We Need Another July 4th

This year, "independence day" feels like anything but.

It’s July 4th, and that means Americans are out grilling, lighting fireworks, and celebrating that momentous time when a group of our forefathers decided that liberty was worth everything.

What a fantastic idea it is to set aside a day to remember this. There’s just one problem—when you look around, liberty (and those who still believe in it) is in short supply.

For a certain number of us, Independence Day is bittersweet. Everywhere we turn, there are groups endeavoring to take more of the thing people were once willing to sacrifice everything for. We are told it’s for our own good, that we must be evil if we don’t go along with it. We must not care about society. We must not care about our fellow man. We are racist and sexist and homophobic and a million other things if we aren’t going along with the program, in whatever form it takes. Death by a thousand cuts is the name of the game now, and we are bleeding out as a nation whether we admit it or not.

If we dare to stand up against any of it, we are “canceled.” Our reputations are trashed, our jobs and livelihoods put in jeopardy, our ability to communicate hampered. Truth has taken a back seat to fantasy and psychopathic delusions. Things we would have seen as disgusting and even horrifying once upon a time, things that no sane person would agree with, are now the unwritten law…and woe to you if you speak out. Even the word used to describe this process—”canceled”—speaks to how those of us that value liberty are viewed. We are a threat to be neutralized, a group that must be eradicated so that the march toward total control can be realized.

It’s easy to pretend none of this is happening. Some people even act as though this is all a good thing. I’ve heard a growing number of people, in fact, talk about how the colonists’ rebellion against England was somehow morally wrong, how We the People should have never stood up and said no. Oddly enough, those same people have had no problem living here and taking advantage of the myriad of freedoms that are now evaporating into tyranny.

There are those who would say we must rise up and be loud. We must be bold and unwavering and IN YOUR FACE and COME AND GET THEM, and all of that sounds amazing, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, while we were complaining on Facebook and sharing dank memes and going to yet another “political event” (or worse yet, pretending it wasn’t happening at all), the battlespace changed. The rights we once used intermittently are now gone in practice. The Constitution has become a piece of paper that is meaningless in the real world, and the assertion that “wait, they can’t DO that; it’s unconstitutional!” means nothing because they are doing it with impunity, and there is no one left to stop them.

If you think this is a wrong conclusion, think about this: Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” It’s a well-known and well-loved phrase for those of us who believe in liberty, written by one of the most influential figures in the American Experiment. (In fact, I highly encourage you to read the entire statement in context.) Yet in recent times, even he has been canceled. A simple google search shows that “big names” in so-called history and journalism are all too happy to ensure that he is only judged by his failings, even letting those failings determine his entire legacy as evil.

So what is to be done? How can anyone truly stop this bleeding out? Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not by being loud and proud. There is a time and place for that, and it’s passed. Now you are merely the nail sticking up, waiting to be hammered down in a game of Whack-a-Mole in which there are far more hammers than nails. There is no nobility or honor in seeking out ways to surrender yourself to the lions—not when there are a hundred other ways to achieve your goals.

No, our dilemma can only be fixed by a different approach, one that understands the battlespace as it is, and not how we wish it to be. One that sets aside our need to be seen, in favor of our ability to do. One that allows us to work for the cause of freedom and truth without alerting the hammers that we are nails.

This way is not as glamourous. You won’t be hailed as a hero of the cause; in fact, those who are constantly seeking attention and clout will turn on you and see you as the enemy. You’ll be the thorn in the side of all those who claim to love liberty and insist on using it to fuel their own validation. In short, even your own side might try to discredit you…cancel you. Unfortunately, that’s part of the new battlespace that we are facing. It’s the byproduct of a society that sees validation as something to be sought out, and no cause is immune to it.

We aren’t unified as patriots. We aren’t unified as people. And while that’s a shame, unification can’t be what motivates you to work. Your goal must be liberty itself, and how you can help further that in your own corner. That might mean that your work is done completely behind the scenes where you don’t get credit for it and very few people know you’re doing it. That’s okay—as long as it’s getting done.

Imagine that you are in a trap that is closing. How do you get out? Some might say you should run out of it quickly before you are stuck. Others might say you should violently destroy the trap, even though there are people waiting right outside it to put you in another one. I would argue that the only option we have at this point is to understand the trap and turn it on its head, against those who seek to use it. Create our own traps, using their own tactics. To operate as a resistance, not a movement. Work smarter, not louder.

Let’s take gun owners as an example. You have the ones who brag about their firearms, have bumper stickers announcing what kind they have, put photos up on social media, make sure they’re open carrying everywhere “because I can.” Then you have the ones who are all over the place announcing that they don’t own any guns because they lost them all in a tragic boating accident. No one believes that, of course, it’s all a tongue in cheek joke. But then you have the ones who just don’t talk about it. They have all kinds of firearms, they train with them, and they have one on them at all times…and no one knows about it. Guess who will still be around TO use them if it ever comes to that?

We do need another 4th of July. We need those who are willing to purpose in their hearts that liberty is worth everything. More than that, however, we need people who are smart enough and even cunning enough to operate efficiently and effectively in a world that is actively seeking us out for the purposes of destruction. You are worth nothing to the cause if you are dead. You are dead weight if you are in jail. That’s not a popular thing to say in a movement that insists that dying or being jailed for the cause is the highest badge of honor, but it’s truth.

The real badge of honor will be when we have a reason to celebrate Independence Day again. Let’s set aside our need for everyone to see us doing the work, and just get the work done.