The Road to Rediscovering America’s Identity
Progress or Just a Fancy Word for Decline?
Once upon a time—back when hard work built things, personal responsibility meant something, and the government didn’t think your paycheck was their personal slush fund—America thrived.
Fast forward a century, and we’re supposed to believe that modern “progress”—translation: government dependency, bloated bureaucracy, and moral relativism—is somehow better than the nation that led the industrial revolution, built the greatest economy on earth, and won two world wars.
Make it make sense.
This column isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about truth. And the truth is, America wasn’t built on participation trophies and government handouts. It was built by men and women who understood that freedom isn’t given—it’s taken, fought for, and maintained.
Somewhere along the way, we traded that fire for something softer, weaker, more comfortable. We were sold a version of “progress” that sounds great in theory—equity, sustainability, collective good—but somehow, it always seems to end in more taxes, less freedom, and a government that has the efficiency of a DMV line on a Monday morning.
So, here’s the challenge: let’s take a look at what we call “progress” today and hold it up against the American values that existed before Marxist subversion crept into our institutions in the early 1910s. Spoiler alert: It’s not going to look good for the bureaucrats.
Progress or Regression? Let’s Check the Scoreboard:
✔️ Personal Responsibility (Then) vs. Government Dependency (Now)
• Then: If you wanted something, you worked for it. If you failed, you tried again. Simple.
• Now: Failure is a career path—just ask the people running our major cities.
|
✔️ Free Market Innovation (Then) vs. Over-Regulation (Now)
• Then: You could start a business without asking permission from six different government agencies.
• Now: You need a permit, a compliance officer, and a sustainability impact report just to sell lemonade.
|
✔️ Local Control (Then) vs. Federal Overreach (Now)
• Then: Towns ran their own affairs. Local leaders were accountable because they actually lived in their communities.
• Now: Bureaucrats in Washington—who wouldn’t survive a day in the real world—micromanage everything from your gas stove to your property rights.
|
✔️ Economic Freedom (Then) vs. Endless Taxation (Now)
• Then: You kept most of what you earned.
• Now: You work six months out of the year to fund studies on how fast turtles run on treadmills.
|
✔️ Truth & Debate (Then) vs. Narrative & Censorship (Now)
• Then: Americans weren’t afraid of hard conversations.
• Now: If you challenge the wrong ideas, you get labeled a “threat to democracy.”
|
See the pattern? Every “improvement” in modern governance seems to come with less autonomy, higher costs, and more control in the hands of people who have no business being in charge.
The Road Back Starts with Calling It Out:
It’s time to stop pretending like this is normal. It’s not. America didn’t get to where it was by playing it safe, letting Washington run our lives, or by pretending that feelings trump reality.
We are where we are today because too many people bought the lie that government knows best—and we’re paying for it in every aspect of our lives.
If we’re going to rediscover America’s identity—the one that made this country the beacon of liberty—we have to start by rejecting the nonsense. Not just shaking our heads at it, but actively calling it out, challenging it, and replacing it with what actually works.
No more sitting on the sidelines. No more waiting for someone else to fix it.
What you are not changing, you are choosing.
|
So, what’s it going to be?
