Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

“The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the constitution.”
—Thomas Jefferson

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it actually takes to start a revolution, and if it can be done from a defensive and passive standpoint rather than an aggressive one. Must we murder, beat, degrade to capture the attention of the masses? Must we assassinate? I truly believe that course of action will only lead to failure.

These groups, the ones claiming to peacefully fight for their cause, seem to start getting more and more violent. Why do these “peaceful protests” end in destroying public and private property, riots, violence, attempting to burn down buildings and blow up cars? What exactly does that prove or accomplish? Nothing. In actually pushes their opposing side further into hatred of their cause, and they push the rest away by looking like beasts. This isn’t protesting, it’s domestic terrorism.

People fear these groups, people wonder who will be attacked next. Even if this level of violence could be considered a legitimate form of protest, is it really time to play that card? Are they risking it all on a gut feeling, or carefully planning their next move? Personally, it seems to me that they will lose all of their chips in the next round.

The American people are extremely polarized, and I believe that they have fallen into a carefully placed trap. What would be the best way to distract 300 million people? Define a two party system as an absolute division of opinions and actions within the government. Make sure that people feel as if they only have 2 choices. Of course other choices exist, but they receive significantly less attention than that of the main parties.

Then, if you speculate that distraction is one of their prized weapons, I can look no further than Donald Trump. He’s brash, arrogant, incredibly wealthy, and quite insensitive at times. I could see how some people might not like him, that’s understandable. However, he knows what to say to close a deal, and he does it perfectly. His sometimes inappropriate comments and somewhat bizarre behavior, I believe, can be attributed to charisma and ability to rile up a crowd. He stirs up the people so they run to their social media. Before you know it, there are 2000 articles online, all repeating the same story, but applying emphasis to different parts. This happens all of the time, especially on mainstream media sources.

This is all fuel to the tender minded. They get on the internet and network with hundreds, maybe considerably more, people that agree with them on everything. They get so swept up in the high of being accepted that they end up blinded. Then, they just accept all decisions, ideas, and opinions from their party or group, even if they don’t necessarily agree. What bothers me the most about this war over the Trump presidency is that so many people are willing to let their ship sink. So many genuinely want to watch president Trump, and our country, fail. I know he has been a strange choice, but why would we want him to fail? Then, you see the other side of the coin and they seem to wildly overestimate Trump’s abilities. One side seems naive, the other seems immature.

It seems clear that at some point, the US government became more corrupt than ever. This leads me to believe that there any many wolves in sheep’s clothing within the government with ulterior motives. These wolves also will push their motives at any cost. The ends will justify the means. They use the media and entertainment industry to keep people sufficiently busy and bloated by their narcissism. Social media even apparently releases the same “reward” chemicals as a mind altering drug. We’re literally addicted to media.

Social issues in America are no better. Some are claiming a major resurgence of racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, trans-phobia, etc. A huge part of our country, most seem to be millennials, are fighting very dirty for these beliefs. They are extremely offended by any little comment that pokes hole in their soft sensibilities. Of course everyone gets offended at times, that natural. However, I truly believe that offense over an opinion should not result in laws limiting our speech. This is clearly the path to fascism.

To end this long rant, I will say, I don’t want the government hovering over my life. I want the freedom to be an individual, to make my own decisions in life. I don’t want to be told what to eat, drink, smoke, what I can own, who I can marry, what I can do with my body, where my money goes. You cant have things “kind of” free, its not free enough. We could do it. We could take our freedom back with strength, courage, and respect. Unfortunately, I don’t see many that would give their time, let alone their lives, to protect their virtues and morals. They just want to keep up with the Kardashians.

Maddy Nason is an amateur fighter for freedom and liberty. She lives in Florida with her husband, family, cats, and many raccoons. She hopes to reclaim our American liberty and pride.