By R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.

Most of us remember that America was founded to provide personal freedom and liberty as opposed to authoritarian rule by the British monarchy. When Ben Franklin was asked what form of government the Constitutional Convention had given the American people, he stated: “ A representative republic, if you can keep it”. Well it has been 236 years since the founding of our country; let’s see how we are doing keeping our freedoms.

Authoritarianism is commonly defined as “ the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience, in thought and action, at the expense of personal freedom”. The question is to what degree have the authoritarian actions of the socialist Democrats impaired our freedoms. Here are some examples. The unprecedented imposition of mandates by the federal, state and local governments in the past two years has reduced our personal freedoms. Mandating unproven vaccines, wearing useless masks, closing down schools, forcing businesses to close and preventing people from attending church, are obvious acts of an authoritarian government. The war against fossil fuels , mandating electric vehicles ( as in California after 2035), and the recent proposal to eliminate gas stoves/ furnaces not only prevent people from making their own free choices but have made us all poorer by raising the prices of essential commodities. We were never given a choice about any of these actions. Government knows best!

What is particularly alarming is how easily most Americans (especially the young) went along with these actions that took away the freedom of individual choice. Providing information is a legitimate role of government; issuing mandates is not. Some people did stand up and protest, but the majority just went along. Our Founding Fathers would have been disappointed in our acceptance of these authoritarian actions. There is a saying , death by a thousand cuts, meaning of course that small actions can lead to severe results.

If we do not stand up and fight seemingly small attacks on our freedom, we will soon find that all of our personal freedoms have been eliminated. We will have failed to keep our republic as Ben Franklin warned and will have no one else to blame but ourselves. Complacency versus fighting for freedom. Your choice.