the Broadway play Hamilton. To millions of Americans, he’s the “racist” who “raped” Sally Hemings.
As inhabitants of the most corrupt society in the history of the world, this passage should resonate with all of us: “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.” Do those “long train of abuses and usurpations” sound familiar? Just imagine the list we could compile.
The situation in America 2.0 is unlike any other in history. We have an entrenched cadre of monstrously corrupt rulers, who are repulsed by the Founders that fought to establish the government they still swear allegiance to. I’ve written about just how much Lincoln hated Jefferson. Think about that. Was Honest Abe taking all those unconstitutional actions, and assuming all that unconstitutional authority, in defense of the vision outlined by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence? Remember, he hated him. Lincoln would fit right in at today’s Bohemian Grove confab. He seems to have been gay, after all, so he’d probably enjoy peeing against the giant redwoods and traipsing with the all-male attendees. I can see Lincoln supporting the transgender lunacy. No body can stand against itself, or something like that.
After the Declaration of Independence was approved and signed, copies were printed and sent to various civilian and military leaders, to be trumpeted far and wide. Today, the Declaration is a subversive document, a Thought Crime in quill and ink. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito- perhaps the best to serve on the Court in a very long time- was castigated for flying a Pine Tree flag outside his home. George Washington flew a Pine Tree flag during the War for Independence. Washington used to be the Father of our Country. Anyone flying the same flag he flew would have been looked upon with favor. Now, he’s just another dead White male “racist.” Our disastrous “bipartisan” interventionist foreign policy directly contradicts what Washington said in his Farewell Address. Washington would be demonized today as an “isolationist.”
In Crimes and Cover-Ups, I included a litany of crystal clear quotes from all the leading Founders, who each reiterated that the Second Amendment was to protect the individual right to bear arms. And yet today, constitutional “scholars” continue to argue that the Founders didn’t write the Second Amendment for individual gun owners. Well, who am I, a lowly community college dropout, to argue with any constitutional “scholar?” The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids unreasonable searches and seizures, is violated by police officers in traffic stops and other public encounters many times every day. And as for the First Amendment they oppose more than all the others, these same “scholars” will insist that it doesn’t protect “hate speech.” You can’t yell fire in a crowded transgender story hour.
The rights enumerated in our Founding documents, all self-evidently coming from God, are a blueprint for free societies. Freedom of speech, and religion, and assembly. Any rights not specifically enumerated in the other Amendments are reserved for the states, and the People. Since the central government was given very limited powers originally, this would involve a great many rights. Instead, it is our rights now which are strictly limited, not the federal government. You need a license to drive a car. Or to hunt. Or to fish. Or to sell things on the street. Little girls confronted by our brave law enforcement officers over their lemonade stands. Compare these to the shallow, transient issues of today. “Pride” month? Fat acceptance? You might as well talk about the Equal Rights Amendment, bra burning, or school busing.
I cover more hidden history from the revolutionary era in my book American Memory Hole: How the Court Historians Promote Disinformation, now available for pre-sale, officially released on August 27. We’ll dive into Judicial Review, an odious usurpation of the separation of powers by the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall. Jefferson strongly opposed it, and to my knowledge no one else has really crusaded against Judicial Review since him. Until me, in my own small way, in my humble little book. A single federal judge, or a Supreme Court, shouldn’t be able to thwart the will of the People, under our constitutional republic. Or even in a supposed “democracy.” And yet both the Left and Right swear by Judicial Review. That’s just one of many topics we’ll discuss in the book.
I don’t expect our beloved President Biden to quote from Patrick Henry on Independence Day. He’s probably more familiar with Cardi B, or the gender fluid nonbinaries from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, recent visitors to the White House. Our cackling Vice President Kamala Harris even answered the door and let them in. What a country!, as the forgotten comedian Yakoff Smirnoff used to say. Where we once had John Adams, and James Madison, and George Mason, now we have the guy with the shaved head and the red dress, who steals women’s luggage from airports. Lori Lightfoot and Liz Cheney. If Lincoln hated Jefferson, imagine how Michelle Obama and Gavin Newsom feel about him.
America 2.0 is the United States in name only. Recall that before Lincoln’s war of aggression on the South, the United States was a plural; as in the United States are loosely confederated into a common union. After nearly a million senseless deaths of young American boys, the United States became the singular monstrosity we’ve come to know and love. As in the United States is the greatest country in the world! Most Americans don’t understand the important distinction. We still may salute the flag, but nothing for which it used to stand. Now it stands for occupation of smaller, sovereign nations. The outsourcing of industry and the death of the middle class. Respect for “pronouns” but not free speech. Open borders. The Great Replacement. Those who fight under this flag aren’t fighting for anything the Founders did.
As Alex Jones so memorably put it, the answer to 1984 is 1776. 1776 is also the answer to America 2.0. In my little corner of the world, I’ll be drinking a toast to Patrick Henry, whose impassioned plea to stand up for the rights of those you disagree with stirred me as a youth, and helped influence me to become a civil libertarian. Or George Mason, who pushed for the Bill of Rights, and lost his friendship with neighbor George Washington over his initial opposition to the Constitution. Curiously, his wife also vanished under unknown circumstances. But all that will be in American Memory Hole. While I bemoan the state of this collapsing country in almost everything I write, I understand the beauty of the Founders’ framework. You can’t have half ass human liberty, as we do now. And that’s what I’ll be thinking of, while grilling the hamburgers and hot dogs, and watching the fireworks.
Source: "I Protest" by Donald Jeffries
