The lyrics are as follows:

Happy birthday America, It’s the 4th of July

I get to wake up in your freedom, But sometimes I wonder why

Seems like everybody’s pissin’ On the red, white and blue

Happy birthday America, Whatever’s left of you

You were the darlin’ when you saved the world WW I and II

France would just be part of Germany now If it hadn’t been for you

Now your children want to turn you in To something other than yourself

They burn your flag in their city streets More than anybody else

Who they gonna count on When you’re not there to take their call

Will the world keep right on spinnin’ Without the greatest of them all

Without the helping hand of God Your days are numbered my old friend

We’re sure gonna miss you girl You were the best that’s ever been

Happy birthday America

All the broken-down cities By the left’s design

And the right can’t seem to get it right Most of the time

Every time I go to town and vote I just come home with the blues

The lesser of two evils, All we ever get to choose

I have been a fan of Toby Keith’s music for most of my life, and I have always respected him for his unabashed love for this country. As an outspoken advocate for individual liberty and the values that made America the greatest nation in the history of the world, this song struck a chord with me.

It was my love for liberty that first led me to get into the world of media because I felt that many modern-day Americans on both sides of the political aisle don’t really understand the principles on which this country was founded.

I understand his sentiment of feeling like there’s not much left of what America used to be as it seems that both sides want to worship government in their own way instead of valuing limited government and the freedom to live in whatever manner you choose. I am sure it wouldn’t be too bold of me to say that I am sure the lyrics of “Happy Birthday America” resonate with millions of my fellow countrymen as they feel like it is just a matter of time before our nation falls into oblivion. However, I am convinced that no matter how dark the days ahead may seem there is a light inside each one of us that will show us the way forward. 

It is this internal light that will guide the hands and hearts of all who understand the blessings of liberty to fight the evil that seeks to destroy our country from within. The lyrics of Toby’s song have more than just a hint of truth in them. 

Listen to this song and let it stir your heart—not to mourn, but instead let the lyrics motivate you to action to save our American Republic. Let us not pass the buck off to another generation, but fight for what is good and right today. 

What better way to celebrate America than to fight to restore our founding principles and strive to be that more perfect union our founding fathers intended for us?

Listen to Toby’s new song below:

Image: Flickr, fishhawk

The post Toby Keith’s New Song Should Be a Call to Action for Americans appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Ever since I had my political awakening in my early 20’s, I have struggled to celebrate Independence Day. Not because I don’t love America. In fact, you will be hardpressed to find an individual who loves the idea of America more than yours truly, but because I began to understand that “We the People” aren’t as free as I was taught in primary school.

America, as an idea, is pure and beautiful, and I will always fight to defend her honor. You will not find another nation in the history of the world that was founded on the idea that ALL men are created equal and have God-given rights that no other individual or government can take away. With that being said, America has been wooed by bad men who have tainted her honor by abusing her purity.

As our government continues to grow and trample on our natural rights of life, liberty, and property, I ask you – what are we truly celebrating? A people whose government spies on them without a warrant, has a national debt of 22.8 trillion and climbing, restricts religious liberty, and requires a permit for everything from firearm ownership to braiding hair can’t call itself a “free country.” I know full well that my previous words may have offended some of my readers’ sensibilities, but as John Adams said, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, but who gives a damn about fireworks and cookouts when we are allowing our nation to transform into something that has no resemblance to what our Founders envisioned for us? I am sick of the red, white, and blue flag waving, star-spangled obedience to government. I can no longer sit back and pretend that everything is okay, and that we are so awesome when we allow the posterity of ourselves and our children to be sold away because of our own apathy.

I realize that not everyone can run for political office or be a member of the media such as myself, but we can all do something. America as a land and a country, is our inheritance. It is our responsibility as the citizens of this nation to hold the tyrannical despots running this country and our respective states accountable. We as the people of this country, are without excuse when it comes to being so historically and constitutionally illiterate. We are also without excuse when it comes to continually voting for both major political parties, which have proven not to care about anything more than power, greed, money, and control.

Yes, it is true our nation does have a few warts on her nose, but I still believe that we are a force for good in this world, and that if we allow the idea of America to die, the world will suffer in a way never before seen in its history. These words are written with a pure heart, and my intentions are not to be grim, but rather to shed light on the fact that celebrating our 244th birthday as a country is pointless if we allow this country to fall victim to socialism or communism.

My prayer is that, as bad as things have gotten, we would remember who we are as Americans and refuse to live as slaves, but as free individuals as nature and Nature’s God intended. Now is the time to remember our rebellious heritage and dare to live free—not to cower and exist only as serfs indebted to their masters. As Thomas Sowell said, “If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.”

The post Land of Weak and Home of the Slaves: What Are We Celebrating? appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

I had the best Independence Day ever!!

I woke up super early to head to Grand Rapids, MI to volunteer in three parades for the Justin Amash campaign. That same morning, Justin announced his departure from the Republican Party.

Come along with me on the super hot and sunny parade routes, as I pass out candy to the cheering crowds and listen to Congressman Amash give a very moving speech.

I don’t know how much more patriotic this day could’ve been!

If you’d like to help the Justin Amash for Congress campaign, go to https://www.justinamash.com.
Want a Justin Amash t-shirt? https://www.justinamash.com/store
Special thanks to Jordan Olachea for the outro music!

Be Free!
Steffi

Connect with Steffi:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Goodreads
Subscribe to her YouTube channel!

The post Declaring Independence! ~ Sundays With Steffi appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

I can imagine being surrounded by family and friends outside, watching our favorite teams playing baseball as the white smoke fills the air from grilling burgers and hot dogs as the condensation runs down our favorite beverage. After we enjoy some ice-cream, we will go watch an amazing fireworks display while proudly waving our American flags. The image of being a proud American!  Who would not want to be part of that celebration?

As an outsider, I often wonder how many Americans today truly know what they are celebrating. How many actually appreciate everything your founders risked so y’all could have the opportunities you do today? I have witnessed them be attacked as dumb, unprincipled, nothing special and people who had wooden teeth. The truth is they were the exact opposite and they inspire me every day.

Today I want to share with you the events that sparked your revolution and shaped your nation. They began all the way back in 1651…

Navigation Act

On October 9, 1651, Great Britain passed the Navigation Act. This policy was enacted with one purpose – to ensure all trade directly benefited England. The elite of the day decided it was best practice for their exports to exceed their imports and the surplus invested in the military. It banned any trade from “foreign lands” and any colonies under British control could only trade with Englishmen on English vessels and from English fisheries. As you can imagine, this made the colonists very angry and it directly affected the tobacco trade in Virginia and the fishing trade in New England.

Molasses Act

Fast forward to March 1733. The Great Britain elite passed a law called the Molasses Act. This law added a 6 pence (about $4 in today’s money) tax to every gallon of non-English molasses which was used to make rum. This was to counter the influx of the French West Indies trade and make the English rum cheaper.

What was the end result? American colonists have always had a rebellious streak. They stood up to tyrants, did not comply, and rarely paid the tax. They also started a “new” industry – the molasses smuggling industry.

(Side note: This is one of the many reasons I have always admired the American people – you never just lie down and comply with rules. You are a fiercely independent people.)

By the 1760s, the King is really unhappy with the Colonists and their actions. It’s time they accepted his rules and get in line like other nations within the Empire.

The other fact that is critical to remember is that around this time England was involved in a long and expensive war, and the King needed to raise funds to ensure he kept his standard of living the British won the war.

The Stamp Act

On November 1, 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. All printed material must be done on stamped paper purchased with British currency. The justification behind this “tax” is something you may have heard before. America needed to pay its “fair share”. The narrative was British troops protected America from invasion. The truth on the ground was the American colonists never really feared an invasion from France during the war. This act led to the popular saying, “No taxation without representation”.

The Townshend Acts

During 1767, Charles Townshend was the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He worked to pass a series of laws that would later be called the Townshend Acts. They sought to bring the colonists into line, but the result was they added gasoline to an already inflamed situation. These Acts also laid the groundwork for what we know today as the Bill of Rights.

     1. New York Restraining Act

It started on June 5, 1767 and the target was New York. Parliament banned the NY assembly or the governor from passing any new laws until they complied with the Quartering Act. This act ensured America paid for food for the English troops stationed there and also provided them housing.

      2. The Revenue Act

On June 26, 1767, another law was passed which raised the taxes on items such as glass, lead, colors, and paper. This also increased the power for customs officials to enforce laws, ensure taxes were paid, and to heavily punish smugglers. Officials were given the power to issue “general warrants” to search private property if they suspected you of smuggling.

      3. The Indemnity Act

On June 29, 1767, the Indemnity Act was approved. This was a law with the sole function of saving a company called the East India Tea Company, which was about to fail. England would import products like tea, repackage them and export to the colonies for a higher price. As you can imagine, having England as the “middle man” made their products more expensive. At the time, Dutch tea was very popular with the colonists because it was cheaper. It also came with the added advantage of no funding to the King. This law removed the import tax added to English tea which made their tea cheaper than the Dutch tea.

      4. Commissioners of Custom Act

June 29^th must have been one crazy day in parliament because they also passed the Commissioners of Customs Act. One wonders if working for a tyrannical regime ever gets tiring.

This law created a new customs board based in Boston and put other commissioners in five other ports down the east coast. They were given more powers to enforce the King’s laws and regulations, but they also had a new motive. INCREASE REVENUE. This led to more heated conflicts between your colonists and the Crown and would eventually lead to the Boston Massacre.

       5. Vice Admiralty Court Act

The last of the Acts passed on July 6, 1768 and is arguably the most tyrannical. It was called the “Vice-Admiralty Court Act”. It created new courts in Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston and gave extreme new powers to officials.

– The decision was solely by a judge so no trial by jury.
– The Crown was rewarded a bonus of 5% of any fine levied so there was an incentive to find you guilty.
– If you were accused, you had to travel to court at your own expense.
– If you no-showed, you were guilty by default

The passing of each of these laws added repeated injury to the colonists. It is because of these violations of their rights that colonists boarded a ship in Boston, and threw 342 chests of tea overboard in 1773.

Continental Congress

As tensions grew and with the colonists struggling to be heard by the King, your Founders set up the Continental Congress in 1774. Their job was to coordinate the resistance to Britain. This Congress would later appoint George Washington as the leader of the Continental Army.

The King was growing ever more furious with the rebellious colonists and worked even harder to crush you. The King acted similarly to the political elite of today – they see themselves as superior to us, and we need to be controlled for our own good.

The King sent 700 troops into America with a special mission – crush this rebellion by capturing those against him and destroy any supplies they had. This led to an event we now call “the shot heard around the world”.

On April 19^th in 1775, the British moved in on a Lexington & Concord base. Thanks to the efforts of patriots like Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott, the rebels knew the attack was coming and were able to hold out.

After countless battles and further attacks on the colonists’ liberty, your Founders led by Thomas Jefferson wrote the document that changed the course of human history. On July 2, 1776, twelve of the thirteen colonies (New York delegates did not have the power to vote) voted for Independence. They approved the final text of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th.

Conclusion

These are the events that led to your revolution. It has become cool to mock the Founders. My hope is that you will use the facts contained in this article to highlight the tyranny your Founders fought and overcame. My hope is that you will understand and appreciate your founding documents a more – because they did not happen by accident. My hope is if you consider the many issues above, you will see the clear groundwork laid for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights:

– Why your founders set up a system of government called federalism,
– Why they wanted all legislative power in Congress but their scope to be extremely limited (A1, S8),
– Why they wanted the figurehead of government (President) to have no real power,
– What inspired the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th amendments in your Bill of Rights.

Your Founders were amazing men who risked everything for the opportunity of freedom. Along the way, they turned tyranny into something that would change the world – the idea that is America.

The post The Sparks of a Revolution that Ignited the Flames of Liberty appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

–One of those silly Trump tweets

Is this ‘great news’ for the Republican Party?

That depends on what the Republican Party actually wants.

Most people judge the success of any political party by its ability to win elections. One of the ways that seems necessary to achieve this, especially within a system that’s traditionally come down to two parties, is to build coalitions and market the party structure as an inclusive ‘big tent’. Reagan once described conservatism as a three-legged stool of divergent interests that would fall if the legs refused to work together. In this context, the loss of one of the few fiscal conservatives in Congress, one of the few independent voices, one of the few liberty-leaning members… cannot help but make the party just a little smaller and less inviting.

How many legs does the current GOP even have left, anyway? Are there warring factions who coalesce at the end of the day towards common goals, free to fight their battles knowing that they will unite when it’s time to? Are they forced to pay lip service to Trump’s vanity in order to achieve their specific desires? Have years of feeding a personality cult made the GOP more monolithic and less tied to the principles of any of it’s ideological legs?

At the end of the day, I can only speculate on whether or not the GOP does better or worse with the loss of Amash. But the only advantage I see to his exit is for the President, not the country or the party. On a personal level, I feel less connected to the GOP today than I did yesterday with the loss of only one member.

Is Amash one of the ‘dumbest’ men in Congress?

I’m not sure if this even requires addressing, especially given it’s a charge leveled by such a “stable genius”.

I mean, he graduated HS a class valedictorian. He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Michigan in which he received high honors. He went on to get a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

Now, maybe education isn’t the best judge of intelligence. There’s plenty of people who are good test takers or don’t apply knowledge they’ve gained. There’s even people who only get into colleges due to family connections or wealth, who prove how bad they are with money by investing in things like Trump airlines, casinos, steaks, or Universities.

But on Amash, it’s easy to make the decision yourself, given that he explains literally every vote online. Even when one disagrees with him, calling him dumb seems like a hard charge to support. This is especially true when one is comparing him to other members of Congress – a list that includes Pelosi, Frederica Wilson, Hank Johnson, and AOC.

Is Amash ‘disloyal’, and if so to what or who?

Maybe there’s some secret initiation ceremony where partisans pledge undying loyalty to party that I don’t know about, at some secret location hosted by the Skull and Bones or Freemasons. Maybe such a thing will haunt Trump’s conscience, given how many decades he was a Democrat before deciding to run for President as a Republican. I don’t know. I could guess, but you have better odds at casinos than figuring out what’s going on in his head.

What I do know is that, upon taking office, our elected leaders “solemnly swear” that they “will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that” they “will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that” they “take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that” they “will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office”, and they swear this to God.

I have yet to find a member of Congress more faithful to their reading of the Constitution than Justin Amash. I’ve also yet to hear any convincing reasoning that party loyalty is something even commendable, much less a more important loyalty. There’s even less justification than that to pledging loyalty to a President or King, especially on Independence Day.

The post Trump: Amash Dumb, Disloyal, Total Loser appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

The words in the Constitution, explains Eric Metaxas in his book If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty, “are merely deaf, dumb, and mute shapes of inert black ink.” “We the people,” not politicians, were intended to be “the keepers of the flame of liberty.”

In a 1787 letter, Ben Franklin wrote,

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

Other Founders felt the same way. Madison warned:

Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks, no form of government, can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. 

America Is an Idea

“For the first time,” writes Metaxas, “a nation was created that was not merely a group of ethnically or tribally similar people. Nor was it a nation composed of disparate groups held together by a strong leader.”

Nor did the Founders bequeath us a nation where the majority subjugated others under the pretense of democratic voting. Instead, our government was to be one with few and defined powers whose primary function was to protect inalienable rights.

The Core American Virtue Is Vanishing

Virtue begins when we want the same freedom for others that we want for ourselves. If we love liberty, we “have a conviction that each individual is created equal to all others and that he has the same unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

There is a growing conviction in America that only some have the right to free speech and not all have the right to be free from violence.

On college campuses, a recent survey shows that 46 percent believe First Amendment rights to free speech are outranked by “efforts to promote and enforce an inclusive society.”

No doubt, these students see themselves as more virtuous than others, yet their convictions are a threat to freedom. They do not understand that their right to free speech is only as strong as their support of the rights of others to free speech. Today they curtail the free speech of others, and tomorrow nothing will stop government from their rights.

Recently there was Antifa’s attack on Andy Ngo, “a freelance journalist often associated with the pro-free thought cultural publication Quillette.” In Portland, Oregon, “Antifa fighters beat up and milkshaked Ngo, apparently because he was there and he was not on their side.”

Then there was the incident where an employee of an upscale bar spat on Eric Trump, the president’s son.

We are free to intellectually reject for ourselves the liberty we have inherited, but we are not free to establish what our inheritance is. “To Jefferson,” writes Jon Meacham in his book American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, “the ‘Creator’ invested the individual with rights no human power should ever take away.”

The Importance of Cherishing Freedom

Americans in the Revolutionary era, Metaxas tells us, “were well practiced in living with those who held different beliefs from their own.”

Meacham writes,

What separated us from the Old World was the idea that books, education, and the liberty to think and worship as we wished would create virtuous citizens who cherished and defended reason, faith, and freedom.

About unbridled passions, John Adams would say, I told you so.

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.

Do we need a remedial course in cherishing and defending freedom?

Virtue Begins with Humility

The Founders believed in God and religion as a basis for morality, yet they saw there were other pathways to a moral life. Meacham writes:

Part of the genius of the Founding was the creation of a culture in which men and women of goodwill—whatever the wellspring of that goodwill, be it a fear of God or a secular moral framework—could live together and prosper together.

They saw themselves as an “infinitesimal part” of a Whole they could never fully comprehend. John Adams said:

I hate polemical politics and polemical divinity. My religion is founded on the love of God and my neighbor; on the hope of pardon for my offenses; upon contrition; upon the duty as well as the necessity of [enduring] with patience the inevitable evils of life; in the duty of doing no wrong, but all the good I can, to the creation of which I am but an infinitesimal part.

Jefferson, writes Meacham, “cautioned against reflexively assuming a cause-and-effect connection between religious belief and moral conduct.”

On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

Being Lovely

In my FEE essay, “What Adam Smith Can Teach Us about Being Lovely,” I wrote:

Lovely is the term Adam Smith uses in his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments to describe individuals who are “worthy of being loved” because of their character.

In How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life, economist Russell Roberts builds on Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiment. Roberts describes the role “each of us plays in creating a moral society.” As we live our lives, we are “creating our civilization.”

I added, “Individually, we decide what is virtuous. Collectively, as we act on our decisions, we determine the societal culture in which we live.”

If intolerance toward others different from ourselves increases, freedom will continue to vanish. If politicians work to restrict commerce and confiscate wealth from others, freedom will continue to vanish. If crony capitalists continue to demand subsidies, freedom will continue to vanish. If colleges continue to eliminate the study of the core values of American and Western civilization from their curriculums, freedom will continue to vanish.

As for those who say America was never virtuous, Larry Reed, president emeritus of FEE, has the perfect analogy.

Imagine if we could bring the Wright Brothers back to life for an hour so the critic could berate them. He would say, “You dummies! You two made this rickety flying machine and didn’t even install seat belts and tray tables, let alone in-flight movies. What good were you?!”

Do we want to justify our lack of virtue by pointing to the lack of perfect virtue in others?

Metaxas asks this question:

If America was indeed a country created not because of ethnic or tribal boundaries but instead because a people had come to believe—and therefore embody—a set of ideas, how could America be said to exist if almost no one anymore knew what those ideas were?

Our future depends on our answer.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

The post Why It Must Be the People Who Preserve the Flame of Liberty appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

It’s the day that Will Smith saved us from aliens.

On this day, it seems likely that a man in Florida will have an awful experience with fireworks.

Today is Independence Day, and it is the day that Justin Amash officially announced he was leaving the Republican Party.

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

So why is Amash dissolving the political bands which have connected him to the Republican party?

According to his op-ed this morning in the Washington Post – hyper-partisanship.

“In recent years, though, I’ve become disenchanted with party politics and frightened by what I see from it. The two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles and institutions.”

To punctuate his point, he chose to echo words from George Washington’s farewell address, where he predicted the exact kind of “partisan death spiral” Amash describes. In it, Washington describes:

“The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. …

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”

In Amash’s mind, partisan politics, radicalized by a two party system, have provided incentive for party members to jettison principles for expediency when “their side” is in power. This includes basic founding principles such as the “most basic tenets of our constitutional order: separation of powers, federalism and the rule of law. The result has been the consolidation of political power and the near disintegration of representative democracy.”

Amash extends an open invitation for more to join him, because “Preserving liberty means telling the Republican Party and the Democratic Party that we’ll no longer let them play their partisan game at our expense.”

“Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party. No matter your circumstance, I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I’m asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system — and to work toward it. If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it.” – Justin Amash

You can also hear more from Representative Amash in this recent interview on the Brian Nichols Show.

The post Amash Officially Declares Independence From The GOP appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.